Tuesday, March 24, 2009

No matter how you "slice" it...

The Hunt
Pizza has always been and forever will be considered a food group in my eyes and although I limit my crusty cheesy-pie intake to help keep me fitting into my favorite blue jeans, it's no secret that I'm a diehard pizza fan. With email playing a bigger role in not only the pizza world, I regularly sign up for email programs from local (and not so local) food deliver chains to see how they leverage the email channel.


The Skunk In my early twenties this pizza joint was one of my favorites - I just grew to love it. As I got older, and moved around from city to city, I made sure to check out what the area had to offer when it came to pizza-in-a-pinch but I knew that I could always call this place to get a good deal and a yummy meal. A few months ago, I was doing a little bit of "pie research" on the web and happened upon a location that wasn't in my delivery area but decided to drive the 6 (in-town) miles to pick up one in person - just for old times' sake. Just as good as I remembered. I signed up for their email program and get a weekly message with a special offer and invitation to place my order online. So my little issue with this email-program-that-could is that the call to action is to place my order online. I'm outside of the delivery area (and not just a quick drive for pick-up) so the likelihood of me ever ordering online is pretty much zilch. The emails that are delivered regularly to my inbox are just a tease and a delicious one at that.


The Resolution Before you ask, yes, they know what my address is; I completed my full profile after sign-up. I think the better approach would be to send me an occasional (monthly) email since I'm not in the delivery area. I don't get many chances to visit the area where this store is located so repeated messages that I or others like me can't act upon are most likely a little detrimental to their email program.

DO send me an email if a store opens up that is closer to where I live or within my delivery area. I might not get to travel regularly to where this particular store is located but giving me a few other options would be great if I happen to be around one of their other locations.

At the end of the day, the information that you collect about your recipient should be used to provide the best customer experience possible. Clients often ask me what they can do make their emails better. The answer is simple; look at your email messages as if you were your customer. Good email programs can be made great by adjusting them along the way.

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