Nerd Fortress

Giving gifts can have a big positive impact on your business, but you have to do it the right way.

I have long held the belief that the best way to get more customers is to actually care about them as human beings. In fact, profit is just an unfortunate side-effect of helping people.

Care about people? Really?!

I know, I know… it’s a shocking philosophy. But think about it. Most people today walk around with frightening mental battle wounds as a direct consequence of popular business tactics. They have come to suspect that most salespeople and marketers are out to get them, just trying to make a buck at their expense; trying to trick them into buying stuff they don’t really need, and certainly can’t afford.

And there’s a very good reason for that. It’s true.

Besides demonstrating the uncompromising behavior of our politicians in a time of crisis, the current recession has made it obvious that the old ways of doing business are unsustainable. It just leads to people buying stuff they can’t afford, investing in things they don’t understand, and then watching as their hard-earned money get’s shoveled into the back pockets of smug executives–who, by the way, don’t deserve one penny of it. (Well, maybe one penny.)

Do you want a company that can outlast the next fill-in-the-blank-bubble? Then it’s time to stop taking advantage of people and tricking them into buying your product (otherwise known as “marketing”). There are far more sustainable ways of doing business (or, at least, ways that are less soul-damaging). If you have to trick your customers into buying your product, it’s a sure sign that your business model is broken.

When I was 15, I had life pretty well figured out. I was ready to change the world, walking around with a head full of lofty aspirations, among other things. But more importantly, I needed money for video games. So after school got out for the summer, I joined the fast-food industry.

Surprisingly, I didn’t make much money, but it was almost worth it for the occasional free shake (hey, I was 15). Those were busy days, and despite the superior culinary prowess usually attributed to the fast food industry, we occasionally made mistakes. Sometimes it was no big deal, like forgetting to put napkins in the bag. Other times, it was more serious, like forgetting the fry sauce (hey, don’t mess with a man’s fry sauce). And once in a while tragedy would strike, like the time we gave out a rare hamburger (apparently there are people who eat these, but our customer, tragically, wasn’t one of them). Gross.

When a mistake was particularly bad, my manager would employ a certain magical technique on irate customers. She could turn mad-as-h-ee-double-hockey-sticks-I’ll-never-come-back into cool-thanks-I-love-you-guys in about 5 seconds flat.

The secret weapon? Bread.

But not just any bread. The mom-and-pop’s drive-in where I worked was very famous for their homemade bread. And for good reason. Every morning at about 4:00 a.m., the manager’s husband would come in, turn on the radio, and get to work baking the best bread you would ever have in your life. I mean, this stuff made grandmother’s bread taste like hot-buttered dirt.

So, when facing an irate customer, my manager would pull out a loaf or two of fresh-baked bread and present them with a smile and an apology. Then the magic happened. Angry looks of death disolved instantly into a greatful smile. “Now, here is someone who actually cares about my problem,” the customer would think to themselves as they walked away.

This story illustrates the simple power of gifts. Like any other true principle, generosity is universally applicable and deeply powerful:

• When people receive a genuine gift, they naturally want to reciprocate. In business and in personal relationships, reciprocation is what we call a Very Good Thing.
• When you sincerely give something to someone, you are forced to focus outside of yourself. You gain a better sense of other people’s needs, which in turn lets you be better at providing solutions in the future.
• An unexpected gift sends the message that you really care, and people naturally trust those who care about their personal projects and problems.
• You feel awesome because you did the right thing. Karma++;

The basic idea is you need to give away something valuable that people normally expect to pay for. The act has to be thoughtful, genuine, unbiased, with no argyle socks in sight (don’t even mention them). You give on an ongoing basis, yet at unexpected times. Don’t make yourself too busy to take a moment once in a while to think about the needs of people around you.

Here are some examples:

• Comcast calls you up randomly and says they would like to give you a free month of service for being a loyal customer, then wishes you a good day and hangs up. You check your next bill, and sure enough, it says you owe a grand total of $0.00 for last month’s service.
• One day after a good lunch at a local restaurant, your server brings you your check and hands you a coupon for a free entrée the next time you come in. In fact, all of your coworkers at the table receive the same coupon. The server explains that each day a table is chosen at random to receive a customer appreciation coupon.
• You just went through the not-exactly-stress-free process of moving to a different state and buying a new home. As you are moving in you realize there are a few small repairs you need to make around the house, and the deck needs to be re-stained. A day or two later you get a gift card for Home Depot from your Realtor, along with a thank-you note and their contact information.
• Microsoft runs a promotion where you can type in your email address and they will pick a random 50% of the first 10,000 submissions to get a free copy of Windows 7.
• The waiter at a local Italian restaurant notices you come in on a regular basis, and rewards your patronage with a free appetizer or dessert each time you visit.
• As an engineer, you love gadgets. At seemingly random times, but often during particular difficult projects, the boss buys everyone in the office something cool from ThinkGeek.com.
• You are a web developer and sick of all the hoops you have to jump through to make a web application. While browsing online one day you come across Ruby on Rails and immediately jump out of your chair shouting, because it is bursting at the seems with pure awesome (Rails, not your chair). “Who did this!?” you wonder. It doesn’t take you long to discover 37signals and their excellent web applications. Then, a few months later, you are looking for a good project management tool…

If anything like the above were to happen in real life, how would it make you feel? Would you tell anyone about it? What would you do next?

I think you know the answer.