Our Description: I work with a small Midwestern greeting card company (The Birthday Company) which offers a similar service but with some very distinct differences. We provide birthday, special occasion, and holiday card mailings on behalf of our customers, which number just over 1200 nationally. The customer’s client list is fully assessable and managed through their secure online account where they can add, delete, and edit clients. Customers can also customize messages and include gifts with prices starting at just $2.95 per card mailing which includes postage. All cards, regardless of occasion are just $2.95. Yes, Send Out Cards is cheaper if you look at just the cost-per-unit price, but this doesn’t factor in all the start up costs and ongoing membership fees. If you were sending 5000+ cards a year, Send Out Cards might be a good deal. I wonder how many Send Out Card distributors are using the service to send even 100 cards annually.

Let’s be fair SOC really do a great job. Making it easy for any business to send cards to clients is a great concept, and I do believe they provide a great service for people who are concerned with price over quality or the negative perception of their clients. There are some major differences in our business models.

WE DO NOT CHARGE JUNK FEES. These are categorized as needless signup, subscription, or membership costs to the user. We are not a MLM scheme and have no desire to be one, no matter how lucrative is has become for some. Our customers only pay for what’s mailed on their behalf. There are NO contracts or any type of obligation to continue, allowing customers to give us a try and cancel with a simple email. What about Send Out Cards, do they offer to refund any fees if the distributor decides their service isn’t for them? I really don’t know but I’ll guess some of the SOC distributors.

Everything we mail includes the customer’s return address, not ours. There is NO company branding on anything we mail. Our greeting cards are REAL, not printed on glossy UV coated business card stock. Our cards are manufactured here in the U.S., the same company who supplies most of the greeting cards for Cards Direct, Carlson Cards, and about 40 national chain stores. These are the same greeting cards you will find at any department store or pharmacy. What about Send Out Cards?

The customer’s signatures are scanned and converted at such a high resolution they appear real when printed, not a low resolution scan printed on a UV coated card (slippery like a glossy business card) which appears fake to anyone. I once had a customer comment on why they switched to our service. “If I want my clients to receive something with an out-of-state return address and a fake signature, I’ll just send them an email and save my money”. Basically, if you’re going to spend any money sending a card, make sure it represents the same high regard you have for your clients. Showing clients how much you appreciate their business with a greeting card and/or gift is an important tool for any professional or business, but taking shortcuts by sending something that was obviously not signed or mailed by you is just a waste of time and money. Taking shortcuts also destroys the original intent of the card, and more importantly, damages the client’s perception of the person who sent it. This leaves many clients wondering “If my Financial Advisor (Realtor, CPA, Insurance Agent, Dentist, etc.) can’t even send a real card signed and mailed them self, I wonder what other shortcuts they’re taking managing my account (real estate, health, etc).

In spite of some not-so-great features, I’m afraid Send Out Cards is here to stay just like the cologne/perfume sales people who solicit our business twice a month, offering their knock offs, and a % of sales if we start selling the junk ourselves and recruit others to do the same, or our neighbor (stay home mom) who’s constantly harassing my wife to host a party selling knives, cookware, home cleaning supplies, or who knows what. It seems like a great offer in which my wife would host a party in our own home and to our friends and family (people who trust us and don’t want to say no) in which she would receive a certain % of the sales plus discounts for anything she purchased herself, and another % of sales done by anyone my wife recruits to hosts the same parties. Oh yeah, there’s only a small investment of a few hundred dollars and an agreement which basically states my wife would become a distributor for our neighbor and cannot sell the product for any other representatives of said company. Wow, paying someone to sell their products for them, sign me up. Does this sound at all similar to SOC? Maybe some current SOC distributors can answer this since I honestly don’t know.

For anyone interested in finding out more about our company, simply do a search for “The Birthday Company” or go to http://www.birthdayco.com. We also have a short Demo Video on the website which shows the contact management system and explains some special features.

When Netflix 1st came out I was really skeptical of that to. But look at them now. Hollywood video is gone and Blockbuster just declared Bankruptcy right? You know the say “Build a better mouse trap and people will beat a path to your door.” I like most people now use netflix. Its better , Faster and Cheaper and So is SEND OUT CARDS! I love the way it makes me feel when people receive what I sent them and they call to thank me. Then the next thing they wanna know is how I made that card. I simply send them to the website and let them send a card and the next thing you know they’re hooked!

MERRY CHRISTMAS!