The Marketing Observer

o2 turning away customers

You know when organisations start to spurn customers for no good reason that things are not going well.

O2 recently turned down someone I know on completely spurious grounds it seems to me. Deciding she wanted an o2 phone because they offered the best reception at  work, contact was made with o2.

After going almost the whole way through the application process, o2 then stated that the address was incorrect as it wasn't on their database.  This was an address that had been lived in by this person for 9 years!  However, unlike every customer service person I have ever had dealings with, they refused to overwrite the address data.  They stated that they had to email Royal Mail for them to update the PAF file.  After about a week the data should be updated an another application to be a customer could be made!!!!!!!

This seems bizarre to me - what company outsources its marketing data to the Royal Mail.  Bless 'em, they try hard but the PAF file is, at best, 90% accurate.

To compound the general misery of this tale, a quick check on the Royal Mail website would have shown o2 that the address was prefectly valid.

A customer turned away unnecessarily, due to poor process.

Further note: this situation applies whether online or by telephone.  At least they're consistently crap!

Blogging Invaded by advertisers!

I am in two minds about the news that Carat has launched an advertising service specifically for blogging (see article in Brand Republic , or the Clickz equivalent).  It takes the form of a "blogger starter kit";  - Clients of Carat Interactive will get help with "blog advertising, blog creation, and blog monitoring" pretty much all of which I would have thought TypePad would fulfil quite easily, but there we go.