Promotional Products & Items Blog

One of our Branding Reps Adelaide Collins recently had a customer inquire about a promotional idea for her new store opening in New Orleans in February.   Adelaide offered her several creative options, and her favorite ended up being the idea to order beaded necklaces.  They decided the necklaces could be handed out during the Mardi Gras festivities to promote her Grand Opening on February 27th.  This is a great and easy way for anyone to promote their business while having fun throughout the Mardi Gras weekend.  If you are a resident of New Orleans, please check out her store Hattie Sparks located on Adams Street.

Here are some other cool Mardi Gras themed products to consider for your next February promotion!

Wow, I can’t believe how fast this year flew by!  We are so thankful for our customers that helped us achieve our highest year of sales!

We did a little research, and compiled the list of our 20 most popular items from 2011.  A couple of items such as the pedometer (#15) and the bandana (#18) made a huge leap in popularity this year!

Needless to say we were not a bit surprised that the ever popular neon sunglasses came in at the number 1 spot! These sunglasses have been a highly desired item among colleges and people hosting social events.  We’ve even seen them used as wedding favors.

The acrylic tumbler with straw (#2) has maintained popularity due to its versatile nature for hot or cold beverages.  I’m guessing that items such as the keychain bottle opener (#5) and beach towel (#12) will stay on the top 20 list since they are such practical and useful giveaways.

So we are already wondering, what will be in the #1 spot for next year?  We will see what our customers decide…

Years ago a friend of mine worked as a customer service rep for a major financial institution.  She was on the inbound call team answering call after call, with each caller having a different issue that needed resolution.  Her company had just gone through a major merger, so needless to say that there were a lot of issues to resolve.  She would tell me that at times it was hard to recognize each caller as a person with a real issue and not just think of them as another call to get through.

Back in those days if you would have asked me what I thought customer service was, I would have told you a person in a call center who answers the phone and hopefully or maybe resolves your issue.  Thankfully times have really changed.  Customers are fed up with bad service and have demanded change.  Thanks to Social Media and modern technology, gone are the days when a complaint goes unheard.

A few months ago several of us in the office were turned on to a book called The Thank You Economy.  It really got us thinking about how we interact with our customers.  One of the first things we realized was that we needed to be communicating with our customers shortly after they received their order to make sure they experienced great service and that they were happy with the product they ordered.  Thankfully implementing this simple yet important process has helped us both improve how we serve  customers and also resolve issues on orders.

We realize that there is always room for improvement.  Our goal is to find the areas that need improving while learning through our mistakes.   Sometimes it’s realizing that a phone call to personally apologize might be better received than an email, or when to right a wrong, when it’s not necessarily a mistake that you made.  Our motto is to treat customers the way we want to be treated.

And so I leave with you my personal belief that customer service is not a department, it’s an attitude!