Archive for the ‘Customers’ Category

down to an occasional straggler

Thursday, May 21st, 2009

Our User Feedback inbox is diligently managed by Jen, our Customer Service Hero. She personally responds to each email and works with the rest of the team to make sure that the service is meeting the needs of our members. On occasion, we get angry emails from members who complain that the catalogs have not stopped. We look into each complaint and work with mailers who are not getting the names suppressed in a timely manner.

Jen also gets alot of fan mail, on behalf of the team. Here are several that have come in over the last couple weeks.

Just wanted to say THANK YOU so much for providing this great service! Not only am I not receiving unwanted catalogs but I’m also helping to save the environment! Your website also provides me with an easy way of finding any merchant and their website, also saving the environment. Thank you to all those merchants that have honored my request!
Barbara

Thanks so much for this service! I have been inundated with catalogs, so this site has been a tremendous help to me. I will be mailing a donation.

Kind regards, Jade

I am down to an occasional straggler as far as catalogs go! Many thanks for your help. I really appreciate your service and have been telling as many people as possible about it. In the latter part of 2007, I began using Catalog Choice. Initially, I visited the site frequently in my quest to end the onslaught of unsolicited catalogs in my mail box. That mission has been accomplished with your help.  Since then, I continue to visit Catalog Choice periodically to check on the status of my choices. Each time, I have been impressed with the ongoing improvements to the site. It’s easier than ever to use the site and access/review the information about my choices.  Interestingly, it’s very easy to request a catalog online but next to impossible to “unsubscribe” to one online. All the more reason to thank you for creating Catalog Choice, an ideal solution to that lack.

An appreciative fan,  Lynn

You are nothing short of phenomenal! I was listed on over 200 catalog mailing lists. We literally had to buy a larger box to accommodate them all. Yes, it took a while for me to “opt out” of so many of them, but going to my mailbox these days is a pleasure… I now average about 6 a week…almost all of them are welcome.  Thank you for your remarkable service…it truly works.

I want to share with you how Catalog Choice is making a difference. In
2001, at the urging of my spouse, who was amazed and disgusted with how
many catalogs were arriving in our mailbox, I collected, counted, and
catalogued all the catalogs for the entire year. By the end of the
year, we had a 3-foot high stack of catalogs — a total of 396. I kept
track of how many we received each month, and how many from each
company. (I’m an evaluator by profession). I signed up with Catalog
Choice in late 2007, and after a full year of using Catalog Choice, I
decided to track the catalogs coming in the door again this year (2009).
For the first three months of this year, we have seen a 69% decline in
the number of catalogs compared to the first three months of 2001.
That’s a huge difference!!! I’m going to collect them all year, and
maybe as some of the reluctant-to-stop companies finally get on board, I’ll see even fewer in
my mailbox.
Thank you,
Carole

I have definitely noticed a difference–42 catalogues confirmed! I am so pleased! Congratulations on pulling this off!  Thanks so much, Josie

If you have a story that you would like to share with us about how you have taken control of your mailbox, send us an email at Team(at)catalogchoice.org – we would love to hear what you have to say.

Inspired by Earth Day, thousands of new members join

Thursday, April 23rd, 2009

On Earth Day, the Catalog Choice servers were working overtime. It is a good thing we are always buying our carbon offsets.  Thousands of households across the United States became members of Catalog Choice.  Inspired by Earth Day programs across the country, people flocked to Catalog Choice to take responsibility for reducing unwanted mail.

Map Overlay - Google Analytics

The above map show the distribution of visitors to Catalogchoice.org on April 22nd.  The highest concentrations correlate, for the most part, to overall population density in the country.  Consumers from every State of the Union used our service yesterday.

Clearly, Earth Day was inspiring for many.  Let’s make everyday an Earth Day.  Do your part to stop waste and go paperless by using Catalog Choice and telling your friends.  Sharing the word is easy with our Invite a Friend service.

I hope the merchants know we really appreciate them listening

Thursday, March 26th, 2009

We received an email from a Catalog Choice member today that articulates how many consumers feel about merchant participation.  Donna’s message is clear -  honoring mail preference requests is critical to building customer loyalty.

Dear Chuck, I am more than happy to pass on information about Catalog Choice
to my friends.  I definitely will support merchants who participate in this
service.  The reason I will go to these merchants first is that I support
anyone who is concerned about making our world better.  We are living in a
time where we need to cut down on waste.  As our life is simplified (in this
case by removing waste), it allows for more free time to do the things we
enjoy… which can mean shopping and browsing online.  I visit your website
and have hundreds of catalogs at my fingertips and can browse and shop
without having my mailbox cluttered where there’s so many that I don’t even
look at them. They go straight to the recycling bin, because it’s
overwhelming.  It’s easier to just put them in the recycle bin than to start
sorting through.  Now I can just visit the catalog I’m in the mood for, when
I go to your website.

Thanks for this service, and I hope the merchants know we really appreciate
them listening.  It certainly doesn’t mean I will not shop with them… I
will shop online with any merchant online which is more convenient, and I’m
happy to be doing something to help our environment, and working with others
who have the same interest.

Thanks again

Donna

Norridge, IL

The Survey Says …

Wednesday, March 25th, 2009

Over 55% of Catalog Choice members are opting out of a catalog mailing because they either prefer to shop online or they want to help the environment.  Another 40% are making the request because they have no interest in the products of the given catalog.  These survey results are based on responses from over 6 million surveys.

