This is a post about a company I essentially like, falling into the trap of doing the same kind of silly stuff that the rest of us do when we’re not thinking. Allow me to use them as an example for a few paragraphs so we can learn.
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Just now, a last straw fell on my crowded inbox, snapping me into writing this post. That last straw? An email telling me, in excruciating detail, the holiday closure schedule of a company I do business with.
Very occasionally do business with, that is: In fact, the only time we’ve interacted is when I bought an accessory for my camera from the company a year or two ago; I’ve lazily kept myself on their email list since then (hey, they make great camera gear, and you never know what cool thing they’ll come up with next).
Why would the folks at the photo gear company waste my precious permission (to use Seth Godin’s famous term) on such inside-baseball messaging as their office closure schedule? They’re certainly not dumb (again, their gear is absolutely killer). They’re just not taking an extra minute to look at their company the way their customers do–which is, essentially, not at all until there’s something in it for the customer.
They’re confusing the itch behind their “send” finger with the itch that triggers a customer to buy. The two, if you think about it, are very different.
