Consumers now often manage their relationships with companies, instead of the other way around. Listening to what they say, how they say it and their communication preferences go along way toward maintaining positive reputations.
The natural inclination is to start sending more frequent emails, attempting to persuade people to buy, buy, buy. To the contrary, it’s more customer friendly to send fewer, more customized and personalized messages to specific segments, based on geography, customer status, and/or preference toward communication frequency.
Your brand will maintain positive positioning and you’ll also likely find that open rates, click-throughs and subsequent actions increase. When you provide real value and a call to action in the email (even if you only sell a few products), people respond. Above all, make a commitment to listen to what customers tell you directly and indirectly (through their click streams).
Catalogchoice.org is a model organization helping consumers express their offline catalog preferences. Catalogchoice is a one-stop aggregator for all preferences and then it shares this feedback will all third party catalogers.
Companies like Pottery Barn do a wonderful job listening to and respecting customer desires, asking users to express feedback about each of their catalogs (kids, teens, holiday, normal) receipt and frequency. PBarn saves money in the process and I feel better about being green and saving trees. I also continue to hold incredibly high regard for their products, brand and they way they manage my relationship.
Surprisingly, not all large organizations are willing to put customers first -- Hammacher Schlemmer refuses to honor my requests by saying “we don’t currently participate with this program”. Needless to say, my intention to purchase from HS in the future has greatly diminished.
Offline or online, customer conversations are becoming more frequent and important. Take more time to listen – it’s 4-5x more cost effective to keep an existing customer than to generate a new one.