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ChangingMinds Blog! > Blog Archive > 25-Oct-15

Sunday 25-October-15

Tricky words at the Post Office reduces brand loyalty

I just filled in a form on the UK Post Office site that had the following text after it.

Keeping you informed
Post Office and our trusted partners would like to contact you about products, services and offers that might be of interest to you. By submitting this form you will be indicating your consent to receiving marketing communications by post, phone, email, text and other electronic means unless you have indicated an objection to receiving such communications by ticking the relevant box(es) below.

This was followed by a number of check boxes covering email,  phone, land mail and so on. I hate getting even more spam so I take care to read these things in detail and it's a good job I did. Rather trickily, you have to check every single box to say you don't want communication through this channel as indicated by the rather obscure text 'unless you have indicated an objection to receiving such communications'. Of course they want you to skip this whole bit and not check any boxes, so they use lengthy and confusing sentences, with multiple boxes to check if you do not want the bumph.

Yes, it will work with many people, but for those of us who are cautious (and the complexity of technique indicates this number is significant), such trickery becomes an annoyance to the extent to which our loyalty to the brand is harmed. If the Post Office wants to deceive me, and from this it clearly does, then I'll not just believe what they say elsewhere and will be more ready to entertain dealing with their competitors.

It's such a shame. I like the Post Office, even though it has been privatized. But some short-sighted person there has fallen into the common changing-minds trap of assuming their customers can be tricked into conformance. If you want customer loyalty, then you must be trustworthy in all things. In this instance, the Post Office has fallen down.