The Pontiflex Blog

When My Car and Sears’ Email Strategy Ran Out of Charge

The weekend that went by was my son’s second birthday, for which I threw a party. We all know how much kids can eat – and so to stock up on the plenty, I made a trip to the market.

Needless to say, Murphy was at work. As I prepared to drive away from the market, the battery on my car died prematurely – health insurance or not, batteries should live longer than two years. The battery seemed irresistible to all charms and persuasion, and  jumper cables to outright threats.

If you are stuck in the suburbs on a Sunday without a battery you end up going to Sears. It’s just what you do. And Sears was on the money. The mechanic put a new battery in the car and before you could say, “Megastore”, the car started.

But before I could get into the car and drive away, there was the small matter of payment. At the pay counter, the mechanic begins to ask me questions (billing address, etc) to create an account with Sears to generate an invoice so I can pay and make it in time to blow out candles.

He got my name and address. But when it came to getting my email address, he preferred to skip the screen and proceed to the next step. When I asked him as to why he had omitted to take my email, he shrugged nonchalantly.

This didn’t go down well with me. After all, I work for a company that helps advertisers capture the email addresses and social networking handles of consumers interested in hearing more from advertisers. And here was an employee passing up the chance to acquire the email address of a consumer for no charge at all.

It was surprising that Sears hadn’t incentivized its employees to capture an email address, especially when you consider that the ROI on an email address is in excess of forty dollars, and that email is the gateway to other social mechanisms like Facebook and Twitter,

I was disappointed to see Sears’ lackluster approach to list growth, especially given that I love receiving relevant deals and information by email.

Hopefully, things will change. Another day, another birthday.

August 4, 2010 at 3:59 pm Leave a comment

The Dangers of Flying

The workings of the universe are sometimes mysterious, as the ways of technology. For example, I have often wondered why JetBlue can provide satellite TV to its consumers but can’t provide basic wi-fi.

Speaking of JetBlue, I had to call their customer service line regarding some matters gone awry. While on the line, the customer service representative from Jet Blue, after helping me with the aforementioned matter, asked me if I would like to sign up for the Jet Blue travel deals newsletter. I like the words “travel” and “deals”, especially when placed next to each other.

Unfortunately, the sales rep got the wrong email address, only by a letter, but on the Internet a misplaced letter can displace you from the picture with the force of a thousand words. A certain person called Eric began to receive my communications.  This was concerning as the email communications being sent to Eric included my personal information, as well as snippets about my preferences.

I contacted Jet Blue and had this snafu corrected. I also contacted Eric, and now we have formed a mutual friendship. He has agreed to send me all emails that he might mistakenly receive, because that’s what friends do.

There are two lessons that can be learned from this episode. First, companies should ensure that they get the correct consumer data at every step in the sales cycle. If proper precautions are not taken in this regard, the domino effect can be harmful – for the company, and more importantly for the user.

Second, Eric never acknowledged the receipt of the free ticket that Jet Blue could very well have sent me.  Online friendships, unlike friendships in the offline world, can go only so far.

April 30, 2010 at 4:21 pm Leave a comment