Sending a gift? We’ve got your back

If you place an order at AnnasGourmetGoodies.com, you expect your gourmet cookie gifts to be baked fresh and sent to the recipient. You expect a card with your message to be in the box. You expect we’ll send the right box, basket, or ribbon color. Whether it is a personal gift, or a corporate gift, you expect your order to be completed as placed. We’ve spent more than ten years shipping hundreds of thousands of cookies throughout the United States and Military bases around the globe, doing exactly that – fulfilling orders for our customers as expected. We’re not perfect by any means, but we own up to any mistakes and always do the right thing for our customers.

Getting your order out the door correctly is important for everyone, but especially important for our business customers. Why? Corporate gifts are often sent to either clients or prospects. The last thing a business customer wants (or us for that matter) is for someone to receive a personalized business gift that misses the mark. While we can’t guarantee everyone will love our cookies and brownies (yes – it is true that some people don’t rave about our cookies), we go the extra mile and pay attention to the details we can control to deliver a memorable gift experience.

Here are just a few things we do for our business clients:

1. Typos in the message. While there are times when typos are intentional, we always have a second look at the message on the order. If it is obvious this was due to fast fingers or a rouge smartphone, we’ll fix it before it goes out. In some cases, if the wording doesn’t sound right, we’ll send an email to our customer to make sure everything is just right. We don’t want to change the message or the intent, but if we catch those minor errors that might otherwise spoil the ideal gift, we both look better.

2. Address errors. It happens. Maybe your customer relationship software is out of date, or there is a small typo. We load our orders into a database that checks addresses against the USPS database. If it does not come back with a 9-digit zip code, we’ll first do some research on the Internet. Sometimes we can fix the error. If we still can’t find a match, we’ll either call the recipient and get the correct shipping address, or ask the client for an update. In any case, we work hard to make sure that we don’t waste our client’s money or reputation by shipping gifts to the wrong address.

3. Timing. We bake our cookies in the morning, and ship in the afternoon. Because we don’t put any preservatives, corn syrup or shortening to extend their shelf life, they’re best consumed in a week or less. We pay attention to shipping days and destinations to help deliver the freshest product possible. For example, we have a company that sends office gifts to dentists. Since most dental offices are closed on Friday – we don’t ship gifts after Tuesday so they won’t sit around over the weekend.

I read Keith Ferazzi’s book, “Whose got your back?” a year ago, and it really resonated with me, personally and in our business. We’ve cultivated relationships over the years with suppliers who have our back. In turn, we treat all of our customers with the same philosophy. It’s not something I do to get repeat business, but rather it is a way of life. I sleep a lot better at night knowing that when the oven gets turned off, I’ve finally answered the last email and setup everything for the next day, we’ve delivered exactly the kind of service we expect from others.

If this sounds like the type of service you’d like to get from a company that is sending personalized corporate gifts with your name on them, and you are not a customer of Anna’s Gourmet Goodies, then maybe you should be. And if you are already sending gourmet cookie gifts from Anna’s Gourmet Goodies, you can relax, we’ve got your back.