Recently I had a terrible customer unservice example from Wells Fargo Bank. I am not a Wells Fargo customer, but I wanted to help a relative by putting money in his account. So  went to the website and searched for a local bank. I got this page
http://bit.ly/1VBwuX

So I chose the South Shore Harbor location but could not find it when I drove there.

Turns out it is in a grocery store.

So today I called to suggest they might consider changing the address from

SOUTH SHORE HARBOR
2905 S SHORE BLVD,
LEAGUE CITY, TX 77573

to

SOUTH SHORE HARBOR
(Inside the Randalls store)
2905 S SHORE BLVD,
LEAGUE CITY, TX 77573

Unfortunately, I couldn’t even get my suggestion out because the person who answered the phone was not really interested in my suggestion. She wanted to explain that had I looked at the right column I would see it says “In-Store Branch” so they were right and I was wrong.

I was not thanked for the call. I was not thanked for my concern. Rather it was explained that Iwas “wrong”.

Even when your customers suggest “wrong” ideas, this is not the way to respond.

Earlier today I was pointed to an interesting You Tube video. After watching it, I was curious so I scanned to find others like it. I’ll offer you two versions of the message, both from YouTube. For the best effect, watch the first one below first and then watch the second. You might get ideas for your next presentation by comparing these two. Notice the differences. Notice how the different music affects you differently. And compare the differences of still photos vs. motion.

Video #1

(Depending on your browser security settings, may need to click twice to start the video. If you are receiving this via email, or want to open the YouTube page with the video, just click here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w8SXOSZ9i7A)

Video #2 

(Depending on your browser security settings, may need to click twice to start the video. If you are receiving this via email, or want to open the YouTube page with the video, just click here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UZd02sRGLT4)

A few minutes ago a friend called. Seems that Sir Ken Robinson will be speaking in Dallas. I’ve previously blogged about him at http://www.myephemerae.com/do-schools-kill-creativity. So being interested I Googled him  and “Dallas Museum of Arts” and found this page: http://snipurl.com/9bo6m.

(The actual URL is WAY too long to type … http://dallasmuseumofart.org/Dallas_Museum_of_Art/Experience/Arts___Letters_Live/ID_008546 … but let’s just ignore that for now.)

Ignoring the length of the URL for a minute, take a look at the page. Now start the stopwatch. Try to buy a ticket. See how long it takes you to buy a ticket. I haven’t yet figured it out yet. Should be a one-click process … as in “click here to buy a ticket”.

In addition, notice that the page mentions his TED presentation. Why doesn’t it link to it? (See http://snipurl.com/9bo1l and http://snipurl.com/9bo2o) . Doesn’t seem to link to his website either. (http://www.sirkenrobinson.com) Wonder why. It does show a picture of his new book: The Element. But it doesn’t link to that either (http://snipurl.com/9bo46).

But that isn’t all. See here on the same site: http://snipurl.com/9bomo. Look at Jan 20. A nice description. But no link to the other promotional page and no other links either. And still no link to buy a ticket.

No easy way to buy a ticket. No link to the TED talk that might inspire attendance. No link to the book. No cross links within the site. Is it just me, or does that seem wrong?

I’m not a big fan of car dealerships. Given a choice of visiting the dentist or a car dealership I’ll choose the dentist. It is one of the reasons I have bought cars from Hertz and CarMax. They sold cars like my grocery store sells canned corn. There’s the shelf. There’s the price. Any questions?

That said, lots of people are trying to get into the “Internet Marketing” business these days. Some of those people are Car Dealers. Unfortunately, many of these people try using the new technology, without understanding the culture.

One of those, in my opinion is Absolute Hyundai of Mesquite. They use CRM.COM to email blast their prospects. Today, I received two of their emails. Why two? I thought I knew the answer. You see I was shopping for a car. So I requested some information using one of the car sites that sells inquiries to dealers. And because I’m naturally suspicious of car dealers anyway, I requested much of the information twice, using different names and email addresses. Why? Because it lets me follow their follow up marketing. So I figured that they had just emailed me to both addresses.

But guess what. They had sent identical emails (with different subject lines) to the same address. Now I am confused. But that is a nit. I move on.

Here is the text of the email

James ,

 I noticed that you were not able to make it for your appointment. Just wanted to touch base with you and see what time you could make it out today. We will be here until 8:30am until 8:30pm. Please call and refer to your personal internet confirmation # 4060223. When you come out you will also recieve up to $250.00 FREE GAS on the spot. Just for coming in!!!

