Quick Marketing Lesson About Communication

37 | Posted In Marketing by David

Yesterday, I got a voice mail from a customer who wanted to cancel his membership on PCMech. That’s fine. It happens. No sweat.

His voice mail, though, was rather passive aggressive. A bit of a threat that I needed to call him back otherwise he’d have to take it to another level (which I guess means dispute the charge).

Today, I canceled his charge for him and sent him a quick email letting him know it was done. Half an hour later, he leaves me another voice mail. I was ignoring him, not returning calls, and apparently being a bad guy.

Sigh. So, I called him.

Immediately, he was the nicest dude. He thanked me for canceling his membership. Told me he loved the program, but he just didn’t have time for it anymore. He was actually trying to make me feel better about canceling!

The lesson?

Always err on the side of more communication than less. And…

People want to be acknowledged.

This isn’t the first time that’s happened. It must be something about the Internet. People automatically assume the worse when you’re just a website. The moment they get a personal acknowledgement or a personal communication, it brings the whole dialog back to a point where it is just person-to-person.

I often get people who are surprised that I reply to my emails personally. Don’t think it hasn’t occurred to me to have my VA deal with my email. It has. She does handle my support desk, but I feel people should get a personal reply from me if they email me. Sometimes I’m delayed on replying, but I sure give it my best.

A couple weeks ago, I had a person tell me they wanted to buy my course because they were put off by the lack of personal treatment by another big-name blogger. I won’t name names and it happens to be a blogger I have a lot of respect for. That said, it puts people off when they email you, only to get a response from somebody else who is trying to keep you off their boss’s plate. Not a good way to keep an open line of communication with your readers, is it?

We all get pissed when we try to call a company only to get caught in the call loop of death. Yeah, I’d rather press 1 to kick their ass, too.

Always err on the side of more communication than less. Don’t stick blockages on the line, because that only tells them that you don’t want to talk to them. And if you’re doing that, they’re probably right.

And make sure to acknowledge people. If you don’t, it leaves an open loop. Not good.

OK, stay awesome. :)

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  • http://promotewrite.com Joel Nielson

    David,

    Good reminder. I’ve also found it intersting that people “assume the worst” with internet businesses. It’s like there expecting to get ripped off! (They’re paranoid, but for understandable reasons.)

    Knowing this… It’s our job to put them at ease.

    Thanks,

    Joel Nielson http://www.promotewrite.com
    The Ad Critter | copywriter, designer

  • http://twitter.com/WaynesBNP Wayne Howard

    Communication is very important! We get so sucked into this online world that we sometimes forget that communicating effectively offline is tried and true method to building relationships.

    We should all make it a priority to make sure our offline communication is just as good as online.

  • http://davidrisley.com David Risley

    Right on. :-)

  • Linda

    Hey David… I hear what you're saying, but also understand the position of the “big name” blogger of little personal treatment. I get (on average) 700+ emails per week that are not spam. If my VA replies, people get cranky. If I reply, I get no work done. I shut down my membership program a couple of years ago because neither was acceptable to me. I needed a better solution, so shutting down was the best option at the time. For now, I maintain 5 or fewer personal clients at any given time, and they can access me directly anytime they need, and the rates are calculated accordingly. For now, that works. Just as it's important to keep lines of communication open, it's also important to remember that when we call a business for support, we don't always get the founder on the phone. Just my two cents…

    P.S. Your daughter is absolutely adorable…. (which you already know)

  • http://twitter.com/idahowriter Marte Cliff

    You really do shock people when you email back or return a phone call… Any more they don't expect it – even though they want it. I don't know how many times someone has thanked me and sounded amazed when I called them… kinda fun.

  • http://www.confidenceandcourage.com Pat

    David – oh, so true…..it's all about communication – and people want to hear from people! Like you, I make every effort to respond myself – to manage this, I have an on-going process of unsubscribing from lots of great ezines, and other such things – but this allows me to stay in touch with my customers…..and that's no. 1 priority for me. Without them, I'd have all the time in the world…..

