Sunday, April 6, 2008

MoD and HVAC Units

I went to Home Depot this afternoon to buy an air filter for my HVAC unit. I bought a True Blue Basic air filter. Nothing fancy, but it does the job. I noticed on the packaging that it had a "replacement reminder". It said the following, "Use this easy reminder sticker on your calendar to mark the date of your nest filter change, or register at www.trueblue.com and we'll notify you by email when it's time to replace your filter."

OK, first of all, there was no sticker to put on my calendar. No big deal. I went to the web site and their corporate site was being upgraded. They apologized, of course. However, I was able to click on a link that took me to the form fields to register. It asked for my name, address, email size of the filter I bought and how many weeks/months before I'd like to be reminded. Not a bad idea...sort of like the Jiffy Lube sticker they put on your top, lefthand corner of your windshield.

I'm curious to see what happens in three months time. Will I really get an email reminding me to go buy another filter? Will they be sending out a direct mail postcard reminding me to go buy another filter. Will that postcard have a coupon if I upgrade my next filter purchase? Will it mention the size of the filter I bought to remind me? Will I receive a follow up email in 30 days asking me how the filter is working? You get the point...

These questions can be answered in the affimative if The True Blue Company is using an automated, marketing on demand engine. Let's see what happens over the next 30 to 90 days. I'll let you know at a future date should the on demand wheels start turning.

I'd like to hear your experiences with this type of post-sale MoD program with any other consumer-type product on the market. Let me know what you've seen out there...

1 comments:

Test Blog said...

Checking in to see when your reminder is due - I'd love to know if they actually "close the loop."

Gail Nickel-Kailing
www.business-strategies-etc.com