Wrong Email - No Way To Remove?

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JimQuesta
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Wrong Email - No Way To Remove?

Post by JimQuesta »

Good day everyone,

I received a phone message from a very irate person who was receiving emails about a service reminder, but she wasn't the person named in the email nor did she have such a vehicle. Apparently, through whatever data-mining process Mitchell used to acquire an address, it was wrong and this lady was the recipient instead. She asked us to remove her from the list or she would be contacting the Attorney General of our State (Ohio) to file a complaint. She also suggested that she would go on social media and report the problem to everyone in her friends list. As you can imagine, I immediately went into damage control mode...

When I went to the customer she had mentioned within my CRM program, I confirmed that the email address associated with the customer in question was indeed incorrect. In fact, I don't have an email address for this customer. To my horror, I found that there was no way I could remove the email from the list.

After a phone call to CRM Technical Support, I discovered (to my dismay) that not only could I not edit or remove the incorrect email from the database, I was "required" to either provide an email address or simply uncheck the box for CRM reminders to this particular customer through other means. I could not personally confirm or assure to the person receiving the emails that she would no longer get them from our "CRM Service Provider". And while unchecking the box would prevent the emails from being sent tomorrow, what would happen if someone "rechecked" the box and she started getting emails again? I can't even fathom what kind of problems she could cause for us...

The computer geek in me see's a real problem with leaving incorrect information in a customer file (which according to the help desk person was actually one option I had - why would anyone want to keep incorrect information ANYWHERE). If I was to leave it (I mean, my customer may not want to give me an email) and check the box was rechecked, this lady would again be getting emails from us. God only knows what kind of havoc she would cause if she really wanted to.

Perhaps I'm missing something which is why I'm brining my concern here. The gentlemen that I spoke with from Mitchell was very professional, but he could not provide the help I believe I needed to assure that this person would no longer be bothered with emails she didn't sign up for.
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ricmorin
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Re: Wrong Email - No Way To Remove

Post by ricmorin »

I find it surprising that you could not simply call Mitchell1 and have them remove the offending email. After all, they harvested it in the first place. Did you speak to your regular CRM agent?

I fairly sure there is an unsubscribe button on the email. Why would she continue to get these and not simply click on unsubscribe? One click and done.
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Re: Wrong Email - No Way To Remove

Post by GUTHTIRE »

I would think that you could simply update the email address for that customer to "noemailaddress@xxx.com" (without the quotes). The next time CRM pulls the email address it should update. This goes back to a prior request to have a checkbox next to the email address that grays out that field rather than the work-around of entering bad data to alleviate a problem.
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Re: Wrong Email - No Way To Remove

Post by To Infiniti and Beyond »

On each email communication sent there is the option to tell us we have the wrong email address. By clicking the unsubscribe or "I no longer own this vehicle" the consumer can remove a bad email address. The selection below of "You have the wrong customer/email address - Please do not send emails to this address" blacklists the email but not the consumer. At the request of the shop or consumer we can also manually put an email on our blacklist so that it is never sent to going forward. Here's are the options when clicking the links mentioned above.

Please select the appropriate option and click Submit:

I no longer own the following vehicle(s):
2011 Chevrolet Equinox (CAE96XX)
1980 Pontiac Bonneville (BWU14XX)

You have the wrong customer/email address - Please do not send emails to this address.

You have the correct customer/email - but I do not wish to receive future solicitations from this business.



Best Regards,
Brian Warfield
Sr. Product Manager
Mitchell1
www.mitchell1.com
JimQuesta
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Re: Wrong Email - No Way To Remove?

Post by JimQuesta »

Just to follow up.

I received a call from a very nice lady in CRM Customer Support that explained the process of what can be done and what is not currently possible under the current conditions. And while the solutions that are listed here are typically reasonable, there are some cases in which these procedures are not options. Let me provide an example:

We are told repeatedly through the media and from anti-scam experts to NEVER click on a link from an email you did not expect to receive. In some cases that alone can be a way to confirm an email address for spammers, but it can sometimes also be part of a phishing attack that we've heard so much about recently. Personally I NEVER click on unsubscribe links for just this reason, and most times I simply delete the emails or flag them as spam. But it seams this particular recipient was concerned enough to call us directly, which in my opinion puts me on the hook to make something happen.

In Ohio we have to be particularly aware of Ohio Revised Code 2307.64 that deals with unsolicited emails. While the emails that are sent out comply with Section B 1 b of the statute (having contact information and a link supplied), when coupled with the information above it puts the recipient into a catch 22 position. But more importantly, if a person calls us to notify us of a bad email address, I assume the responsibility to make something happen. As things are set up, I have no recourse to remove a bad email address from the list under any circumstances. Providing just another email address is an answer that only works when I can get one.

As it was explained to me, the email farming process is done by a 3rd party. That's why neither Mitchell or the end user (Me in this case) have direct access to make changes. Perhaps it would be good to provide a check box and/or note field allowing us (the end user) to handle issues such as this, so we can be responsive to people who will call us directly and inform us of such errors. This way we can prevent someone going off the bridge and posting bad reviews on Google or Yelp or having our Facebook page plastered with "these people keep spamming me".

I have a bit of a computer / web background. I've programmed email lists, websites with user contact forms, and other operations. This gives me a little more insight into the complexities and possibilities of such issues. I will say I am VERY thankful that Mitchell has been so responsive to my issue - that alone speaks volumes to me that we have selected a business partner that cares about our experience, as well as the people we contact. :)

Thanks much,

Jim
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