We recently evaluated a handful of email marketing services to use for our agency and settled on one we felt had the basic capabilities we need, Constant Contact. So, I went online to sign up. The website offers a a free trial, but suggests you call the 800 number if you are ready to buy. OK, I’ll do that. But, the interactive voice response system asks you to hold for a communications consultant (what is that?) and doesn’t give an approximate wait time. After 3 minutes, I decide I’ll contact the company through email and ask them to call me to set up an account. The “incident” emails I receive say that could be 1-2 days. Not fast enough for me.
At that point, the company had given me three negative brand touchpoint experiences. It made me question the quality of their product and what kind of support I’ll get once I’m a customer. Maybe it was the name that gave me the impression it would be quick and easy to sign up. Plus, as an active online purchaser in both my business and professional life, I have a few expectations of how the process should work.
On the positive side, a customer service representative did contact me in about 3 hours and I signed up with the hope I’ll discover the brand’s value to my company. But, how many prospects or customers are they losing because the sales process is not set up to deliver what people expect?
Perhaps this is their version of setting initial expectations low so that they can wildly exceed them once you’re a customer!? Geez… I hope they offer something more for your e-marketing than “perhaps you should call Ant Hill.”
I hope you’ll keep me posted on how the relationship unfolds, now that it’s off to such an interesting start!