I’m guessing many of you will be familiar with the term “regift”. The term is used when a gift that has been received previously is then given to someone else and presented as a new gift.
I wasn’t familiar with this term until this past holiday season, during which I’m fairly certain I received a couple of ‘regifts’. I received gifts which had obviously not been chosen with my taste in mind and/or had obviously been given to someone else. One appeared to have been rewrapped in the same paper, which was quite crumbled and ripped when I received it. (Since I know you’ll ask, one was a “TacoMan Tortilla Maker” and the other was a “Hot Cocoa Set”.)
When I received these so-called gifts, I felt like I didn’t really matter to the people who gave them to me. I viewed their giving them to me as purely perfunctory and I felt that they had put no energy into thinking about what I liked or what I’d hope to receive. To me, they had expended the absolute minimum amount of energy necessary. The affect of receiving these gifts was such that I would have felt better had these people said, “Sorry, I didn’t get you anything.”
I can’t help but think a customer receiving a proposal that presents no value or benefits, is non-customer specific and largely cut and paste feels the same way.