A few days ago, I got an unwanted marketing email from Ted’s Montana Grill. They had sponsored a recent HARO happy hour I’d signed up for, but that was my only contact with them. I had no relationship with them, and hadn’t given them permission to contact me.
I was pretty shocked and sent Peter an email complaining that sponsorship didn’t equal permission. He told me he’d make sure I was removed from their list.
Yesterday, someone from Ted’s called me from their headquarters in Atlanta. Apparently, their email service provider had a glitch. She thanked me repeatedly for complaining and bringing the problem to their attention!
Pretty remarkable.
Contrast this with Lexis/Nexis’s failure to manage a simple directory listing process. (I’ve spent over three hours trying to update a client’s listing and it’s still not right. Among other things, they’ve managed to misspell his name). It’s been over a month and it’s still not resolved.
Complaints can be an opportunity. If you get one, try to fix the problem. If you keep getting the same complaint (as Lexis admitted keeps happening), your customers are trying to tell you something. Listen to them.
