Two questions, then pre-emptive apathy. I don’t know if I can deal with that. 
**
Nope, I just shop elsewhere, lizzzzzard-boy.
Any e-marketers out there: an email like this would strongly motivate me never to return to that store. You want my money? Don’t waste my time with emails like this.
I don’t want to hear justifications for why this is a good idea. If you can do without my patronage, go ahead and use this kind of email. If you want me as a customer, don’t do it.
Daniel
spam hater par excellence
Jackmannii says
Well, then at least we agree on your most appropriate option for dealing with your objection to it!
[internal dialog] hmmm… lizzzzzzard… like it![/internal dialog]
[reminder to self]Stop talking to self[/reminder to self]
Daniel: We’ll see if the e-marketers listen! I won’t be holding my breath though…
Jeepers. I (virtually) toss crap into shopping carts all the time without buying anything all the time. I visit a new online store that I might maybe buy from, browse around, click on a few things I might be interested in, see what my total’s like . . If I’m feeling really crazy, I might even hit the Check Out button and see what the shipping will be.
That’s the nice thing about internet shopping. You can take three days before you decide whether to buy what’s in your cart. You can put the same thing in your cart at five different stores and only buy at one of them.
If I got an email like Tansu did, I’d never shop there again. I don’t like the idea of them looking over my shoulder while I’m shopping at all. I mean, duh, I know they’re doing it, and naturally I don’t object to them surveying the data in a big-picture kinda way, but the idea of somebody at buystuffforcheaphere.com saying, “Hmmm, let’s see what podkayne_fries@hotmail.com has been putting in her shopping cart!” gives me the consumate willies. If they’re going to do it, they better not act like it.
And I can tell you this, too, I get that kinda weird stalker behavior in a brick-and-mortar store and I’m out the door in a split second, too. If a sales person bothers me with anything more than “Is there anything I can help you with?” when I haven’t specifically asked for assistance, I’m out of there. Just leave me alone to shop. I don’t want to be patronized, pestered, or pandered to.
I like shopping anonymously. I like looking around, finding what I want (on my own), paying, and then leaving quietly. I like good customer service as much as the next person, but I want there it only when I need it. Mostly, I like to shop unnoticed. It’s the main reason I don’t care for store greeters, or constantly being asked if I need help, or being called by name when I get a credit or membership card returned to me, or to be surveyed at the checkout stand.
Of course, it’s not realistic to expect to do stealth shopping everywhere these days. I’ve gotten used to it. But still, I wouldn’t be happy if I got an e-mail like Tansu’s. This approach to customer service makes me uneasy, because it ignores the shopping anonymity that I cherish.
You can serve customers well without resorting to spam. Do it by having good prices and decent store policies. Make your store a comfortable and welcome place to be. And you can get personal with the customer service, so long as you understand and respect the difference between personal and intrusive.
Exactly. I’ve suggested many times to (VeryLargeDullClient) that they have tons of stuff in their database that would yield much interesting information if it was analyzed properly. I am poised at all times to unleash hordes of data miners who will ferret out all their customers’ most intimate details, possibly right down to the preferred flavour of their underwear. No way am I going to bother the customers about this, though. What they don’t know won’t hurt them. 
Couldn’t you just tell them that you view intrusive emails like this as a problem?