    Keep up the good work,

    Pat Mussieux

  • Jcbrady

    Good post. I recently joined an online marketing class because surprisingly I got a personal email back from the instructor. The email not only answered my question, but went into great detail about the benefits of joining now. It sold me on the class even though it wasn't the most convenient time for me to take it — the personal attention got me to take that step and sign up anyway. You just can't replace that sort of communication!

    -thanks

  • http://davidrisley.com David Risley

    Oh, absolutely. You need systems in place for that kind of thing. This is why I use a support desk and I don't deal with it – Lisa does. I direct people to send in a ticket with matters that she can deal with. She deals with that stuff faster than I can, so its a customer service thing.

    Basically, if something hits my inbox, I will deal with it myself. However, there has to be systems in place to deal with things before things hit your inbox. Its all about forming the organization you need to pull it off.

  • http://www.EnlightenedMarketing.com/ Samantha Hartley

    I find subscribers, program members and call participants will sometimes email the rudest things … a form or an email or a phone number has pissed them off and that goes straight to me or someone on my team. Often, if I see that email come in, I answer them with a quick note in my Southern Mother's “Kill'em with Kindness” style. 99% immediately respond in a way that shows me they never thought a real person would see their email or care enough to respond.

    I'll also call them back, meet on Skype and send thank you notes by real, tangible mail. The Internet feels really impersonal, but there are plenty of ways to communicate humanity just as you've done here, David. Thanks for the reminder. :)

  • http://pattyreiser.com Patty Reiser

    The human touch still work time after time.

  • http://website-in-a-weekend.net/ Dave Doolin

    I suspect that the fastest way to get good with people online is to get good with people “off” line.

    “Online” seems to be this sort of social magnifying glass. At one focal length, tremendous leverage for communication and connection. At a very slight different local length, flames.

    Not claiming expertise, just experience and observation.

  • http://prosperouscoachblog.com/ Rhonda Hess

    I've had thankfully very few of those situations myself and I appreciate your take on this, David. Lesson learned. You're on the up & up and a real human being too. May folks realize it's best to assume people do their best and are inherently good, treating everyone, even marketers & teachers respectfully while still asking for what they want.

  • http://projecth2o.net SanamiOnline

    The internet is not so impersonal it still requires human interaction ;)

  • http://www.cachandochile.com Margaret

    I just wrote about a similar situation. I use wordpress.com and was one of the “victims” of the recent surprise cutline to coraline theme changes… both during the initial unannounced change that produced widget problems and again when they “fixed” the problem a week later (again without announcing) after many of us had already done the fixing…to bring a long story to a close, I angrily sent off an email to wordpress and surprise of all surprises, a REAL person responded! With just a few words he not only made me feel better, but actually inspired me to write a post about the importance of good service!

  • http://websitemanagers.net Jim Hutchinson

    Instead of building a business so big all the clients get treated as numbers, I kept it smaller on purpose. They are happy to get personal communications from me and that has kept most of them coming back for nearly 11 years.

    Providing personal, friendly, professional, all rolled into one is a delicate balance.

  • Gina

    I have to speak up just a little for the other side — as a program member, nothing drives me crazier than a lack or delay in response. If I send off an email to do something (like cancel a recurring payment), I do expect some sort of prompt notification. I don't even care if its the face behind the program. I get that people have assistants.

    But I've been burned by having repeated requests (like 6, over the course of 2 weeks) go completely unacknowledged, and there being no other way but to get them to respond to me to stop a recurring credit card charge. By that point I was in a frenzy, trying all sorts of stuff in the subject line to take it seriously. I finally figured out how to email the principal person directly, and cc'd them on a request.

    What happened next (well, after cc'ing the principal twice, was a really terse email from the first person saying they'd refunded my credit card and that they'd never receving any of the earlier emails. So I reforwarded all the emails to both of them. Never heard anything back from either of them.

    This is a really high-visibility marketing person we're talking about. I promptly threw away all their materials — never again. In fact, if I hear somebody else say they are a student of this person, now I find I automatically discount them. I haven't gone as far as to spread the word about who this is, because that just feels like I'm falling into mean.

