Don’t Tell People They Don’t Matter (duh!)
Of course, this should be obvious - since people are customers, or potential customers, or they influence your customers…
But that’s just what Target did to a blogger, Amy Jussel, of Shaping Youth, when she called them about one of their ads.
“Unfortunately we are unable to respond to your inquiry because Target does not participate with nontraditional media outlets,”
Hmmm…yes, and that little tidbit wound up in the biggest of the big “traditional” media, NYT, “Target Tells A Blogger to Go Away.”
Uncool, Tar-zhay, uncool. If people care enough to contact you about something, anything, you should be prepared to respond. And, you never know who that one little ol’ person talks to, in real life or virtually.
To be fair, Target doesn’t say anything in their values page about respecting people.
Related Post: American Airlines Doesn’t Research “On-Line Blogs.” (And their CEO doesn’t respond to hard copy snail mail either.)
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Tags: marketing, marketing troubleshooting, web marketing, customer service, Target
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February 1st, 2008 at 8:06 am
[…] So, what’s the good news aobut our Wide-Open Web World? Well, if you’re wiling and able to be yourself in front of everybody and own what you say and do - then you’re going to stand out from your competition. Most companies (even small biz) are still thinking in terms of one-way, command and control interaction with their customers - as evidenced by all those “do-not-reply” and”noreply” emails. And good luck trying to easily find contact info on many web sites! Even seemingly cool Target doesn’t grok the power of the Web. […]