GoGo email is a StopStop

I was recently traveling on business to a destination far far away (meaning many hours in the air) on an airlines that didn’t have any inflight movies.  I found myself so bored that I decided to hop on the wireless service provided during the flight so I could peruse my Facebook page, catch up on the latest with Goldman Sachs and chat with friends.  How’d I do it?  Gogo Inflight Internet.

The service is pretty cool and it was a new experience when the flight attendant asked me to check an Amazon.com order status for her instead of eying me suspiciously and telling me to turn off my computer (or, as they say, “anything with an on/off switch”).  But, apart from the cool service which they get handsomely rewarded for (it is a monopoly after all), the email experience was lackluster.

Here’s the email I got from GoGo – my first interaction with them via email.

Are they for real?  All I get is a text email with a quick “thanks” for doing business with them.  No color, logo, call to action or even a link to point me back to the site.  Under this, they had my order details listed out but there was nothing pushing me back to GoGo to interact with their site.  Here’s where I put my thinking cap on.

1. The subject line is boring.  I know I just ordered the service and I appreciate them providing me with an e-receipt.  But, seeing as how this is the first email I’ve EVER gotten email from them, can’t it be spiced up a bit?  How about a “Welcome to our service!” or a “GoGo with GoGo?”  Something witty or even personalized would be better than this banal subject.
2. I get two horizontal gray bars separating the message from the order details.  Whoop!  Some extra time and effort could’ve been invested in making this email pop.  Email designers everywhere are cringing.  This message is above the fold so I didn’t even realize I had details listed below it until I went back and took a closer look.  Even an image with a plane in the down direction (as a clever pointer) letting me know I had order details would’ve reinforced the idea I just bought from this company something I could use on an airplane.
3. The message itself is something that reminds me I am just a nameless, faceless drone with a credit card who signed up for the service.  Nothing more than what it took someone in the copy department 10 seconds to write up.  They don’t even remind me what airlines I’m flying (which I would think would be a “gimme” for the airlines to incent customers to remember where they can get inflight internet when deciding who to fly the friendly skies with next time).
4. Well, what do I do now?  They’ve thanked me and notified my card was charged.  My next move was to move on in my inbox.  Nothing more since they don’t have any call to action or navigation options.  I have to remember the link to the site’s login page to get back online.
5. Is there a reason I should purchase another time share for Wi-Fi?  According to this, not really, unless I find myself bored again and needing internet access on a flight.  No marketing material in their transactional message letting me know where I can go to check history, look at their packages, or even an introductory offer to win me back after the flight.  I don’t fly all the time so this will have a hard time competing for space in my frontal cortex next time I’m looking for entertainment when I have my Kindle and iPod under the seat in front of me.
6. How do I get other devices pared with the service?  I know I can get my Blackberry online with GoGo because I turned it on and the GoGo network was showing up as an option.  But, I didn’t know what I needed to do nor did I care enough to play around with it long enough to figure it out.  Having a link to a set of instructions or side bar call outs letting iPhone, Blackberry, or other wireless device users know how to get plugged in would’ve been great.

If they’d created a cool tracking device in the email which would tell me what airlines I was flying (they know it since it’s a very finite connection point – what router is aboard the plane) and where the plane was heading since they’d also know the flight number, I could’ve played around with the site after being pushed in that direction from the email.  Or, it could have asked me to fill out a profile on GoGo where I could put in airlines I normally fly and whether they’re available on those carriers.  Having something pop in the email would’ve kept the concept relevant and not just brought the act of communication down to it’s lowest function of simply giving me a virtual nod letting me know they had my money.

Again, it’s a really cool service.  But, they should invest a bit more time into their email program to tie it into the technology that’s running the backbone of flight internet services and spruce up their email with more compelling content that will get me excited to sign on when I’m 60k feet in the air.  The email didn’t reinforce the act itself of being online.  It was static and rudimentary in the manner in which the information was conveyed.  I wasn’t buying a flint and some sticks here to reminisce about the good old days when our ancestors lived in caves.

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Amazon.com Prime…Deja vu?

I’ve always thought that Amazon.com mail creatives were well designed and smartly messaged.  I should know, I used to work there and spent hours pouring over email templates to ensure they measured up to the exacting level of quality that the design and development teams (who built them) had.

So, when I got this email in my inbox today, I didn’t think too much of it.  Pretty colors and consistent branding.  Nothing new.

See?  Pretty, right?  However, when I looked closer, I realized how off this message was.  This is an email with a call to action to sign up for Amazon Prime, which is a service that, for a yearly fee, gets your products ordered directly from Amazon delivered in 2 business days with no shipping fees.

The problem?  I already have Amazon Prime.  And have had it for years.  So why would they be sending me an email advertising why I should get Amazon Prime?  To prove it, here’s a screen-shot of my Prime membership page:

As you can clearly see, the Amazon membership page shows me having been a member from 4/07-5/10 (prepaid through the rest of this year and into next).  This seems like a major gaffe on someone’s part to send me a reminder to sign up for a service I’ve already paid for.  And, quite frankly, it’s insulting…especially with how much I have ordered through their service (would be a safe bet to estimate into the thousands).

A company of Amazon’s reputation and technological horsepower should know better and segment their members accordingly.  If Current_Prime_Customer = YES, don’t send!  Makes me wonder how many other folks out there who are also customers received this.  Come on, Amazon, get with it – especially when the holidays are right around the corner and your claim to fame is intimately knowing a consumer’s profile from their shopping habits.  Are the books and electronics I’m being recommended now off  too?  Should I start expecting baby clothes sales announcements even though I’ve never shown any shopping habits of someone who has kids?  Or denture cream for someone who doesn’t match the usual demographics of someone with false teeth?

Chris Wheeler
Director of Deliverability
Bronto
@ChrisAWheeler

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