    So — it's a two way street. Yeah, customers can be a pain to respond to. But if there isn't a good response system in place, you can damage your own cred.

  • http://www.EnlightenedMarketing.com/ Samantha Hartley

    Gina, you've shared a brilliant example of branding in action. People think they can manage their brand by being polished, having smart messaging and a shiny look-and-feel. But oftentimes the best determiner of the brand is how they handle your complaints and issues. One customer service guy sweet-talked me back to my phone company before I finally, finally left there in a huff. Your famous marketer may be too busy opening the front door of the business to pay attention to who's inside or headed out the back door. Bad for the brand.

    And I never find customers to be a pain. It's way more painful to have no customers ;-)

    Love the phrase “falling into mean,” BTW. :)

  • http://www.internetmoneymap.com Mark Aylward

    So true
    Customer service, true customer service will blow away the competition every time

    Press one for a human… anything else go somewhere else

    Peace
    Mark

  • http://twitter.com/BruneianDollar Bruneian Dollar

    Agreed. That reminds me of how Barney Stenson (or Stinson?) from How I Met Your Mother does it in that one episode with his Big Book of Tricks, and stuff to get girls to sleep with him. One of the many was very interesting when he first mentioned that it requires a little knowledge in Web Designing.

    Basically, the trick goes, create yourself a fake name and make yourself popular all over the Internet. Get your name ranked #1 in the Search Engine, submit articles relating to your name to a lot of sites that would bring you claim as to how famous, courageous, and whatnot you are.

    The next step is to find a girl with a fancy Smartphone. Tell her your name (accidentally, being famous and snobbish), she'll check your name up on her Smartphone, finds you famous and interesting articles (or videos if you do video blogging already), she would have to sleep with you.

    I forgot the name for this trick but its absolutely ridiculously funny! :D

  • http://mttoolsonline.com/blog Kathy Nicholls

    Your post is timely as I'm in the middle of the same sort of thing with a vendor. No calls, even though I've asked for them, and it will soon be two weeks without the issue resolved. It is quite frustrating. It is way too easy to forget that sometimes “in person,” even if it's on the phone, is the answer in customer service situations. Thanks for pointing that out.

  • annegalivan

    And one more thing…you should occasionally check that your contact form works! I have been a little surprised sometimes when I have had no response from people who advertise themselves as being very available. In at least one case, it turned out the site's contact form wasn't working.

  • Sandy Halliday

    You are right. Is is good to get a timely personal reply but surely we all know that if the person we are emailing is a big gun then he/she is unlikely to reply personally because he rarely has the time.
    If people don't understand this then they better get real.

  • http://budgettravelerssandbox.com Nancie (Ladyexpat)

    I have also had an experience similar to Gina's. I no longer do business with this person, and whenever I hear the name I cringe. Funny thing is, the name has been popping up a bit lately. My thinking (which could be totally off the mark) is that people must be going through tough times if they are associating their name with this person. It's like a never ending circle. The nice thing is there are enough good people on the Internet that I don't have to deal the “not so good”.

  • http://www.mikeslife.org Mike CJ

    It's a good lesson. As “internet” people we tend to default to email communication, but the phone does engender a greater sense of trust.

    I've seen this in action with some people recently who wanted to book a long term stay in our apartment. After about ten emails backwards and forwards, we weren't getting anywhere with getting them to send a deposit. In exasperation, we called them, and that one phone call was enough to reassure them, and they sent the full payment. His words: “I just wanted to make sure you were real people.”

  • Malcolmt

    Totally agree David.
    we are real people after all said and done trying to get by in a virtual world.

    Regards.

    Malcolm.

