I recently received an email in my secure email from my bank that read:
Dear Customer,
Please do not reply to this message. It is sent from an unmonitored mailbox and will not be responded to.
What it really says is:
“Dear person who gives us money. We are about to tell you something, do not try and talk to us. We will not listen.”
Thanks, I feel the love. I really feel like you want to have a conservation with me.
I get lots of normal email newsletters like this too. They even send it from an email address called [email protected]
It’s such a waste. Here you are. You’ve said something you hope is relevant to the user and you tell them not to respond.
Why do they do this? Because they get too much feedback. Too much of their customers telling them something.
Nutz.
On one hand, they are paying other companies millions to do research and tell them what their customers think, and over here they have their audience captivated and the feedback exactly relevant to the tactic they just sent out and they stamp on it. They quash it and squash it flat.
Take every chance to hear from your customers. Don’t waste a single one. If they bother to hit reply and type something out, you should read it. If you’re product or service doesn’t have the margin to allow for listening to your customers when they want to talk to you, then you’re in trouble.
Mick Liubinskas is one of Australia’s leading web strategists, having served in head marketing roles at Kazaa, Zapr and Tangler. He now runs Pollenizer, the business incubator he co-founded with ex-Kazaa colleague Phil Morle.
Photo: optimal tweezers (Flickr)
