Bill Hanifin
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“You are receiving this message because you sent me an email on either a Saturday or Sunday. Between Monday – Friday, we deliver good value to clients and generally outperform anyone we compete with. We also place high priority on our faith and our family and treasure 8 hours of sleep on at least 2 nights per week. We value your relationship and will respond to your message bright and chipper on Monday morning.”
That’s the out-of-office message that I have been considering placing on my inbox during the weekend. I imagine that its impact would be equally divisive as Tim Tebow currently is in the NFL. Some would quietly close their laptop and feel liberated to spend more time with their family over the weekend. Others would perceive my message as self-righteous or think I had gone wacky.
There’s a bigger thought to be shared here. In an always-on, always-connected world that increasingly treats instant gratification as table stakes, it is becoming truly challenging to engage people with messages that require more than a glancing read. USA Today conditioned the populous to seek news in snippets and now video is in high demand as many don’t even want to read, they want to listen to a message while they sip coffee, check email, and update their to-do lists in Evernote.
Old-school business machismo was represented by the corner office and liberal expense accounts. Today, the appearance of being ever vigilant over our digital empires and responding to inquiries with minimal latency is the source of business fist-pumping.
Given the tendency of business people to make the energizer bunny seem a slacker, it should not be a surprise that we have difficulty engaging customers to open our emails, sign up for our member clubs and trigger them into action with 2 for 1 offers on Wednesday afternoon.
If there was ever a time to replace activity and noise with transparency and trust, it is now. The more we stand under the information waterfall striving to absorb as much as we can and stay ahead of the information game, the more we are at risk of eroding our ability to form solid thoughts and create practical solutions for our business.
I’m all for meeting deadlines, over-delivering, and breaking new ground. That’s not in question here. What is becoming a nasty little habit for many business people is buying into the notion that we have to be everywhere, communicate in every channel, and never slow the cadence enough to hear what’s around us.
The noise we just might be missing is the voice of our clients and our customers. Marketers need to listen more, temper the cadence of communications and make greater impact with less impressions. I don’t want another solicitation letter from Southwest Airlines offering me their co-brand credit card. I have already put one per month in the shredder for the past 12 months. I do want to receive just one survey asking me about my favorite destinations, my hobbies and my opinion about what could improve their cabin service. That would make me feel more like they care about me and, depending on what they did with my survey response, would influence my next choice of airline.
You probably won’t see that out-of-office message from me any time soon. My Smartphone represents too great a temptation to respond to emails in the moment, and my natural desire to serve those who trust me makes clamming up until Monday just a quaint thought.
Still, I know that customers are out there talking. And I plan to listen. How about you?
