Birthday Greetings
Yesterday was my birthday. Of course I was looking forward to it. Hugs, kisses, presents and phone calls from my family. Fattening treats at the office along with cards from my co-workers. My staff presented me with a wonderful present after serenading me with the birthday song. And there were tons of "Happy Birthdays" from my Facebook friends (my birthday is hidden, so these people really know me). What a great day!
So here's what bugged me and I'm trying to figure out why.
- I came home from work and on my answering machine is: "Hello, this is Roger from Toyota. I noticed it was your birthday and I wanted to be among the first to wish you a 'Happy Birthday.'" Among the first? Really?
- Then I checked email and there was a birthday email from my dermatologist.
- I checked the mailbox and there was a post card from my optometrist.
I remember getting each of these in prior years and not really thinking anything of it. But this year, it seemed weird. Maybe even a little creepy. I was glad I didn't get one from the doctor who did my colonoscopy.
I think it's because this kind of personalization from huge databases is now as impersonal as the "Dear Customer" letters we used to get. After all, anyone with a merge program can do it. It's not like Roger or my doctors even know it was my birthday - it was just some kind of automated computer workflow sending me warm greetings.
How many of us are doing this every day with our association members? Not just birthday greetings. Thank you letters, "personal" invitations to get involved and make a difference, requests for charitable contributions and renewals. What are we doing to maintain the "special" feeling we want members to feel when they get our communications?
Somehow, I'm still thankful when the local restaurant sends us coupons because we're in the birthday club. And I still think it's cool when I get postcards with a purl on it or a brochure or newsletter that has my name or interests imbedded somewhere in the content - not just in the greeting. But how long will it be until I'm creeped out by those? We'll see what happens next December.
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Comments
"Dear CAROLYN,
Happy Birthday. Thank you for being a loyal member for 12 years. CAROLYN, your membership means a lot to us and... "
Seriously, I'm pretty sure this was never NOT creepy as I've seen vendor samples from direct marketers for, well, 12 years in my career and most seem badly done to me because they're too obvious. For better or for worse, commercial entities will always race ahead of us in terms of implementing any technology or new technique. And in doing so, they will often be crass, intrusive, struggling to make a connection where there really isn't one to make, since it's hard to do true relationship marketing if you're a dermatologist or an auto dealership, even if you're someone with severe psoriasis who buys a new car every year (which I'm pretty sure you're not, and neither are 95% of their respective customer bases).
In contrast to the typical commercial service provider, we can do relationship marketing as associations if we want to--we have a profile & reasonably well-populated database, common interests that we'll share for decades, etc. We just tend not to do it, in part because it feels manipulative, especially when we see it poorly done and in part we don't care enough to carve out the time to do it and do it well (i.e., subtly).
I remember from my association days that we did a fair bit of personal communications; personal notes & emails well-timed to coincide with birthdays or even anniversaries, but we'd save that personal treatment for our leaders & committee members. It's unfortunate we can't do the same--something high touch and high tech so we don't go crazy with implementation--for mass of our members we don't know nearly as well yet.
Posted by: Kevin Whorton | January 3, 2011 8:18 AM