Anko is a consulting engineering company with 125 employees spread across 7 offices in Norway. With leading expertise in geomatics, industrial measurement and machine control, they have delivered services to clients and projects across Europe since 1975.
Quality matters to them, and their vision is to be responsible, accurate, competent and organised. That same care extends to their people — every Christmas, it is a tradition to give every employee a thoughtful gesture in the form of a gift card.
Mette Maarnes Pedersen is the Managing Director at Anko, and she explains why a gift card has become the preferred choice.
“Our employees love receiving a gift card because it gives them the freedom to choose something they actually want.”
But her experience with other gift cards has not been entirely smooth.
“The problem with other gift cards is that there are restrictions on where you can use them, and there is no warning when the expiry date is approaching. Most of them can’t be used abroad either,” Mette explains.
A simpler gift card
When it was time to decide on this year’s Christmas gift, Mette took a closer look at Glede — and it didn’t take long for the leadership team to make up their minds.
“It looked incredibly easy, both to send and to use.”
Mette points to several specific things she really likes about Glede:
- Upload employees from a file: “The whole job became really simple once I could upload everyone from an Excel sheet.”
- Add your own Christmas card: Anko attached an image to the digital Christmas gift. “It was easy to upload, and it appeared to employees in great quality and size.”
- Employees get reminders: “My sense is that ordinary gift cards often get forgotten. With Glede I feel confident the team will use it, because they get reminders on their phone.”
- Gift templates save time: By creating predefined templates, Mette saves time on gifts for anniversaries, birthdays and photo contests. “It makes giving really straightforward. I just enter who should receive the gift card.”
Unanimously positive feedback
The send-out was scheduled so every employee received their gift at 12:00 on Christmas Eve. The kind responses started rolling in shortly after.
“The employees have been thrilled. I haven’t had a single negative comment!”
“It’s wonderful that the gift card works everywhere in Norway and around the world. We have a number of international employees who can now use it back in their home country,” Mette says.
She has had time to use the gift card herself, and despite having little experience with digital payment cards, the experience felt seamless.
“I got the hang of it right away. It was incredibly easy to use!” says Mette.
Since the Christmas send-out, Mette has used Glede for anniversaries, photo contests and birthdays. Here is how she would describe the service to anyone who hasn’t heard of Glede.
“Glede is incredibly simple. Both for the person giving, and the person using the gift card.”
Read more about Anko here
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