Where in the world am I today?: Juneau, AK, USA aboard the GOLDEN Princess

In this day of email, Facebook and Twitter people will often send a shout out for someone’s Birthday… Heck, Facebook makes it easy with a little reminder about who’s Birthdays are coming up… All you have to do is wait until the day in question, click on the person’s name and send off a quick birthday greeting to your ‘friend.’

Better than just sending an e-greeting though is taking the time to actually send a real birthday card through the mail. These days about the only things that come through the mail are bills and flyers encouraging you to buy stuff you don’t actually need. Having someone take the time to send you a birthday card carries more meaning and will be remembered.

So… Lets say you’ve got a client list of people you’ve either worked for or are hoping to work for. Taking a little extra time to find out when their birthdays are and following up with a actual cards could be the key to leaving a really great lasting impression, that great impression will likely lead to a great interaction the next time you approach that client and eventually will likely lead to more work. Even if it doesn’t immediately lead to another job, chance are your act of thoughtfulness will be remembered and help you out down the road.

A friend of mine who works on cruise ships all the time wanted to say thank you to the staff member who arranges travel to and from the ships. He found out when her birthday was and made a point of sending birthday cards to her. A few years down the line this performer found himself stranded at an airport with no way to get to the ship he was heading towards. He called the emergency number and left a message, but still felt completely stranded… With in ten minutes he had received a call from the employee from the cruise company who he’d sent the birthday cards to. She remembered him and when the call came through that he was in trouble she jumped on the case and sorted everything out. She appreciated the birthday cards so much that she had flagged his name and when the call came in she made an extra effort to help him out.

The benefits of such random acts of thoughtfulness as sending birthday cards often have benefits that aren’t immediately seen but do end up being excellent deposits into one’s Karma Bank.

A helpful way to remember people’s Birthday’s is to set up reminder emails via the Birthday Alarm website –

http://www.birthdayalarm.com/

It takes a bit of time to set up, but once you’ve gotten people’s information into your Birthday Alarm’s Account you’ll get automatic email reminders sent to you at various intervals so you should have the minimal amount of time it takes to put pen to paper to compose a quick birthday greeting, pop a card in an envelope, lick and stick a stamp and pop it in a mail box… The extra effort it takes to do this over just sending an e-greeting is well worth the time and energy.

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This entry was posted on Monday, June 22nd, 2009 at 12:01 am and is filed under Marketing. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.