Gratitude

In view of the beginning of a new business year - 2011 and the upcoming Lunar New Year festives, my internship company arranged for a corporate newsletter and box of cupcakes to be delivered to their media contacts and clients to express the consultancy's appreciation and gratitude for their support.

I understand a need for such an expression, especially since the company is rather new, having only just turned two. A simple gesture, but besides sending the company's thanks and motivating positive feelings in the recipients, it serves a dual purpose to trigger recall and remind them of our existence, particularly for our media contacts.

On an interesting note, apparently this event of expressing gratitude was different form the previous year's. Instead of having them all couriered, the company decided to send entire teams - senior consultants, consultants, and us interns - to hand deliver some of the items. I overheard one of the team leaders voicing out her concerns, saying that we would look ridiculous. Upon asking, my colleagues explained with amusement that while they do communicate with the media contacts, they have never met some of them.

We were delighted to have received "Thank You" notes through e-mails from a few of the recipients, though one of whom advised us to look into an alternate token of gratitude in future as "some of the cupcakes were mashed up and melted". Honestly, we're not physically there to personally scrutinise how the couriers handle the packages. They were obviously in good shape when they left our office. Sometimes, there's just no pleasing everyone.

Have an awesome Lunar New Year!
Kwa Qian Hui
14466104
Curtin Singapore