Do not reply in emails from big businesses

The problem with most big businesses is that they are stupid when it comes to engaging with customers or potential buyers.

Here’s an example of The AA trying to tempt the customer back with an email campaign, hoping that they’d get a click on the ‘Find out more’ …

But how much did they want the customer back, and on whose terms?

On their terms? [click on the link – that’s all we are offering you].

The customers terms [there is a question to ask The AA, so want to reply to the email].

While the email looks as if it can be replied to above, here’s how it displays when replied to:

It’s the well worn ‘Do not reply’ email address, so pointless going any further.

That’s like The AA saying: we don’t want to get loads of emails from people because it doesn’t fit in with our processes.

They’re not alone – so many big businesses make it hard for people to communicate with them in the way they want to.

Do not reply email addresses are probably the one that annoy people the most, but there’s also:

Would anyone in the SME business world prosper if they adopted the same approach?

Of course not – we all understand the importance of making it easy for customers and prospects to communicate with us.

The bigger the company, the harder it is to communicate with them on our own terms, and then they wonder why people leave them and go elsewhere!