When It Snows in Houston…
I had the good fortune of attending MediaPost’s Email Insider Summit this week in Park City and will be sharing some observations from the event in the coming days. At the moment, however, I have a different story to share — and bear with me, it will have a lesson for email marketers.
He's Mr. Snow Miser -- and he owes me six hours of my life back!
For those who follow my personal Twitter feed (@jkrohrs), you may have seen that I had quite the return trip from Utah yesterday. After an on-time, uneventful flight from Salt Lake City to Houston, I was pleased to see that my connecting flight from Houston to Cleveland was on schedule despite the crazy fact that it was snowing in Houston.
Yup. Snow in Houston. Last time that happened? December 24, 2004.
With a snowfall total around an inch, I was optimistic that the impact on my connecting flight would be minimal. When we boarded early, I was even more optimistic. When they closed the door and the seat next to me remained empty, I was ecstatic and embraced my newfound elbow room.
As it turns out, I would need the room because I remained in that grounded plane in Houston for the next six hours. The pilot spoke to us a total of six times during that period, each time apologizing for the delay and chalking it up to a long queue of planes waiting to get de-iced.
During those six hours, all the passengers in coach were offered was water. That’s it, water and six announcements from the pilot. When we finally got to the de-icing crew, they ran out of solution after only de-icing half of our plane. When the pilot shared that factoid, I thought for sure it would trigger a full-on passenger revolt.
When I did finally arrive in snow-free Cleveland this morning — at 5:00AM — I was still on tilt about the experience and thought about what the crew could have done differently to make the experience less frustrating.
They could have offered food. They could have offered beverage service. They could have advocated more forcefully to the tower that we be allowed to return to the gate without losing our place in the de-icing line.
Yes, all of those things would have helped, but the number one thing they could have done was COMMUNICATE BETTER. Hourly announcements are simply insufficient to diffuse the growing frustration when you’re stuck on the tarmac in a sardine can.
And with that realization, it hit me. There are a lot of companies that are figuratively “stuck on the tarmac” due to our uncertain economy. On board are customers who aren’t sure when (or if) the company is going to get back up off the ground. Instead of treating these critical audiences like adults who can handle truth and uncertainty, the “pilots” of these companies are clamming up — and in return, the customers worries and frustrations are being heightened.
Case in point. Two of the banks with whom I have accounts have been the subject of headline-grabbing takeovers in the past month. Despite the fact that this is BIG NEWS, I have yet to receive so much as an email from either bank explaining to me what this situation means to me and whether my accounts are safe.
Email should be on the front lines of crisis management for any company. Your email subscribers are like the passengers on my plane — they have opted-in to be there, and they are hungry for information. Instead of letting their imaginations run wild and frustrations build, companies would be wise to OVER communicate in this economic climate. Be candid, clear, and honest. Admit that you don’t know what you don’t know — but you’ll be certain to let your email subscribers know when you do.
Email subscribers are the elite frequent flyers of your marketing ecosystem. They are your best customers, and it’s high time that troubled companies pick up the email microphone to do more than share the latest marketing offer. They need to use that microphone to let us know about the weather outside and their plans to get back into the air.
We frequent flyers are hearty souls, after all. We can handle the truth.
