No festivity in the world is complete without food, especially in India where food is a truly big deal and deservedly so. Food awakens all the senses, turning a moment into a celebration. While food cannot replace a commemorative award when it comes to expressing gratitude and appreciation for long service, as an add-on to the Long Service Award Kit, it often completes the celebratory note our customers are trying to hit.
As a result, over the years many of our customers have asked us to create Long Service Award Kits or Service Anniversary Celebration Kits that include not only the Award and Certificate, but also edible treats. Some examples of edible treats that go well with the LSA are fresh baked confectionaries, nicely packaged high quality chocolates or gift baskets with an assortment of goodies. Adding great quality edible treats makes the Service Anniversary Celebration Kit so special! Our customers report that such LSA kits are usually quite appreciated. The Awardees share the treats with their colleagues and take it home to their families, thereby turning their work anniversary into a mini-party.
If you are considering adding edible treats to your Long Service Award kit, then we wholeheartedly cheer on this decision, provided that extra care is taken. While every company is different and has its own ethos and culture, we have learnt some good practices over the years. At Pinnacle, our rulebook has pretty stringent standards when it comes to including edible treats to Service Anniversary Celebration Kits. Below we are sharing some of our learnings and good practices, with the hope that it helps you make your LSA Kits even more memorable:
- Selection of the Food Supplier: There are always lots of discussions when it comes to choice of the treats that go in the Award kits, but equal amounts of attention should go in the selection of the supplier and their capacity vis-a-vis delivering top quality, fresh edibles, in each box.
- For delivery in the same city: Buying from a local vendor, especially for smaller orders in the same city is great. There are many retail stores, gourmet bakers, boutique stores and even home chefs who have an incredible range of goodies to offer. Products that are sourced fresh and locally are also appreciated by persons receiving the LSA kit. HOWEVER, for larger orders it becomes important to select suppliers who can maintain quality over large numbers.
- Standardization in case of large orders: We have experienced that sometimes standardization is missing when it comes to artisanal bakers, home chefs and other gourmet bakers. Lack of standardization leads to a poor experience, for the product may differ in look, feel or taste, from one gift kit to another. For instance, if we are servicing over 100-200 award kits, then we probably will not go with a home chef or bakers who are as yet lacking processes for standardization over large numbers.
- Packaging of the Service Anniversary Celebration Kit: When edibles are a part of an award kit, it is really nice when they are integrated with the award in a visually appealing and pleasing way that also, very importantly, ensures the sanctity of the food packaging.
- Food freshness: This is a big one! When companies are going the extra mile with including edibles in the Award Kits, they must get the right response for their effort. Nothing elicits a negative reaction faster than expired food. It is worthwhile to include a clause on food freshness in the contract, more on this below. You will be surprised by how many mishaps are prevented by these simple processes.
- Special Caution For Baked Goods:
Including certain baked goods is lovely, but again, needs precautions. In our experience edibles are not always consumed immediately, sometimes the boxes are opened after a few weeks. If possible you could try to include edibles that are at least 2-6 months away from their expiry date. Should that not be possible, like with cookies or fresh baked biscuits, whose total shelf life is around 45 days, then it is best to only package the freshest products only.
- Penalty Clause in Edible Supplier’s Contract: To ensure food freshness, original quality and standardisation of the order, we recommend that companies put it in the contract with their Fulfilment Partner that only the latest batch of the chocolates or cookies should be supplied and should it turn out that the edibles are less than 1 month or 2 months from expiry (depending on the item) then there will be a penalty. This may sound strange, but it is really worthwhile. Recently we won a new customer because their old supplier sent expired chocolates in the LSA Kit. Such shortcuts literally leave a bad taste in the mouth, ruining the LSA experience. Every time that work anniversary or the LSA will be remembered in the future, the expired chocolates would find a mention.
- Cakes and Pastries: Cakes and pastries do not work well with Long Service Award kits. There are many opportunities for such goodies to get spoiled at any point of time between packaging and delivery. Sometimes, companies need these for a few LSA recipients. Then it is imperative for the Fulfilment Partner to stay on top of the delivery of each kit, making sure that it is received in a timely manner, temperature controlled manner and handled by a personal delivery partner at every location.
- Delivery Mechanism: Unlike in the West, in India our delivery networks are still evolving. Sending a large number of items that require temperature control is out of the question. While there are suppliers now who claim that they can deliver flowers and food items across India and a lot of such businesses are doing well too, when it comes to an LSA kit, we do not recommend taking any chances. Most service providers are still ironing out their service offerings and standardising them. Every now and then there is a slip-up, a breakage in the delivery pipeline or even a human error by the delivery agent. You never want a scenario when the LSA kit is being delivered with a cake that has gone sour, a smeared pastry box or with ruined confectionery.
- Out-Of-Town Team Members: We recommend to our customers to include edibles that are sturdy enough to not get ruined in transit when dealing with Out-of-Town deliveries of Award Kits. High quality chocolates, sourced from a trusted supplier, who will provide original product and has the capability of supplying freshly produced batches in large quantities, is a good option. Again, the fulfilment partner has to agree to a penalty clause if the goods are stale. Sometimes it will be helpful to have a person in each city of delivery to coordinate the deliveries locally and ensure a smooth operation.
- Less than 50 team members: When the number of team members is small and they are in the same city, that is when a company has the greatest chance to experiment and add artisanal goodies to the Long Service Award Kit, should that fit with the company’s culture and ethos.
- For teams larger than 50 and more: When it comes to larger teams, we recommend to our customers to products with a long shelf life. It has been our experience that not always do the edible products get consumed right away. Awardees may take some time to open the packaging etc. All these variables must be considered when dealing with large numbers.
- Tier 2, Tier 3 and Tier 4 City Deliveries: Since your Fulfilment Partner will have to rely on different delivery systems, you may expect delays and adjust your planning for these. So, ship out the LSAs a little in advance, using only long shelf life items that are not likely to lose shape or quality in transit. At Pinnacle we have a saying about edibles: it is better not to do it, than to do it wrong.
- Temperature Variance: Generally speaking, we avoid edibles that require temperature control or that could possibly get spoilt with temperature variance. More so when items are being shipped all across India, even if these are chocolates. Once the kits get loadad on trucks or get included in air cargo consignments, then temperatures can vary, chocolates can melt and then take on another shape.
- Go Eggless and Vegetarian: Since we live and work in India where a large number of people are vegetarians, even eggetarians, ordering edibles that are vegetarian and made without using eggs covers all the bases and pleases all.
We hope these pointers from the Pinnacle Playbook have helped you. In a nutshell, when it comes to edibles, it is an incredible, beloved addition to any Long Service Award Kit. But like the best things in life, it has to be executed with care.
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Pinnacle is an industry leader in Awards & Recognition, committed to bringing a culture of appreciation to the workplace, so that every employee feels valued. Since its inception in 2000, Pinnacle has served over 3000 brands, shipping over 3 million customised awards and gifts to 24 countries.
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