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In the US there is a sandwich company founded in Austin, Texas (a college town) called Schlotzskys. Recently I was encouraged to sign up to their email list. Several days later I got an email promotion of the Superbowl where for the Superbowl they were offering a “free cup of soup with a purchase of a sandwich”. Free cup of soup? For the Super Bowl?
For my email and thousands of others you offer us in a challenged economy a “Free cup of soup with a purchase”? So I emailed them a very brash email with caps and daring them to reply back with something beyond the average politically correct email. The idea was to let them know that I was concerned. I also offered them the following advise.
- Offer a buy one get one free.
- Offer a $4 dollar combo for the Superbowl weekend.
- Tell us your favorite commercial and you get a coupon for a free sandwich good until Monday after the Super Bowl.
I especially liked the last idea cause it’s a way to find your customers preference and they could have molded that into a campaign of their own online.
Here was the reply from the Schlotzskys customer service rep
“We take all customer comments and concerns very seriously, and hope in the future we can create advertising and promotions that will suit your needs. Again we thank you for reaching out to us with your comments and concerns.”
Schlotzskys just died. They are disconnected from their customers. They are treating them like cattle. In a time when you could step up and offer something different from your competitors they killed their brand. Where you have companies like Tweetmeme responding right away and even unexpectedly. Schlotzskys draws a line in the sand as the video of Gary V discusses.
We live in an age where customers don’t reply to emails in general let alone reply to promotions. And for a company to reply to my email with a general statement and no followup is a sad lost….for them. They didn’t take into factor that if one person emails them back at least several hundred or even thousands are placing their promotion into the spam folder. Plus they didn’t even double opt in subscribe me to their email list. Amazing!
Competitors Subway and Quiznos awaits my business. The lesson here is remember that the customer or potential customer not only has choices but has developed a serious cut throat attitude to opening email. Goodbye Schlotzskys. Hello competitor that responds to their customers.
