Buzz Builder

1-800-PET-MEDS Demonstrates the Efficacy of Marketing Customization

I don't even bother to look at most things that I receive in the U.S. Mail since they are obviously junk. But the promotional piece (click on the pictured item to see a bigger version) that I just received from 1-800-PET-MEDS   grabbed my attention.

My wife Ellen and I are the proud owners of a boxer puppy named Bella. The extent of our commitment to our little pup is clearly manifest at Bella's Boxer Shorts, a great blog that my wife and Bella write together.

When buying our first item for from 1-800-PET-MEDS, we were asked to provide  information about our dog.  We really didn't expect that the company would do much with this data. However, we soon started receiving custom mailing pieces that feature boxers and always contain the names of Ellen and Bella artfully woven into the copy. In fact, 1-800-PET-MEDS does such an excellent job customizing their mailings that we actually look forward to receiving them.

Whether you send promotional postcards, newsletters (printed or electronic), or some other form of communications to your clients, you're much more likely to grab their attention and motivate them to action when you customize your messages. It really does work. Thanks in large part to their clever mailings, we've become loyal customers of 1-800-PET-MEDS.

Go Daddy's Great Customer Service Will Drive Success

Yesterday, my partner got an email from Go Daddy, one of the largest domain registration and web hosting companies, telling her that they had renewed ten domains that she had registered one year ago requesting automatic yearly renewal. She was frustrated when she received the email because she had decided that she didn't want to keep the domain names any longer but she had forgotten to tell Go Daddy to cancel automatic renewal.

We were both surprised with a unsolicited phone call  today from Dwayne Brittingham, a friendly customer service representative from Go Daddy, thanking us for being loyal customers. He asked whether there was anything we needed. I explained the situation of the URLs that my partner no longer wanted. Dwayne said, "No problem. I'll gladly reverse the charges on the domain renewal and cancel those URLs for you. It's the least we could do for a good customer."

Wow! Go Daddy really gets the concept of good profits built on solid relationships - quite different from the poor customer service that America Online provides to maximize short term  profits that I detailed a couple of months ago.

With its focus on pleasing the customer even if it means giving up short term revenue, Go Daddy is building a sound business model that will thrive. I'm sure that Fred Reicheld, who wrote the excellent The Ultimate Question: Driving Good Profits and True Growth, would heartily agree.