Trouble With Mailing Lists
Seriously, I have not planned on these blog posts for the past couple weeks being focused on customer/client service, but that appears to be what’s in front of me.
My assistant just brought in my mail, fanning herself and laughing. And here’s why:
I swear, I am not making this up. I get SEVEN of everything from ALM.
There are three addressed to Heather Milligan. Two addressed to Heather Morse Milligan. One addressed to Heather Leigh Morse (wow, got my middle name in there). And one to Heather Morse.
I’m sure the sports dude is taking offense that there aren’t a couple in there addressed to Heather Morse-Geller.
I have tried to correct this. I really have. But rather than removing me from a mailing list, it’s turning into “Trouble with Tribbles.”
Come on, you guys. You have to have a CRM data steward there. Someone’s gotta be able to fix this.
LOL!! I got 4 yesterday – all with my name and my firm’s full name (all seven names!) exactly the same! I’d love to know which CRM they are using so we can stay away from it.
Heather, I received 7 of the same as well. What a waste!
I feel cheated. I only got one. Probably because I’ve moved my office 3 times in the last 4 years. I suspect the other six were delivered to the lucky ducks at those addresses! Really, though, there is no excuse but lazy. Having just helped a law firm clean up their mailing list, I know the work involved; it is tedious and complex. If there were a really good dupe checker that would help, but a list can have tons of variations that can only be identified by a human. Not doing it communicates that you don’t really know or care about your contacts, individually. So, Heather, now that this duplicate mailing got your attention, really makes you want to attend this conference, right?
It’s really not that hard.
Dump your list into an Excel spreadsheet and sort three times:
By Company. Any dups? Same company spelled wrong??
By Last Name. Any dups. Misspellings, etc.
By First Name.
The mailing list can’t be more than a couple thousand. It really won’t take that long and will catch most of the dups.
A couple phone calls to determine of Jayne is at X form or Y. And is it Jayne or Jane because you have it both ways in your system.
Just make sure to make the updates in the main system.
A mailing house can also do a merge/purge on your lists to identify and help clean out the dups. I got 5 of that exact same mailing, which is a shame since those are very expensive pieces.
I feel your pain, everyone. I received six. Despite how many companies want to sell the service of data hygiene, ALM seems to forget the nasty impression communication overkill leaves in the mind of the recipient. Over the 14 years I have been in the legal marketing field, I have had numerous conversations with ALM’s various reps and managers, all to no avail. The sum total of which is I would NEVER use ALM for marketing our law firm. If they treat me (and all of you) with this little consideration, imagine how they treat their readers.