Come in for our Saturday Specials!!!!!
I am personally Looking foward to working with you!

Eric Romo
(888) 599- 3558 

I was really curious about that personal internet confirmation number. So I called up, used a different name, and gave them that number. They looked it up and identified me, so I do know for sure that the number is uniquely assigned.

(To be sure, I handled that call badly. I should have been more direct about the purpose of my call and instead of using a made up name, I should just not given my name and asked them up front. I was wrong. I feel badly about that and I’ve noted it for next time to do better. Mea culpa.) 

Then I wrote back. Here is what I wrote:

Hello.

For this email, I reference your email to me which I have copied below and include in it’s HTML format for full clarity.

First, please know that I have no memory of ever requesting to be placed on your email list. It is possible I did. I cannot say with absolute certainty I never did. But I have no memory of ever doing so.

That said your CAN-SPAM notice says explicitly that my request to be on this list was not required. That increases my suspicions that I never did and that my one time contact of you caused me to be on your list.

To be sure, CAN-SPAM does not require a request. Including me on such a list is clearly legal. But, in my opinion, it is discourteous.

I don’t mind you sending me any individual, personal one time email you would like. But I have no memory of ever once explicitly signing up for your “list”.

My recommendation is that you be more open and forthright on whether I actually signed up, and if so, how and when, and if not, then explicitly how my individual name became on the list. It isn’t complex. Something simple, like “We are sending you this notice because on xx.Dec.2008 you requested information from us on our website and we thought this additional information might be useful”. For me, full disclosures like that are a key part of internet courtesy. I would also recommend including an unsubscribe link right there. Your overt willingness to immediately unsub me, goes a long way in easing my concerns and encouraging me to keep reading.

Second, you appear to have begun with a tiny “mis-statement”. I never had an appointment. I strongly recommend changing that opening line. It immediately alerted me that this was a bulk marketing email. There are a ton of opening grabbers that would work better.

Third, I strongly recommend you quit trying to hide your CAN-SPAM notice. Doing that seems to imply that you are scared I might actually read the thing. For me, that reinforces the “image” of slimy car dealerships. Be PROUD of the CAN-SPAM NOTICE. I mean you only want to email people who want it. Be proud of the CAN-SPAM notice. Don’t hide it. Feature it. With a little “language crafting” you really can transform it from a legal requirement into a marketing “plus”.

Fourth, there is a teeny tiny formatting bug you might want to address. There is an “extra” space after my name, in the email salutation. That may be because of the omission of my last name, but the email software should be able to omit that space with proper coding, and if it can’t it omit the space, it should be fixed.

Fifth, you did not disclose what is required (or not required) to get the gas. This only encourages me to think there must be a catch. If there is no catch, say so. If there is a catch, tell me. You know. Full disclosure. This isn’t hard.

Finally, I wonder why you aren’t using an email domain that belongs to your dealership instead of a subdomain of the Car Research domain. If you have an opportunity to relay this back to the “powers that be”, I strongly recommend you abandon the ah.car-crm.com subdomain and move your email to the dealership domain. The use of the Car Research subdomain severely weakens your branding effort. I would include and FEATURE your dealership domain http://AbsoluteBestDeal.com in the email and also use it for your own email address. ERomo@AbsoluteBestDeal.com is a lot better than eromo@ah.car-crm.com.

(Yes, I know that YOU write email addresses and domain names using all lower case. But you don’t have to. Mixed case works fine for email addresses and domain names and significantly improves readability. It can cause problems in URLs but works great in email addresses.)

I note of course that all of these comments are not for you personally, and trust you will forward them as appropriate.

All that said, in accordance with the provisions of the CAN-SPAM Act, take me off this list and all your lists.

Thank you.

James S. Huggins

So, please, let me know your thoughts. I’d love to hear your opinions.

Addendum: I have received an email asking me what their CAN-SPAM notice said, so I just decided to add it here:

This email is being sent to you, James Huggins, because you either showed interest, purchased or serviced a vehicle at Absolute Hyundai. We send these emails to benefit you with savings, factory recall information and timely servicing information. If you would like to be removed from this email list please, Click Here and you will no longer receive these emails. Should you have any suggestions or comments regarding our email program, please feel free to call us at (888) 599- 3558. You may also contact us via regular mail at 16230 LBJ Freeway – Mesquite, Tx 75150. Your feedback is important to us! Thank you!

To ensure delivery of these e-mails in the future, please add eromo@ah.car-crm.com to your address book.

