A family man is choosing a destination for his vacation. He has rented a cottage in the south for the family. They will travel with the family car. So this family man also books several hotel nights en route.
And we’re dealing with a modern family man. So he books his hotel nights online via de e-shop of a chain of hotels. This e-shop is put together ingeniously. It detects that the family man wants to book several nights at a time.
Email address
The e-shop suggests him to create an account. That way, he can manage his reservations more effectively. The family man sees the point of all this and starts to full out his email address. Because that’s where every form of online marketing starts. Next, he can book the nights on his way to and from his destination.
Extra promotion
The family man receives a confirmation of his reservations via email. That’s the point of automatic email messages. In these emails he’s also given the extraordinary offer to book the diner on the day of arrival as well. Our family man thinks this is a very convenient offer and books a table. The hotel now has its first conversion.
Five is not one
The chain of hotels where our family man has made his reservation is a segment of a larger travel organization. In this group, there isn’t one , but five different chains, with each their own name and price range. And before our family man knows it, he’s receiving different emails from all the five chains in his mailbox. Because apparently they all share the same mailing list. The mailbox was already crammed with emails before their vacation had even started.
One is not five
The first email that our family man had to endure, was a hotel offer in the same city where he had booked the first night. At a lower price rate than he found on his credit card bill. This is where they made the first mistake. Next, he got an offer for a city trip from another hotel chain from the group. Bit this offer took place in the middle of his booked holiday. The robot of the chain didn’t quite get it.n…
Moral of the story
Every story has its lessons. Just like you need to be careful when buying mailing lists, because they could already be bombed, you should avoid these type of situations in your own environment. You should make sure that your offers and promotions are in line with the situation and interests of your recipient. Don’t immediately offer the same product to someone who just bought it. And certainly not at a lower price. Someone who buys a service in one place, can’t buy from you in another location simultaneously. Make sure you calculate this in into your program.
Any resemblance to an existing organization is purely coincidental and not intended. And the family man? Well he is committed to return home after the trip immediately to write to the travel organization. He has not yet recovered from the price difference!
