We got a very sneaky direct mail postcard the other day. It was from a services company we had used for some plumbing a few years ago.
The postcard read:
Your home may be due for its annual plumbing inspection and water heater clean and check as recommended by the consumer product safety commission and your manufacturer.
Your home’s $30 credit can be used for any plumbing, heating, air conditioning, electrical or appliance service or repair.
The postcard said we had a credit with them that would expire on an approaching date.
A “credit” implies we overpaid in the past or were overcharged and that we have some money due back to us.
The truth is we don’t have a credit with the company. The truth is that this is just a gimmick to get us to use the credit towards a more expensive work order.
Tricking customers is never a good long-term strategy.
A better strategy here would have been to continue down the path of their first paragraph: educate the customer. Perhaps, “We’ll inspect your air conditioning system for free. If we find a problem, we’ll show you what it is, explain your options, and give you our price. If you choose us to service your A/C, that would be great. If not, that is OK too.”
Be completely transparent and honest. The hardest part is getting the customer to invite you to their home. Once you are there, you can educate some more, give them options for repairs, and will probably close the sale.
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laurent
April 1, 2009
It looks like businesses are pushing the envelop more and more to trick us. I see it everywhere. I have a favorite sport site I go to and, lately, they’ve instrumented their site so that if you go from point A to B to find relevant info and you mouse over an ad, it will expand. What an annoyance. Then there’s this e-tailer that sends me an email everyday with different discounts everyday, so that I started to investigate and realized that the price of the same item was up’d or down’d depending on the discount in the email.
Also when I go to the store next to where I live, all the wines are 30% off…
They must think we are stupid.
Bottom line, brands who trick us may get something in the short term but we won’t be long to find out and it will backlash on them.
Joe Rawlinson
April 3, 2009
Laurent,
Good examples of too much trickery. I’d think that instead of spending time trying to trick us, they should spend more time trying to build a meaningful relationship with us. I believe that being genuine and sincere can go a lot farther than trickery.
laurent
April 6, 2009
Joe
Yes, I think all those trickery are a sign of something that has become very powerful (the technology behind marketing) but awfully misused/misguided. Techno is just techno and doesn’t think. Put in the wrong hands, it will do the wrong thing. Nowadays, customers are becoming as powerful as companies (not in the exact same way). The battlefield have been leveled I think. So using the powerful techno available to marketing make sense only one has tried to answer the question “does it make sense”
If the answer is yes and it includes “for my customer/market” in it, then go. If not, then go back to the drawing board.
Two Socks
April 8, 2009
Sounds like they use the same marketing people banks do! How often do you hear of fee free accounts * you’ve just got to love those pesky asterisk.
As you’ve aptly pointed out, what they fail to see is they drive customers away, all for the sake of tricking a few!
Joe Rawlinson
April 21, 2009
Laurent: Indeed, technology for tech sake doesn’t guarantee value to the customer.
Two Socks: Oh, I hate the asterisk too. It is particularly annoying when you can’t find the fine print that it surely refers too. Definitely a confidence breaker.
FrYrEyesOnly - Jen
May 15, 2009
Sears had been paid off, but in Canada was taken over by JP Morgan Bank, the bank had sent wrong info to credit rating agency without me knowing there was a balance of 2.00 or what ever the mail was returned to Sears I had no idea that is why they sent the interest charge to the credit rating agency. My account was closed with a 11.00 credit on the account for not using it in 1 year-they must take anyone’s card with money on it after 1 year of saving it I guess- a human right’s issue not fair for there are people like myself saving a card like Sears with a credit on it for emergencies to get to parent who may need us in emergency at a distance. Sears had closed the file, will not reopen it-so not fair.