John Hayes posted on December 20, 2011 |
Yesterday my wife got the following email from a kitchen counter manufacturer:
Subject: Christmas Holidays
Attention: All Clients,
Hope all is well, please be advised that Doofus Natural Stones will be closed as of December 23, 2011 and will re-open on January 9, 2012. At this time we would like to thank everyone for your business and we would like to wish you all a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year. If there are any jobs that will need to be priced in the time, please feel free to contact me at marketing@doofusstone.com.
Thank you,
She then pressed “send” and copied her entire customer database. Every recipient could see the email address of each of their 200+ customers. And that’s where the fun begins. Here are the next emails that poured out to every customer using that handy “Reply All” feature:
- Hi Doofus, we have an emergency with our kitchen granite/plumbing situation please call us ASAP. We have tried calling you and get no answer.
- Me too…..
- Hi Doofus team. Hope to hear from you in the new year regarding our chipped island countertop. I would also need the edges on the main countertop polished/bevelled/cleaned up and stains removed as discussed several months ago.
What a disaster. While soliciting customer feedback is good, arming unhappy customers with a spam cannon is bad. Hope your holiday season brings no such goof-ups.
Please share any other holiday marketing disasters you’ve seen.
John