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Are you doing what you know you should be doing?

Ramanujam Sridhar

Paying attention to detail, such as the correct spelling of the customer's name, or responding to complaints, will spell success for a company's efforts at marketing. The trick lies in making customers feel the service they receive has the personal touch .

An anniversary is a date that one spouse never seems to remember and the other never seems to forget. I would have cheerfully qualified for life membership to the former. Thankfully for me, today, there are a lot of people who don't let me forget my wed ding anniversary. A large premium retail chain of which I am a `first citizen', a gourmet club of a five-star hotel of which I am a `member', and another hotel chain of which I am a `privileged member', promptly remind me, send me cards which urge me to splurge and invite me to have a meal with my spouse at the

restaurant.

I feel grateful that I am being recognised as an individual

and thankful that because of their reminding me, I appear as a caring,

considerate husband who actually remembers his wedding anniversary! And yet, I have a pet peeve. The famed retail chain continues to address me as Sridhar Raitanujam consistently, frequently, in all the 30 pieces of communication they have sent me in the last three years.

Response is the name of the game

Any loyalty programme is aimed at getting customers to respond in a particular manner or change behaviour as the consultant will tell you.

And, whilst this particular programme has made me shop more and more, it's also made me more and more mad at the fact that they can't get my name right. I wonder where all my letters go, asking for my name to be spelt right, perhaps straight to the waste paper basket as most junk mail does!

The icing on the cake as it were, was a letter from the CEO of the retail chain, asking for three suggestions to improve the chain's service. My prompt reply was -- Suggestion No 1: ``Spell my name right.'' Suggestion No 2: ``Spell my name right.'' Sugge stion No 3 : ``Spell my name right.''

Not surprisingly, there was no response and Raitanujam continues to be the darling in all mailings! Maybe my communication was not as striking or as memorable as Charles Dickens' was to John Bennett, in 1863. He wrote :

My dear Sir,

Since my hall clock was sent to your establishment to be cleaned it has gone (as indeed it always has) perfectly well, but has struck the hours with great reluctance, and after enduring internal agonies of a most distressing nature, it has now ceased str iking altogether. Though a happy release for the clock, this is not convenient to the household. If you can send down any confidential person with whom the clock can confer, I think it may have something on its works that it would be glad to make a clean breast of.

Yours sincerely,

I daresay, he must have got a response!

Deficiency of knowledge vs deficiency of execution

It's fairly obvious today that companies `know' what is to be done. There is no deficiency of knowledge which is hampering them. Where we fail is in the execution of what we know has to be done. Spelling an, allegedly, valued customer's name wrong, consi stently, is clearly a case of faulty execution. It feels good as a consumer to be wooed with offers on birthdays, anniversaries and what have you, regularly, but it feels lousy to think that the company which keeps dreaming up promo after promo regularly , continues to fail to observe one of the basic principles of direct response and personalisation.

Let's look at some of the thumb rules that are relevant. Many of these are time-tested rules of direct response and we know these principles. But, how many do we practics? What systems have we put in place to internalise these and practice them without f ail time after time?

We know that customers love to receive birthday or anniversary cards. I got one recently from the same retail chain but, it was completely impersonal, as no one had signed it. An opportunity to build goodwill missed?

We know for a fact that official mail is best responded to, when received on a Tuesday/Wednesday. Yet, how many of us take care to post it so that it will be delivered on these days?

We all know that lists have to be purged and yet, I get six copies of the same mailer as my name figures in the Ad Club Directory, Rotary Directory, Diners list, American Express list, Karnataka Golf Association list ..., the list goes on. And, the India n postal service is the only one that gains.

We know that mailing lists keep changing. And yet, how much time and money do we spend on updating them on a regular basis?

Bob Hacker says: ``It's the offer, stupid,'' and yet, many of the offers I receive leave me quite cold or confused. Like the one asking me to join an Aptech course and guaranteeing a 47-year-old a placement at the end of the course! Maybe they feel that starting as a trainee in software is better than working as a CEO in communications.

We know that the great direct mail writers write to a real person. Someone whom they know. I wonder, I truly wonder, if several writers from the response world know me even though they keep writing to me.

We know that the envelope can work and yet very often, I get plain white envelopes bearing mailers. Another opportunity to sell is being ignored.

We know that timing is everything, and yet we send out offers well after the date on which the offer closes. The customer is understandably miffed.

All of this points to two fairly simple truths. Just as in retail, in direct response, success is in the management of detail. Second is the fact that technology does not automatically guarantee service. Not for nothing did Peter Drucker say: ``The compu ter is a moron.'' The marketing hand and head that guides and organises the detailing is what will ensure success. Execution is everything. We need to worry about our execution.

And, finally, a word about the consumer of the future. As Mike Clasper of Procter & Gamble predicts: ``I would label the consumer of 2025 in three ways, more demanding, wiser and more worried.''

Are we ready to manage our customers and our execution, not only today, but in the future as well?

(The author is the CEO of brand.comm. Feedback can be e-mailed to bleditor@thehindu.co.in)