At times, when you offer someone a gift, it can bring so much controversy as well as criticism from the receiver of the gift.
The etiquette surrounding corporate gifts can also be quite tricky to decipher. We live in a world where there are people of many different religion and culture and they may follow different kind of traditions altogether.
Therefore, before you start purchasing your Christmas gifts, for your business partners, your clients or employees please read this post. Here, we shall try to help you out with some precautions that you need to observe while making more difficult decisions to select the right gift item.
A Few Do’s
- Do make sure that the gift is having some practical use
In order to show how well you think about your client, customer or business partner, make sure that you choose certain corporate gift ideas which they can use.
Offering a gift to someone without any thought will show that you hardly bother about his sentiment or choice and your gift could offend too.
- Do personalise the card, with good care
Even a handwritten greeting written on the enclosed card almost always can win over typed message. It will show your extra care and thought, respect to the person to whom you are offering the gift.
- Do think how your gift may send an unwritten message
Many people often consider that an extravagant gift as a bribe, while few customers or clients may actually be forbidden to accept gift by their company policy to accept gifts altogether. So, you must do your homework and choose appropriate gift for each one.
Few Don’ts
- Don’t gift promotional items
In certain cultures, this is not seen as anything negative, but for few others offering something with the company logo on it during any particular special event might be somewhat insulting.
- Don’t go overboard by offering expensive gifts
You must not spend bucket loads in buying expensive gifts. In certain cultures, e.g. in Japan, the cost of your gift may not matter so much as the actual process of offering gift, but in many other countries an expensive gift can signify certain expectations. So, be careful.
- Don’t ignore gift giving etiquette of certain cultures and religion
While speaking about cultures, be extremely cautious about what is culturally acceptable while giving gifts. The gift giving art within the Asian community can differ heavily.
Hence you must ask yourself following questions while buying gifts:
- Does the culture allow any particular type of gift?
- What kind of gifts may be considered as unlucky in certain cultures?
- When should you offer the gift? Before or after your meeting? Before establishing business relationship, or when you are fully acquainted?
- What is the protocol to receive a gift? Whether it is polite to decline if offered a gift?
- Whether there are any cultural boundaries for a woman to offer gifts to a man, or vice versa?
- Also, be careful about people’s religion during Christmas time. To remain on safer side, perhaps consider writing “Happy Holidays” rather than writing “Merry Christmas” on the card.