Sometimes, They All Go Out Wrong.
A few months ago, I indulged myself by recounting a direct mail project that was almost perfectly executed, with the exception of a few stray pieces that for various (legitimate) reasons had to be reserved for the following day. And on that day, the executive who was managing the account (but certainly not helping with its mundane fulfillment) was outwardly critical of a single mail piece with a crooked mailing label. “Did they ALL go out that way?” he condescended to the person who had helped ensure the success of the project.
I was recounting the story only because I had just personally managed a “critical” direct mail project that was highly personalized and had a zero tolerance for error. Last week, I delegated an important, but not critical, project to a mailing house, but gave them very explicit written instructions about how to allocate the samples we provided to ensure that each customer got exactly four of the five various decorated bottles mentioned in the accompanying literature.
This week, on Wednesday, I got an email from the project manager apologizing for her oversight, but admitting that she had not read my instructions, so that instead of 500 people each getting four samples of decorated plastic bottles, 300 people got five samples, and 200 were only going to get three. She was pretty sure that she knew which customers got shorted, but it was frustrating to know that our well-laid plans were not executed as intended.
Any time you spend money on a customer mailing, it’s important. But luckily, none of the materials in the mailing specified whether someone should expect to receive four bottles, five bottles, or three bottles — it merely said “we are sending you a sampling of our favorites.” In this down economy, I’m sure our customers will appreciate the fact that we are still taking time to provide them with samples of new items they can use to win business in a very competitive industry. And of the 200 companies that only get three bottles, no one will know they’ve been gypped out of a sample (unless of course they read this blog).
But to me, the person responsible for planning the mailing and explaining it quite clearly to a subcontractor, I must admit there was a slight temptation to ask, “Did they ALL go out that way?”