  • Anonymous

    It is a shock when you send a snappy email or a simple question to somebody and receive a nice email back. The number of times I have been in this guys position, hate call centres and there dire waiting tune…

    Stuart
    http://stuartmcminigal.com

  • http://www.financiallydigital.com Nunzio Bruno

    This is some great insight, especially in an industry where business is being conducted and you often don’t get to see the consumer at the point of sale. @DaveDoolin has a point to – if you are good with people offline those same skills can be transferable and you can create a community or environment where the consumers of you and your brand feel like they are being individually attended to and acknowledged. With Financially Digital I’m constantly in front of people and businesses giving advice and get instant feed back to the effectiveness of my communication. With http://www.financiallydigital.com I have to be extra aware because that feedback isn’t often as instant. Nice work on bringing something that sounds pretty fundamental to the forefront :)

  • http://davidrisley.com David Risley

    True. It gets harder as you get more popular, and you have to set up systems to automate things. That said, it also provides an opportunity to stand out. Because then, when you DO reply personally, people are more likely to really appreciate it. :-)

  • http://davidrisley.com David Risley

    I'd be interested to hear what happened on that. From an outside perspective, it seemed that whole move was because Matt has a problem with Chris Pearson (the guy who made Cutline). Which means they inconvenienced a lot of people because of Matt's personal problems. If there was a more mature explanation, I'd love to hear it.

  • http://davidrisley.com David Risley

    Well, I wouldn't stay small just for that. By all means, grow. Just set up systems to make sure things run the way you want them to.

  • http://davidrisley.com David Risley

    Sounds like the entire problem, Gina, was because you were not acknowledged. Which brings me back to the point in the post.

  • http://davidrisley.com David Risley

    Yeah, I wish I knew why that was.

  • http://www.PortableGaragesAndShelters.com Kathy

    That personal touch is so important… And, Dave, my hat is off to you for providing such an excellent example. Thank you.

    My primary website is a commercial sales site for hard goods versus an informational product, and the same rules apply. I remember when I set the whole thing up 3 years ago, I made it easy as pie to order online without anyone needing to actually speak with me to place the order. Wow! Was I off base on that one! Yes, it's really easy – and actually MORE secure if the customer places the order without my help, yet, it amazes me how many want to interact with a “real person.”

    I cannot tell you how many customers have been surprised when I actually answer the phone or return a message. Or, how many people still want to give me their information personally rather than enter it onto the computer themselves (I enter the order in the exact same way they would). I guess that the want for that personal “connection” is just part of our human nature, isn't it? :)

    Thank you again!
    :) Kath

  • http://website-in-a-weekend.net/ Dave Doolin

    Haha! That's way too much work!

  • http://promotewrite.com Joel

    I don't know that I have the definitive answer here…. but off the top of my head we could put them at ease by:

    1.) ANTICIPATING THIER SKEPTICISM when writing copy. “It's free and is helpful” vs. “It's free and actually is helpful” the one additional word addresses (and perhaps apeases) their skepticism.

    2.) Concern and reservation evaluation with our product or service.

    3.) Build in actions into our processes that finesse common fears/concerns and communication concerns – so their are no surprises.

  • http://www.directorysubmissionservices.net Nick

    Good post. I recently joined an online marketing class because surprisingly I got a personal email back from the instructor. The email not only answered my question, but went into great detail about the benefits of joining now.t's a good lesson. As “internet” people we tend to default to email communication, but the phone does engender a greater sense of trust.

  • http://www.SuperSearchFreeApp.com Culver City Cowboy

    Great advice. I’m just starting out with blogging and don’t see where to put a back end money magnet on the niches that I’m building. That’s not a big problem as I know some SEO on and off page basics, but I”m too lazy to edit all those posts even knowing the stellar text won’t be read by many eyes. So now you know why I fail, I don’t want to do the work. 2010 will be different!

    Here’s my latest. My posts get comments, some success at last. When I got a comment – “Great BLOG. I have been looking for this info for weeks. I love this blog and will return often.” I wanted to call my mom and tell her about my great fortune. Then 10 minutes later I see that exact same comment on a different unrelated blog of mine (and three exact copies of it on there) Now I’m crushed that I ‘must’ unapprove any comment of praise that gets posted to my blogs.

    So does a link out of “dog walking blog” to Viagra.ccm give me any value?

    Just ignore the question, thanks for your Bloggers tips.