Recently my colleague Kevin Zimmerman wrote about an email campaign incident where his wife's name was wrong and none of the "personalized" information was correct. The company fixed the issue after a few campaigns, but even after more than 10 years of email business, many companies still have a long way to go to create a good customer experience in the inbox.
I’ve been shopping at Amazon.com for years. I have an Amazon rewards credit card, I send gift certificates as birthday and Christmas gifts, and I’ve placed over two dozen orders in the last year. I’ve always enjoyed great service, fast shipping, and overall an excellent experience buying from the company. For the first time yesterday, I was actually frustrated with Amazon. The reason why might surprise you, since nothing about Amazon or their great customer service suddenly changed.
For over a month we’ve been hearing about how retail is struggling this holiday season and sales are lower than normal. The reports are still coming out with the numbers to show whether there really was a huge drop-off from last year (I’m sure it’s something we’ll be covering extensively for the next few weeks), but I have my own theory why the outlook has seemed negative when it may not be.
Ah, the joys of the holiday season: a bevy of percent-off coupons, free shipping offers, and more sent directly to my inbox at a dizzying pace. And in case I forget about the offers at hand, there are all those handy follow-up emails reminding me that I have a limited time to take advantage of the fabulous offer I just received. Then there’s the ultimate reminder that I only have one day left—or else I’ll miss out. Until the next offer comes along, that is.
Continue reading "How Many Emails Does it Take to Make a Sale?" »
Anyone else getting a lot of e-mails lately from merchants determined to lure you into their stores or onto their websites for BIG BIG HOLIDAY SAVINGS!!!! ? If you’re like me, you may find yourself confronted with an annual greeting from an obscure store you once did business with five years ago. Nobody wants to be inundated with come-ons, of course, but chances are if I haven’t bought anything from you since 2002, I’m not going to suddenly realize a pressing need for your wares.
While I now count on that experience as a bemusing bit of Yuletide tradition, however, there’s another one that I don’t particularly care for: cashing in on an offer, only to immediately be presented with an even better deal once the previous sale has been completed … and finding that I can’t apply the better deal to my just-completed purchase.
You’ve heard of Best Practices. If 1to1 ever starts a “Worst Practices” section, this has got to be near the top of the list.
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