CVS Email Gives Me the Gift of Ambiguity

Posted by Gregory Ng | Filed under ★★★ If It Works, Great

Imagine not knowing someone threw a party until they sent you a thank you card. You feel that conflict between feeling embarrassed and feeling mad? Doesn’t feel too good does it?

Well, that’s how CVS made me felt today with their ExtraCare email. Let’s take a look below:



“Gregory, we heard you (and a few thousand others)!
Boy is that line confusing. What did you hear? I didn’t tell you anything. Was I in the forest and a tree fell on my CVS ExtraCare card?

I am assuming this email is telling me that CVS sent out some sort of poll in the past and people responded to the poll. The problem is I wasn’t one of those people and I have no cue what you are talking about.

The painful reality is most people who are in the same boat as me probably will click anyway. Like a crying kid who turns off the fireworks once there’s a balloon in his hand. “What’s happening here, I’m confused, ooooh a free gift! Click.” BTW, the free gift is a $1.99 value.

I think that CVS is doing a good job making an effort to listen to their email subscribers. They apparently “heard me” along with “a few thousand others”. And as shown below the main image, they want to “keep the feedback coming”. Can you hear me now?

But for someone like me that actually would like to see what we were voting for in the first place, I am disappointed I can’t get back to the questions.

Here’s how CVS can make this email better
• Segment your list! It would have been great to have received a different email than the few thousand of responders. Perhaps one that acknowledges I may have missed the original poll but I still have a chance to let my voice be heard!
• If you can’t segment (we should talk BTW) put a line under the line where you tell me you heard me that says, Your ideas can still be heard! Click here to help us make our emails to you better!

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Comments (View Comments) | March 25th, 2010

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