Ever hear that analogy about boiling a frog? The frog’s in a pot of cold water and the burner gets turned on low. The frog’s fine. Turn it up a few more degrees, he’s still fine. But keep at it and eventually you boil the frog.
Well, consider me a boiled frog: I decided to unsubscribe to some eNewsletters. One of them was for a cosmetic site. I figured that since I shop the site regularly, I didn’t need the newsletter and I hit the “unsubscribe link.” Here’s the message I got back:
You have been unsubscribed.
This is the last email you will receive from us. We have added you to our
“blacklist”, which means that our newsletter system will refuse to send
you any other email, without manual intervention by our administrator.
Whoa. It was such a major disconnect with the brand that the brand’s image suddenly seemed phony. I found myself thinking about all my interactions with that brand. Customer service was kind of unresponsive. Shipping was kind of slow. The prices weren’t all that good. Bottom line: that message finally boiled the pot. I won’t order from them again. And I’ve forwarded that “blacklisted” message to everyone I know and they say they won’t ever order from the site again.
I’ll bet the marketing department has never even seen that message. They’re spending boatloads of money to promote a brand image that’s being undercut by back-end messaging.
Note to self: always check the boilerplate. AutoResponses, privacy policy, order form language, return policy. All these messages should reflect your brand – or you risk boiling your customers!
How about you? Have you come across some good – or awful – examples of back-end messaging?
– Judy Kirkland
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