How BNA Staffing transformed their holiday gifting with transparent gift data

Traditional holiday gifting comes with high costs… and low visibility

In the past, BNA staffing surprised their clients with goodie baskets from a beloved east-coast grocery store each holiday season. Their relatively high-cost notwithstanding, the baskets themselves weren’t the problem.

“People liked them. There was great stuff in there! But it was very analog, very old school,” says Noah Nielsen, a partner at BNA staffing. 

Beyond working through the gifts themselves— what would be included at various tiers for different client types— there was a lot of back and forth. 

“We had to ask people for their mailing address, and after COVID, confirm whether gifts should go to a home or office address. It was a lot of getting information from people.

Sometimes you’d get a thank you note, but a lot of times you wouldn’t. Then you’re left with reaching out to say ‘hey, we sent you something… did it arrive?’ It was a lot of following up, but it was ultimately kind of a black hole.” 

It’s not just knowing gift status— it’s knowing your customers better

Noah and BNA staffing were quick to see the difference after using Loop & Tie for the first time for their 2022 holiday gifting. 

“I just needed a list of names and email addresses to send gifts, and then people could fill in their own mailing address. We can actually see the data of who’s opened the email, who’s redeemed the gift, who’s actually had it delivered. 

And the thank you notes are right in the platform! Even when someone doesn’t send one, we know they got something instead of just wondering if the basket showed up at the wrong house.” 

On top of their gift status data, Noah and his team were excited about deepening client relationships through knowing what each person redeemed. 

“There were some really useful nuggets [of information] we got based on what people chose. Some of our clients we get to know really well, but others are a little more reserved. When you can see which gifts clients chose, you can get a sense of their personality, and have warmer conversations based on the things they’re really into.”

Choice changes the game, for recipients and the planet

One of the key factors that drove Noah to Loop & Tie was having a partner that was committed to making gifting more sustainable. 

“There’s so much packaging and plastic in these things get sent around, and then they’re not even used. They’re just sitting in an office and no one’s eating it, or someone might be allergic to half of [the basket contents] and it just gets thrown away. 

I personally get sent a lot of stuff around the holidays and if it’s good, which is rare, great—but a lot of it just gets wasted.”

By making it possible for the recipient to opt-in to their gift, even if they choose to donate its value to a charitable partner, Loop & Tie is reducing waste with every gift order. Loop & Tie is also a carbon regenerative gifting platform, partnering with reforestation non-profits to plant trees and neutralize the carbon emitted by every shipment.  

At the time of this article’s publish, BNA staffing has planted 110 trees and and sequestered 1,705lbs of carbon through their gifting with Loop & Tie.