Too Close

The other day while clicking through multiple post-lunch emails, I received a voicemail message:

“Hi, I am Ron, your personal travel consultant. We just sent you an email about our travel specials for October. I noticed that you just clicked on the Myrtle Beach golf package. Please call me back to talk about your specific offer.”

Paranoid, I quickly deleted the email that was still open on my desktop.

As email marketers, we have a ton of information available; we know who opened, clicked, the associated times, how many times etc. – but do you actually tell the customer what you saw them do? Do you think you’ll win points by startling them through a multi-channel experience? While I applaud the integration of the CSR call, and the likelihood that these reps had been trained to read the email marketing metrics, I would have preferred subtlety.

We worked with a travel company on a similar project, prospects were sent information on upcoming trips, a few days after clicking on one of the options those recipients were called by reps knowledgeable about the option selected. The reps never acknowledged the email; they simply referred to the same special.

As far as Ron goes, I would have unsubscribed but I was a little nervous that he might be waiting for me in the parking lot.