Samba Days

Forget about ties or flowers. What if your present was a white water rafting trip or salsa lessons wrapped up in a gift box?

That’s the ingenious idea behind Alex Barseghian’s two-year-old Toronto-based company Samba Days http://www.sambadays.com. It specializes in giving the gift of memorable moments.

The company offers corporate and retail customers the opportunity to purchase unique gift experience packages, such as Segway rides, kayaking and fly fishing trips, spa days, rock climbing lessons, zipline adventures, bellydance lessons, and guided wine tasting tours.

And that’s not all. Some of Samba Days’s most popular excitement-packed gift experiences include getting behind the controls of a CF-18 air combat flight simulator for live dogfighting action and the chance to drive a Ferrari F-360 or Porsche 911.

“It’s a gift card on steroids,” explains Alex.

The Samba is the official dance of Brazil and it’s renowned for its passion and exuberance. But what’s most interesting is that it’s not really one single dance, rather a set of dances. Alex thinks of Samba Days in this way: a set of experiences, a variety of steps to explore and a way to embrace the passion in our lives.

Samba Days offers a wide range of gifts that cater to every type of interest, whether the person enjoys adrenaline-charged activities, indulgent pampering or learning something new. The gifts fall under a variety of themes, including: wine & tour, action & adventure, exploration, live & learn, rejuvenation, pampering & wellness, global wine, and gourmet getaways. There are several experiences to choose from under each theme.

“Our wine and tour option offers a choice of a tour of 10 wineries plus tasting flight for 2 people and 2 bottles of wine to take home,” says Alex.

Another favourite is a live and learn gift box for couples.

“You buy a theme box and in it are twenty different experiences, everything from salsa dancing to martini-making and PGA golf lessons,” says Alex. “At $99 it is really quite a good deal.”

The gifts are sold online at www.sambadays.com and at The Bay, Shoppers Drug Mart and Chapters Indigo bookstores. They come in 6 inch by 6 inch gift boxes, with a gift card right on the front of the box. Prices range from $59 to $329, so there’s a present for every budget.

Alex says the Samba Day packages are popular for wedding, anniversary, birthday, Valentine’s Day and thank-you gifts.

“It’s a gift they definitely won’t forget,” he says.

Samba Days unique gift experience packages are also sold to corporate clients who give them as sales incentives and employee recognition gifts. Samba Days clients include Globe & Mail, Air Canada and Visa. As well, Aeroplan offers Samba Day experiences to their members.

Alex was visiting England for a family wedding when he first heard about experience gifts. The newlyweds at the wedding he attended were given a number of novel gifts, such as a hot air balloon ride, and he was struck by the originality.

“No one was offering anything like this in Canada so I decided to open my own business,” says Alex, who has a background in marketing. “These gift experiences are so much more personal and special than a boring old store gift card.”

Samba Days has found a unique niche in the Canadian marketplace and as a result the company is growing fast. Alex currently employs a staff of eight and expects significant growth over the next year.

Offering great customer service is key to the company’s expansion plan. Samba Days receives numerous calls and emails from potential customers with questions so a reliable telecommunications system is critical.

“Communication is integral to our business,” says Alex. That’s why when he was shopping around for a new telecommunications provider, he had three key needs: good customer service, reliability, and competitive price.

Fortunately, all three of these demands were met by Allstream Small Business, a Canadian telecommunications provider that specializes in serving smaller companies.

From the get-go, Alex says Allstream Small Business was responsive and offered quick service. Their customer service technical support team is available 24-7 and their sales team can be reached from 8 am to 6 pm ET.

“I called and they [Allstream Small Business] were here within a few hours,” says Alex. “The response time was much faster than I expected.”

Allstream Small Business is also highly reliable, delivering telecommunications to customers across the country through a state-of-the art fibre-optic network equipped with the latest digital switching technologies. They provide global connections through strategic partnerships with leading service providers in more than 70 countries around the world.

Not only was Alex impressed with the service and the system reliability, Allstream Small Business offered Samba Days a competitive price. There are five phone and Internet bundles to choose from, so companies can choose a package based on the scope of their needs. And recognizing that each company is unique, Allstream Small Business allows you to tailor your bundle by adding on individual business phone, fax, and Internet tools, as required. This gives small companies flexibility and ensures they aren’t stuck paying for services they don’t really want or need. That keeps the price down.

“Allstream Small Business was really good at identifying our needs and working with us,” says Alex. “They weren’t bureaucratic and telling us ‘we only have three packages available take it or leave it.’ Instead they listened to us and worked around what we needed today, and what we may need tomorrow.”

Samba Days put together a package that includes six phone lines (with two calling features of their choice), plus business High Speed Internet, all included in one monthly bill.

At any time, Samba Days can add individual services onto the package or upgrade to a larger bundle.

“In small business you need to consider not only where you are today but where you want to be in the future,” explains Alex. “Scalability is important. With Allstream Small Business if we need to add three more lines tomorrow they can do it quickly. And we are hiring staff all the time so that is critical.”

Samba Days makes a lot of calls across the country so a competitive long distance package is also key to their bottom line. Allstream Small Business includes a number of long distance minutes in each bundle (the amount depends on the size of the package), plus you can buy additional long-distance minutes as required at a cost-effective price.

Samba Day’s bundle, for example, includes 2,000 long distance minutes.

“The long distance savings are a big help,” says Alex. “And if our long distance calls increase we can buy more down the road.”

Overall Alex says that by switching to Allstream Small Business his company is saving about 15% to 20% on their monthly phone and Internet bill.

“That’s a really big savings,” says Alex.

And by saving money on communications, Samba Days can stay competitive and use that extra money towards growing their business.

“Allstream Small Business offers a better price and a better package,” says Alex.