Hampering Around

Different and unusual gifts are a regular part of our business and we recently had a large corporate client request a gift that was a many items presented within the trunk below.

As usual our team rose to the challenge and managed to source a huge array of items (these are very big trunks and need a lot of items to fill them) whilst meeting the client requirements and budget.

A different sort of packaging for a gift

Hampering Around takes great pride in its ability to meet any unusual and different gift requests from our clients.  For us gifts are not all just about hampers, gifting is so much broader than that.   Keep an eye on our website as we are launching our Christmas Range over the next few days and this will include some alternative/different gift ideas also.

We have just launched our range of Fathers Day gifts for this year and as we do each year we try to prepare gifts that will appeal to males of different ages.  Our development of gifts follows a set criteria and we try to provide unique and different options each year. In some instances we find that men are not remembered as often with gift giving and can be harder to buy for.  The other categories we also see male gifts purchased from are our Corporate Gifts, Hampers and Birthday Gifts.  A particular favourite for males from our range is the Mens Mag Hamper.

Facebook recently announced it is closing its Gift Shop to focus on other aspects of its business.  This raises two interesting points for any gift company;

1. Can a business simply add a range of gifts to it’s product set?
2. What is involved in doing this and can it be done successfully?

At  Hampering Around we would argue the answer to both is no.  Simply adding gifts to a business and calling yourself  a gift business is not easy, particularly when you consider what is required behind the scenes (which goes to point number 2).  The truly successful gift companies are those are built on passion, expertise and dedication to gifting, not where the gift range is an afterthought.

We are currently developing a small range of Celebrity Chef gifts.    With the recent success of Masterchef, various restaurant openings and the general publics interest in good quality food we believe it would be a very complimentary addition to our business.  We are already in the business of high quality, gourmet products and this would fit nicely with our business and its values.

There is several criteria that we are working to, everything from packaging appeal through to usability ie. could someone actually use what is in our gift to make something special.

We would welcome any feedback or comments on this idea as it would help us better formulate our range and offering.

Every company I know talks about how good their customer service is yet we rarely hear about what goes on behind the scenes to deliver this.  We view customer service as every action that goes into delivering to our clients a really great gift, as well as their interaction with our customer service team.  This for us starts the moment the client contacts us.  We see our customer service including;

Forms that our customer service team use to document client requirements and details. This ensures we understand what the client wants, clarifies any details and helps ensure our preparation team know what is required of them.

Gathering all the correct client details ie. delivery address, gift card message etc..  This helps us ensure, no mistakes and if any are made, they can be rectified quickly.

Helping the client select the correct gift for their occasion and the recipient. Most of our clients purchase from us because they want something different and/or convenient.  We take great pride in helping clients determine the right gift for their occasion with the correct sentiment.

Our internal production process. We have a rigorous quality control process, this includes monitoring food use by dates, packaging styles and preparation standards that our staff are measured to.

Delivery of the gift, we carefully select all our courier companies and work closely with them to ensure the gift is delivered in the same condition that it left our warehouse.

Whilst the above might not be a normal summary of customer service, we really do see customer service as a continual behaviour right across our business, in everything we do.