When Darin Minghella traveled to Rome as director of sales for a European hotel chain in the United States, he bought postcards and held onto them. The next time he went, he wrote the cards out on the plane ride and sent them back to his clients.
The more places he visited, the more cards he sent. Eventually, they set him apart from his competition.
“Cards have staying power,” he said. “They stay on the client’s desk and remind them that somebody thought about them.”
Elite Greetings grew out of this idea of nurturing client relationships through cards. Minghella and his wife, Michelle, say they’re in the business of client retention and referrals.
“People ask what they can expect their return on investment to be,” he said. “My answer is, ‘What does it cost if you lose a client?’ ”
The company sends unique cards on behalf of businesses to strengthen their relationships with clients, but urges them to “think differently” from their competitors. Most businesses send out cards for the holidays, he noted, so he encourages companies to send cards on different holidays or occasions.
Whether it’s the New Year, Groundhog Day or the Fourth of July, Elite Greetings has a suitable card. Businesses “touch base” with clients by sending a card on opening day of Major League Baseball, or say working with them was “a real treat” at Halloween.
“It’s personal to the client as to what their likes are,” Michelle Minghella said. “It depends on the client’s personality.”
For moving companies or real estate buyers and sellers, Elite Greetings offers “Thank You” and follow-up “Happy Home Anniversary” cards. The company also has a birthday program for businesses to send to clients or employees. And it offers referral cards, which are sent out with self-addressed envelopes.
“It’s worked out great,” he said. “Everybody loves referrals. If you’re not asking for word-of-mouth referrals, you’re just kind of praying for them.”
The company orders blank cards from five main vendors, and can accommodate the occasional special request. “We update the cards constantly,” he said. “If one doesn’t work, we can always find another one that will.”
Elite Greetings includes a customized message, a business card and – most important – a handwritten signature to match the client’s in each card. “The signatures are never scanned or stamped,” Darin said. “It’s that personal touch that’s really kind of lost nowadays.”
Stay-at-home moms pick up trays of cards at a time to do the hand signing, he said, duplicating the signatures from a sheet filled out by the customer. A former stay-at-home mom herself, Michelle said she talked to friends and made contacts around town to get the help.
Elite Greetings has five or six moms on board, but up to 15 are called in during busy seasons such as Thanksgiving. “You can tell how busy we are by the number of minivans parked outside,” Darin said.
The couple spot-checks the cards and places them in brightly colored envelopes with commemorative stamps before sending them, as many as 3,000 at a time. “We don’t drop them in a mailbox,” Michelle said. “We take them into the post office – they know us really well.”
Additionally, she said, the company sends its clients activity reports and manages the database, a custom-designed mailing software program that keeps track of clients’ needs.
Elite Greetings calls the basement of the Minghella’s rental home in East Greenwich, where Darin’s mother lives upstairs, its “corporate headquarters.” The couple lives just three miles away.
Since they started the company in 2005, it has grown to 120 clients across the country, with the average client sending 600 to 700 cards per year, and 150 to 250 quarterly. “We’re adding clients every week, and our customers stay with us,” he said. “People are happy with the client response.”
They expect to expand by hiring one or two more full-time workers and adding more printers within the next year. Ideally, Darin said, Elite Greetings will build its client base to around 500 and franchise the business.
Company profile: Elite Greetings
TYPE OF BUSINESS: Distributor of hand-signed greeting cards on behalf of businesses
OWNERS: Michelle Minghella, president; Darin Minghella, vice president
LOCATION: 61 Sleepy Hollow Road, East Greenwich
EMPLOYEES: 8-17, seasonally
YEAR FOUNDED: 2005
ANNUAL REVENUE: WND
