Fruit Website is Berry Berry Sorry
It’s always interesting to get an e-mail with the words “Berry Sorry” in the subject line, even if you don’t really know the sender. The e-mail arrived in my in box last night from a merchant called The Blueberry Store.
I’ve never bought anything from this company; they must have rented my e-mail address from a merchant I used the last time I sent someone a fruit basket. (Which is not that often—I could probably find the culprit if I wanted to.)
Anyway, after the headline “Apologies for the errors,” the e-mail body copy began:
“On April 1st we had some website problems (not on purpose, believe me). We had a new version of our website inserted and the shopping cart function had a glitch that would not allow our fine customers to purchase anything. I assure you we do want our customers to purchase our items :) The problem is now fixed and you can order away. I think your friends and family might even like one of our Easter baskets below. The Blueberry Store would like to thank you for your patience over the last couple days!”
The message was signed be a gentleman called Charlie Lannin. Is he The Blueberry Store’s president? I’d have included his title if it were up to me. Still, I like the way Charlie handled the company’s online service glitch.
And although I was not interested in the Easter basket offers, the promotion for The Blueberry Store’s “April Item of the Month” did catch my eye. Normally I’d have no use for an 11-oz. glass of Blueberry Ice Tea, even with the price reduction from $3.89 to $2.89. But the copy sold me:
“This all-natural Tea is made with Michigan blueberries and tastes amazing. When you are finished drinking every last delicious drop you can peel off the label and you now have a new glass for the kitchen or office! Its a win win for everyone, including the environment.”
Yes, the copy is punctuation-challenged. But that’s a heck of a deal—a healthy tea beverage AND a free glass!
Yikes, we really are in a depression.
April 4th, 2009 at 7:32 am
Wait, they spammed you, with a possibly phony notification about a website FAIL (it would have been trivial for them to determine who visited their site during the alleged outage and ping them), and YOU ARE HAPPY ABOUT IT??
Wow. That is so lame.
April 4th, 2009 at 10:32 am
Neil, you don’t seem to get it. The point here is that the site APOLOGIZED for its mishap. If you couldn’t figure that out by reading the post, then you need to re-read Melissa’s post.
So, no, it’s not so lame…
April 4th, 2009 at 11:49 am
The store made a mistake. Instead of simply emailing all the people who tried to purchase something, they took advantage of the opportunity to email their entire email list of purchasers to renew their contact. They took a error and turned it into an opportunity. You COULD consider it spam, but a very tactful and tasteful one. :-)
April 4th, 2009 at 2:52 pm
Oh i get it. What part of “I’ve never bought anything from this company” don’t YOU understand? Or “they must have rented my e-mail address”??
I do consider it to be spam, and in Canada, and Europe, golly gee, it is spam. unfortunately, under the hobbled CANSPAM act, crappy marketers get to pull this kind of stunt in the U.S.
And apparently, some who read this site consider it to be fair play. Which is why email is in such a rut as a channel.
April 4th, 2009 at 6:03 pm
Neil, are you saying that merchants should never prospect by e-mail, and that all e-mail prospecting should be banned? When you receive a catalog in the mail from someone you’ve never done business with, do you call the junk mail police? Or do you see it as a prospect piece?
It seems to me that if I’m, say, Sports Authority, and I can rent an e-mail list of consumers who made bought more than $500 of tennis equipment over the past three months, then I’m going to rent that list and prospect to them.
Again though, the point of the post is that a merchant apologized for an e-mail mishap. To me, that seems like good customer service. Even though a tiny percentage of people probably opened either of The Blueberry Store’s e-mail messages.
April 7th, 2009 at 11:19 am
I’m very surprised you like being emailed in this way. I find emails like this very annoying, even from companies I DO have relationships with.
I think marketers should be cautious when sending out emails like this and avoid them in general. If they are this haphazard managing their site, can I trust them with my credit card? With delivering a gift to a client on time?
April 7th, 2009 at 1:38 pm
This ploy is so common consumers are talking about how sick they are of it. Sites pretend that something went wrong in order to reach out to their customers and, in this case, also prospects. It probably worked really well the first time. Then the web marketer who did it (perhaps genuinely the first time) shared its success with associates or perhaps on a blog. Suddenly, everyone has an “oops.” So now, savvy consumers groan and say, “Here’s another fake ‘oops.’” Does this help form meaningful relationships with our customers? Let’s concentrate on providing good service and value.
April 8th, 2009 at 10:12 am
So it might have been an “old ploy” but if this was a prospecting piece, and the company did get a TARGETED email list to prospect to, then why doesn’t that make it a good, responsible mailing? The problem with “junk” email and mail is that it is often sent indiscriminately to people who couldn’t be less interested in the offer. The fix is for marketers to mail smarter instead of more. That means better targeting and tailored offers. Which part of marketing 101 didn’t the nay-sayers get? You can provide great service and value all you want to existing customers but if you don’t find some channel to tell prospects about your great service and value, you won’t get any new customers.