A couple weeks ago I blogged about an issue I had with the email marketing practices of Liberty Mutual. Someone on their end read my blog post, and their customer service reached out to me. The way it was handled restored a bit of my faith in the company as a whole, and compelled me to use this is as a teaching moment.

The customer service agent I spoke with simply wanted to understand what my issue was with the email campaign I received. She was not upset about what I had written. She just wanted to know how it could be fixed. The agent agreed that the way it had played out, it was sort of kicking me while I was down. We discussed how it would be better if, when closing a claim, the triggered campaign shouldn’t assume the claim had gone well. She promised to speak with the team responsible for the email and reevaluate the process that led to the salt-in-the-wound email.

This is such an important lesson. Responding to feedback from customers, both negative and positive, will better your company. Especially in the arena of email marketing. Customers are the ones reading the emails you send, and they must be as tailored to the customer as possible. If you are not willing to respond to criticism, your subscribers will unsubscribe. Show them you value them by listening and making changes if need be.