I have written on my website about CAN-SPAM here http://www.jamesshuggins.com/h/web1/can-spam-is-stupid.htm and here http://www.jamesshuggins.com/h/web1/why-can-spam-notices.htm.

On Thanksgiving day, mother and I considered looking for something “different” to eat. The idea of dining at Chili’s suddenly seemed like a great idea. I didn’t know if they were open so I thought I’d check.

I went to the Chili’s website at http://www.Chilis.com. There was nothing there to indicate they’d be closed on Thanksgiving. But neither was there anything there to indicate they’d be open. While this oversight bothered me, I needed an answer. So, I looked up the phone number of the local restaurant on their site and called that number. The phone answered as normal. It had the long list of options and numbers to press, as normal. It did not say anything about being closed, or being open.

So I pressed a number and waited for an answer. No answer. I tried another number. No answer. Based on that I presumed they were closed even though the system implied they were open. Sure enough, as we drove by, the parking lot was empty.

So my questions are:

1. Why didn’t their website tell me they’d be closed?

2. Why didn’t their answering system tell me they were closed?

For me, the website failure is bad enough. But if I’d called and nothing had answered I’d have known they were closed. But instead of nothing, their automatic system answered and implied they were open. It gave me options to get to different people. I was able to figure out they were closed only by the failure of the system to work.

How hard would it have been to put a new splash page on their site telling the world that they valued their employees enough to close for the day to let them be with family. They could have used their closing as positive PR, but instead, they did nothing.

How hard would it have been to have a new telephone answering message that said they were closed because they wanted their employees to have the day for family. Each caller could have learned of this decision in a positive way. Instead, it offered options that did not work.

One of the awesome powers of the web is the ability to quickly respond. And to do it cheaply. Not only that, they didn’t even need “quickly”. They had a whole year to get ready for that day, and they missed it. Here were two opportunities to promote their closure as a positive thing. Instead they failed to do that and let me wonder … at least till I drove by … whether they were open or closed.

Don’t get me wrong. I’ll be back. For one thing, their Awesome Blossom is awesome and now that I’ve thought about it, I want one, but in my opinion, Chili’s fumbled this one.

Update: give credit where it is due. Luby’s heard me when I emailed them. They have made a simple update to their website to correct this error. I salute them. Bravo! You can still click the links below to see what the problem was. But also note Luby’s prompt corrective action.

Frequently, corporate webs have errors. As I encounter these I think about how they happened, and even more, why I am finding them instead of someone else finding them.

Here is one example: over the holiday I went to the web to find the location of Luby’s cafeteria for a meal.

I went here: http://www.lubys.com/LocationDetail.asp?ID=190. I appreciated that Luby’s included a Google map on their site. However, the Google map did not point to the restaurant. It pointed to a bridge over part of Clear Lake where there are no buildings at all.

To figure out what happened I went to Google maps directly and went here http://snipurl.com/6w7h9. It is hard to tell from the MAP but click on Satellite View and you’ll see. The restaurant is not there. Nothing is there. It’s a bridge.

So I changed the search address slightly. I had been searching for “1600 Nasa Road One, Houston,Texas 77058″. Why that address? Because it is the address shown on the Luby’s site. Apparently Google Maps doesn’t handle that address well.

So, I changed it to an equivalent address: “1600 Nasa Parkway, Houston,Texas 77058″. That equivalent address works fine. It comes up here http://snipurl.com/6w7im.

Is the difference significant. YES! These two locations aren’t that close: see here http://snipurl.com/6w7jr.

Ok. Mistakes can happen. And working with street addresses and the variations of road names is always difficult. But someone is supposed to check. Who? How about the store manager. He (or she) would instantly see the error to alert someone to fix it. But either the store manager was not involved in the review process or his (her) protestations were met with indifference or even worse , an explanation that that is just the way it is. Neither is correct. This needs fixing.

(And I’m sure that after I let them know, they will fix it. I’ll post an update here once they do.)

The fix is trivial: change the store address to an address that Google Maps processes correctly. This isn’t hard.

The problem is that a customer found and diagnosed the error. This should not have happened. Luby’s should have found and diagnosed the error. Who? How about the person who would know best: the store manager.

Do your employees look at your corporate site? Do they help proof the corporate site? Are they assigned the task of proofing the corporate site?

I read Robert X. Cringley’s columns. That said, I don’t forward or refer many of them. So this is an exception.

July 4, 2008
Independence Day: Because we’re so much more than just consumers.
http://www.pbs.org/cringely/pulpit/2008/pulpit_20080704_005191.html