Hi Jack,

I just LOVE your idea! Especially the one: A Milwaukee voice talent sending Wisconsin cheese to New York. :-) Super, super ideas to send products from one state to another when sending within the USA.

Thanks so much for chiming in!

xox

Great article as usual Maxine, I'm thinking products from one state to another as in Michigan wines sent to clients in Texas or a voice talent in Milwaukee sending Wisconsin cheese to New York. A small winery just opened up near me (I live 18 miles from Kalamazoo) their wines sell only on that farm so a gift from there to a Kalamazoo client would carry a little extra interest, a local cultural thing. I'll have to taste it first.

Hi everyone, and thank you so much for your wonderful ideas!

Peter, I love your thoughtful comment about scented gifts and thank you very much for weighing in. You make a good point. Scents are a very personal thing and can mean many different things to many people.

I did quite a bit of research (with my own clients) when I was putting the article together and discovered that overwhelmingly the sentiment from them was appreciation, no matter what the gift was. I do think it’s a very good idea to be thoughtful and carefully select the gifts we send to clients, but I believe it’s also possible to “over think” the gifts we send by trying to be too safe. I'm not suggesting being careless of course, but I know it's impossible to accurately determine what every single person would like or want.

Several clients said specifically that even if they received a gift that they didn’t like, they were astonished and grateful that the voice talent had even taken the time and effort to get them something. Apparently voice actors who get clients gifts are in the minority! One client told me that a voice actor had given him a one-pound bag of M&M’s as a present. He said he hated chocolate, but loved the gift, and he gave the M&M’s to his administrative assistant and she loved them.

Thank you again for all your great comments and I hope others weigh in with their ideas. ‘Tis the season!

xox
Maxine

Excellent list, Maxine. One caveat: being married to someone with severe allergies and after researching the problem to find help for her, I've learned that many people have problems with scented products. A lavender filled eye pillow, scented candles, flowers, etc. might be troublesome to some people. Also, scents are very personal. If you send a client something containing your favorite fragrance, you might inadvertently turn that client off because it's a scent they don't like. Researchers in Israel discovered that much of our preference in and dislike for fragrances is genetically determined. I might love, say, citrus-based fragrances, but someone else might hate them. (Personally, I don't like those citrus-based fragrances. And some other perfumes smell like Raid insecticide to me.)

I wouldn't send a scented gift, but, if I were considering it, I'd discreetly try to find out from the client if they liked fragrances before sending something to them. The sense of smell is our most personal and emotional sense, which makes it the most risky gift category to select when trying to please a client or anyone on your gift list.

Hey, Maxine. Great article. I've been sending holiday gifts to my clients for the past 3 years. You've given me some good gift ideas. Thank you.

Sometimes, Gift Baskets are in order. I work with a handful of companies where I am in contact with several people at an office and I like to send something they can all enjoy.

This year I'm going to send out some individual gifts in addition. I'm going to send audiobooks to my favorite clients. Not necessarily ones I have narrated, but some of my personal favorites as a listener. For example, the recently released Mark of Zorro (Blackstone Audio) is a wonderfully entertaining full cast audio drama that most people will enjoy. It's also good family listening.

We can give gifts and support our fellow voice actors in the process!!

I loved your ideas and guidelines for different levels of gifts. I struggle with what's appropriate a lot of the time, and I agree, you just need to keep in mind how much fun it is to receive an unexpected gift!!!

Like you, I'm always looking for new ideas....
Thanks for sharing yours.

Here's one other suggestion: a gift that is thematically related to the project. Over the summer I met the producer/director of a documentary film I co-narrated about the German Jewish Modernist architect Erich Mendelsohn.

While at the MOMA Store in NYC (which you list above), I found 3 architecture-related items, all with Frank Lloyd Wright designs, which I bought:
cocktail napkins, playing cards and a bookmark.

Because Mendelsohn and FLW had a relationship there was some meaning to these items, plus in my thank you note I suggested that these could be ideas for products with Mendelsohn's designs.

He loved it.
;-)