I was sitting at work today when I received an email from a vendor of ours. The email template letter began with with three words that caused me to tune out everything else:
Dear Valued Client
In this world where new ways to communicate seemingly evolve each day, to receive a letter with this greeting on it tells me two things about whether you truly believe we're a valued client:
1) You chose convenience over thoughtfulness - Rather than spend the extra 10-15 minutes to mail merge with your customers' last names, to simply have everyone listed as "valued client" makes me feel anything but that way.
2) You chose chest-thumping over caring - Half of the letter from this vendor trumpeted every great thing this company has done during his long and storied history. Unfortunately for them, I didn't read a single, solitary word once they decided to not identify me by name.
Now, it could just be I'm overly sensitive to greetings because of the thousands of times in my life I have had people misspell my last name in a greeting (which actually doesn't bother me as much as when people start a letter to me Dear Tony!); however, when I get emails from vendors who have taken the time to learn my first and/or last name, i am certainly going to at least open the email and read it.
The bottom line: If you're calling someone a valued client in your greeting, it's as if you don't know them at all.
Monday, April 19, 2010
Know Your Audience
Labels:
caring,
chest-thumping,
communicate,
Convenience,
Dear,
Email,
greetings,
Thoughtfulness,
valued client,
Vendor
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1 comment:
Dear Awesome Blogger, Mr. Srebnik, Sir,
I love your blog! Very insightful and funny -- but I knew it would be.
If you have any questions or would like to discuss further, please call any time (to set up lunch!)
Carrie
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