Follow-up Failure Can Happen to Anyone (Even us)

November 10, 2008 | by Joseph Manna

Follow-up Failure Can Happen to Anyone (Even us) Hi, folks. It may be hard to believe, but sometime even we make automated marketing mistakes. The irony is that our follow-up marketing mistake, which we regret terribly, was caused by human error. We’d like to apologize to a handful of folks who were affected by our mistake and went out of their way to attend our St. Louis Marketing Revolution Tour event, only to find out that it had be canceled without notice.

Here’s the scoop.

We sponsor an awesome tour around the country known as the Marketing Revolution Tour. Our clients become Infused by talking about our product, asking questions and helping each other revolutionize the way they do business.

The event is open to all clients. Registrants who sign up are automatically placed into a follow-up sequence reminding them of the location and confirming their attendance to their regional location. Regrettably, we had to cancel the St. Louis event at the last minute due to a scheduling conflict but didn’t inform the most important people—our clients that had registered for the event.

In fact, we dropped the ball in more than one way. In addition to not informing our clients that the event was canceled, we didn’t turn off the automated follow-up sequence reminding them to attend. As a result, they received a very compelling email the night before reminding of the importance of attending the event. So the following morning, a dozen clients found themselves in the lobby of a hotel with nowhere to go.

We are so sorry. We value and respect everyone’s time and interest in showing up, so we’d like to make it up to you. We’ll send St. Louis registrants Marketing Acceleration Kits (MAKs) and a DVD recording of our upcoming Phoenix Marketing Revolution Tour stop at no charge – stay tuned to your e-mail for more information. Yes, this mistake has a price to it and we’ll eat the cost to improve all of our clients’ experiences.

The lesson to take away from this is to stay abreast of all your follow-up sequences you have running. Careful attention is needed to prevent issues like this, especially if you have many marketing events all year like we do. In the event commitments change, always let your contacts know with a quick broadcast e-mail. With Infusionsoft, you can accomplish this feat relatively easy with the Follow-Up Sequence Dashboard. To alert contacts to a timely change, send a broadcast to contacts who are in specific Tags or match criteria specific to their event.

Again, I’d like reiterate our apology for any inconvenience our loyal customers and intrigued prospects endured because of this human error. At the very least, this mistake reminds us of the importance of follow-up marketing for all marketers in any industry.

Thanks again, Randy, for elevating this to our attention. We hope we can earn your trust and faith in the future.

 
  • http://www.kjbarrettcrm.com Kevin Barrett

    Just a bit of background, I have been involved with CRM and following up with customers, well, long before it was called CRM. In my trainings on this topic, I often say that it is sometimes better to have what the Aussies call a “Stuff-up”.. It happens to the best of organizations. It is HOW we handle that “Stuff-up” (Faux Pas)…. The really point is that if you do not have a system in place, you will never know you made a mistake, and to FOLLOW-UP on that mistake.

    It is how you handle these things, that cements…. (Bonds) the RELATIONSHIP…. How many times have we made a mistake in our personal relationships? And we sent a long some flowers to our love ones, just to say, “I am Sorry”… If you have OPEN, REGULAR, QUALITY COMMUNICATIONS

  • http://www.kjbarrettcrm.com Kevin Barrett

    P.S. The Relationship becomes stronger….

  • http://infusionsoft.com jmask

    Kevin – what a great comment. Not because you have a forgiving heart (although that is pretty cool) but because you brought this mistake we made to a personal level. Life is all about making mistakes; falling; and learning how to grow stronger on your way back to your feet.
    It’s nice to know we have people like you to pull is back up.

  • http://www.infusionsoft.com/ Joe Manna

    Kevin,

    Thanks for the comments. I agree with you that follow-up is important to maintain the quality and value in your customer’s relationships. One of responsibilities in following up with people though marketing automation software is the oversight to make sure contacts are getting exactly what they expect.

    We’re trying to open up, but as with any company, we are taking the steps we need to handle feedback from all clients through all mediums. Of course, we would love for nothing more than to be perfect all the time… but we live in reality. At least we can be open, listen and have valuable conversation with people who are passionate about their business and us.

    Thanks again for the kind comments!

    ~Joe

  • Daws

    SOOOOOO glad election is over.

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