It’s November. Which means NaBloPoMo. Let’s see what happens when I force myself to blog every day for a month, shall we?
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I saw a post the other day about a bad airline experience, and how it tied into a bad email experience. The point the author was making: don’t send promotional emails to someone you’ve just made very unhappy – hit pause on their marketing preferences for a little while. This is very possible with modern marketing technology, so why isn’t it being done?
Not long after that, I came across the new Virgin America safety video:
And was surprised by my own reaction. I my chest swelled and my eyes teared up a bit. I thought about flying Virgin, and what that means to me.
We flew Virgin when relocating to the UK. Their brand is tied up with a whole slew of emotions, and we had an amazingly positive experience at a very stressful time, from the check-in person who didn’t charge us for extra baggage to the amazing in-flight staff who were awesome to us and Isaac.
Even hearing tales of woe from friends who’ve had bad experiences on Virgin hasn’t changed that.
Conversely, I have had horrible experiences with United, and mediocre experiences with everyone else.
But what, exactly, does that change? I still book air travel based on:
- Price
- Points (though I don’t fly enough these days for a loyalty program to sway me much)
- (the aforementioned things being equal – which they never are) Experience.
The author of the first article I linked to also doesn’t seem to be likely to change her behaviour based on their shoddy email. She might think less of the airline, but she’ll still give them her business.
I can’t blame her – I do the same.
So why, then, does she think they should change their email practice?
