A few weeks before Christmas, I ordered eight American Express Gift Cards and was disappointed when they didn’t arrive in time for the big day.

Later, I asked Amex about the cards in an email and back came an automatic answer that they’d reply in a day. They did, which was good. Even better, they said they’d invalidated the cards and reinstated my points (and added some more to my account … for my troubles).
I loved that response. Amex tends to be like that; they usually do the right thing.

This reminded me of my friend David Hochberg who was a frequent guest lecturer at the Direct Marketing courses I taught at NYU. David worked at the Lillian Vernon Catalog.

He told us that people who bought a gift through Lillian Vernon catalog but returned it were always happy. Why?
“Because we take everything back, even personalized merchandise, unconditionally” he said. They also tracked everything and learned to their surprise that people who return merchandise purchase more items over a long period of time than any other group.
That makes sense. Obviously, I’m going to be more loyal to American Express now and have already been using their card a lot more often lately. So consider:

1. Make everything “right” for your customers.

3. It will make you memorable, because the customer is expecting “push-back” from you.

Good Luck

At my agency, we used to work primarily on direct mail programs and they worked for our clients. We rolled out huge mailings for Chase, American Express and lots of others clients. Then mailings got more costly, and we were paying more for each customer we were bringing in.

So, we started testing mail, then obtaining email addresses. We tested emailing people to visit us on Facebook, and then gave them special offers there. Little by little, over the last few years, we’ve gone from a direct mail agency, to an online group that builds websites, maintains the relationships our clients have iwth their customers via social media…and are testing some great new strategies. We’re having fun.

If we’d stayed in our old niche, we probably wouldn’t be growing as fast.

Then I read a piece about Newsweek reinventing itself in The New York Times. Their transformation is amazing: a new, smaller format, interesting new design…and a more afluent readership. They aren’t going to cover the big events any more (like the U.S. Airways flight that glided into the Hudson River). They are gambling on an audience that will pay more for a new “offbeat take” on events. Will it work?

Time will tell.

Many years ago, the Chairman of Ford of Canada called my agency in to his office for help. He needed to have more women in Canada buy their cars. They were losing market share to General Motors (who actually knew how to train their salespeople to talk to women in the showrooms).

We developed a curriculum approach to building relationships with the women. It began with a survey, and a nice letter from the chairman asking them to help him to do a better job.

It was signed in blue ink by the Chairman(of course it was printed), but it still looked authentic.

Then he gave them an offer of a book, Car and Truck Buying Made Easy…after they helped him out with the survey.

All of the names and answers to three questions were databased.

If they were going to buy a car in the next three months, we sent them a $200. gift certificate to come to the dealership near them, make the best deal, and then whip out this special certificate for additional savings. The other groups were handled differently, and all groups got a newsletter to “continue the relationship” with them.

Now, they call these kinds of programs “trigger mailings”. If I do this, then you mail me that offer.

I’m just wondering why more companies don’t do that. They have triggers on line, like offers that come popping up, when you abandon the shopping cart. They have trigger pop-ups when you are about to pay, and then there’s one more offer.

Why aren’t more companies doing this in the mail? In fact, why don’t they write to me, when I defect?

For instance, about 3 months ago, I stopped using my Mastercard to get American Airlines points. Why? Because I realized I don’t fly that much on AA, and I’d rather get some of the exciting gifts they offer on American Express Membership Rewards.

Maybe you should consider some small tests, with trigger mailings, and follow-up. Might work wonders for you.