Ineffective Marketing

We received a fax here at work that just floored me.....I will not name the company that sent it to us (though of the 5 or 6 readers I have probably haven't heard of them anyway!) in order to spare them the humiliation.

"Dear valued client:

You are receiving this fax message because at one time you utilized (our) services. Candidly, we have not been very good at communicating with our customers and feel like we've let you down....we promise to do a better job in the future, starting with the following offer.

Phase 1: Prices are going up."

I kid you not. These guys are saying how they were crap in the past but now they promise to do better if we will trust them again (they were completely a waste of time when we used them before)....but hey, that better service is going to cost more.

Kinda.

They then try to soften the blow by saying that if we jump on the bandwagon before January 1st, we can still retain them at their old pricing if we agree to take them on faith that they have straightened out their act.

Hmmmm....sign an extended contract in the hopes that they are going to be better this time around? Who are they kidding?

The effective way to do this would be to say, look, we've really screwed you in the past, we're sorry, let us offer you a discount to make it up to you...none of this, we were crap and our costs are going up so you'd better take advantage of it RIGHT THIS MINUTE BEFORE YOU HAVE A CHANCE TO REALLY THINK ABOUT THE CONSEQUENCES.