No, we don’t have a franking machine. No, I don’t want to win tickets to football matches. No, no, no.
It’s all right, I woke up feeling cheerful this morning, so why the rant?
It’s not really a rant, but annoyance at poor marketing.
When I go to a cashpoint, I don’t want to be offered the chance to win football tickets as I have no interest in football. The assumption that I am interested annoys me. Now, promotions through cash machines are a challenge to target as most people need cash, both those who like sport and those who don’t. If my bank wants to drive away non-sports lovers, it’s doing a good job. If it wants to keep us happy, it could either stop offering football tickets or offer a range of tickets for other activities, eg theatre, music, film. These wouldn’t just not annoy me but would actually attract me to participate in the promotion.
And I wouldn’t feel so annoyed if sales people phoned up and asked if we had a franking machine rather than asking to speak to the person in charge of the franking machine which we haven’t got. How sloppy is this? If they can’t be bothered to establish whether or not the franking machine they think we have exists, it’s unlikely they would provide good service had we got one.
Just a slight alteration and all annoyance can be avoided.
It’s worth remembering if you don’t want to annoy potential customers.
