One of the joys — or dreaded duties — of this time of year is sending out season’s greetings. And these days, it’s not just a question of whom to send a card, but how?
Do you order custom cards that show your logo and maybe a photo of key personnel — or the entire office in Santa hats? Do you purchase cards off the shelf or from your stationery supplier? Or — and this alternative can win you praise or ridicule — do you blast out e-cards?
I am not filled with the warmth and love of the Christmas season by getting a digital card in my congested inbox. When I get them at work, it feels like just one more press release couched as a holiday card. Oh how nice, the Acme Agency is sending me holiday wishes by pushing the same keystroke they’ve done 200 other times during the year. This time, instead of a new-product announcement, it’s an animated Santa delivering a sleigh filled with those products! Awwww, how cute. Not.
I remember the days when companies sent fiber cards, not cyber cards, and we collected them and hung them on garland over the front reception desk.
Some envelopes come not only with cards but “gifts” — small calendars or magnets promoting the company. Picture Paul the plumber wearing goofy reindeer antlers. Gotta love that Paul! Not.
Still, for me they’re better than the e-option. An email blast of Christmas warmth loses sentiment in transit. It may even be overlooked, maybe spending Christmas like some piece of coal in the junk folder.
Email cards, though, are growing in popularity. They are environmentally sound, time-efficient and low-cost.
And for the etiquette-conscious in the audience: e-cards are even blessed by the Emily Post Institute, so digital card senders can sleep well.
Some businesses send two tiers of cards — emailing sentiments to their rank-and-file customers, but sending real cards, perhaps with notes and real signatures, to others. Recipients can then gauge where they stand in importance.
At Berkshire Hathaway Home Services, a brokerage firm with about 1,000 affiliate agents in the valley, the holiday season is a great opportunity to reach out to the past year’s clients — maybe even including a copy of the settlement statement in advance of tax season, corporate broker Forrest Barbee says.
He says agents are divided between hard and digital cards. What does he prefer?
“That’s an easy decision for me,” Barbee says. “I don’t do either. I don’t celebrate holidays. They just get in the way of work.”