Clearly Explain Your Intentions

For a long time I used to avoid shopping at Radio Shack. Why? Because every time I tried to buy 98 cents worth of solder or wire some pimply-faced adolescent refused to take my money until I coughed up my full name and address. Why in Hell did Tandy Corporation need my name and address to complete a 98-cent sale?

Of course, Radio Shack wanted this information so they could inundate me with four-color catalogs hyping cheesy hobby kits and TRaSh-80 computers (remember those?). But they never told me this.

It might have been one thing had the salesperson asked me, “Are you on our mailing list?” “Would you like to be on our mailing list?” Or simply explained to me why they wanted my contact information and what they intended to do with it.

Instead, they just pissed me off. As a consequence, Tandy Corporation has probably wasted hundreds of dollars over the years, trying to mail catalogs to me at any one of the dozens of made-up names and addresses I’ve given them when asked to do so in a less-than-civilized manner.

How would your customers feel? »

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