Catalog Choice - Administration

Email Opt-In Service

Monday, March 16th, 2009

NOTE:  There has been an update to the Email Opt-in Service.  We are no longer using the anonymous email address and mail forwarding system described below.  Merchants offering email opt-in through Catalog Choice have pledged to never trade your email address.  Here is the update blog post.

Today, we launched the Catalog Choice Email Subscription service. Email is a great paper-free way to learn about new products and deals offered by my favorite merchants.  Over 60% of Catalog Choice members are making a mail opt-out choice because they want to “help the environment” or “prefer to shop online”.  We expect that many of members would prefer to receive product information via email instead of the paper catalog.

But as we all have experienced, once we provide our email address for one newsletter, it can sometimes lead to a flood of unsolicited email.  As a result, we have designed our email opt-in service so that our consumer and merchant members can be assured that signing up for email news through the Catalog Choice will not generate unsolicited email messages.  Only messages from your chosen merchants will be delivered to the your inbox.  We guarentee it.

Our approach is simple and elegant.  If you have ever used Craig’s List to sell something, you are aware of the anonymous email address they provide: example: sale-abcde-123456789@craigslist.org.  Any messages sent to this address are forwarded to the poster’s real email address. Our system is similar.  When you subscribe to email news through Catalog Choice, we generate a unique catalogchoice.org email address for the specific Member and Merchant relationship.  Email messages sent by the merchant are delivered directly to your inbox by Catalog Choice as though the merchant directly emailed you.  If any of our email addresses are inadvertently sold or traded and an email is sent to a Member from a Merchant that you have not subscribed to, our system will capture and destroy the unsolicited email before it reaches your inbox.

For merchants who have activated the email opt-in service, we provide Members a one-click email subscription on the merchant’s mail preference page.  As shown below, the Email Subscription section is highlighted in green.  You sign up by selecting the Subscribe button.catalog-choice-eliminate-unwanted-catalogs-you-receive-in-the-mail-168

Once you subscribe, we generate and deliver the unique email address to the merchant.  Soon thereafter, you will start receiving their email news delivered right to your inbox.  The timing of the emails is dependent solely on the frequency of the Merchant’s email newsletter.

Not sure what to do with the email that has something you might want later?  You can always find the email message in your Catalog Choice account.  We post the email newsletter in your Activity Feed that appears on your dashboard.  If you delete an email in you inbox, but days later you realize that you are ready to buy that special item,  you can always come back to Catalog Choice to find it.
Since we just released this feature, it will take several weeks for merchants to activate the service for their catalogs.  Look for the list of merchants offering email opt-in on your dashboard in the coming weeks.
By the way, please don’t opt-into Cheese Baseball Cards.  We are for demonstration purposes only.

They are coming around

Thursday, February 12th, 2009

Slowly but surely the list of participating merchants is growing at Catalog Choice. While you may continue to get some catalogs from the merchants who recently signed up with us, we know that they are putting the processes in place to honor requests going forward.

As Laura states in her blog titled You Must Have Patience, Grasshopper, “Slowly, bit by bit, I received fewer and fewer catalogs every day. It is a mere trickle now.” I love her closing line: “Everything comes to those who wait. Or, in this case, doesn’t come any more.”

A Member Testimonial

Friday, December 19th, 2008

Today we received this email from a Catalog Choice Member:

I joined Catalog Choice last year after being inundated year after year with un-asked for catalogs at the holiday time. I wanted to let you know that this year, I have received a FRACTION of the amount of catalogs that I normally get. THANK YOU, THANK YOU!!!!

We receive numerous words of gratitude from our members.  We really appreciate each one as it makes our job more rewarding.

We also receive our share of complaints.  For those frustrated by the fact that you still receive too many unsolicited catalogs, we share your frustration and are doing everything in our power to get your requests honored.  I know that the success rate is steadily improving.  Thank you for your patience.

We are busy working on new features for 2009 that will improve the service for our members – consumers and merchants.  Stay tuned.

Respecting the Customer’s Choice Drives Sales

Friday, September 19th, 2008

Susan Bratton, co-founder of Personal Life Media, published an article praising merchants who honor mail preference requests from Catalog Choice.  Her article is titled – Big Gold Star for Crate & Barrel’s Direct Marketing Guru Today, CatalogChoice.org’s Opt Out Program WORKS.

From the sounds of it, Susan is going to head down to the nearest Crate & Barrel store to buy something just because Crate & Barrel followed up on her opt-out request entered at Catalog Choice with an email acknowledging that they will be honoring her request.

Susan’s post is a great case study for why we built the service and the enhanced customer loyalty that we hoped would result from companies honoring consumers choices to reduce the amount of mail they receive at home.

With the holiday shopping right around the corner, I wonder how many people will start your holiday shopping by looking at our Bravo Merchants page.

By the way, we will be making it easier to find the merchants you are looking for by adding the ability to search through Bravo Merchants by product category.  Look for this enhancement in a couple of weeks.

One Millionth Member Arrives on ….

Wednesday, May 14th, 2008

Graph of Registered Members

The graph above shows the steady growth in the number of registered members at Catalog Choice.

We are rapidly approaching a major milestone – one million registered users. As of this moment, we are just over 825,000 members. When do you think we will hit one million? Use the comments below to let us know.

You can help us get there by using the Invite a Friend feature.

Same Name & Address with a New Customer Number is now accepted

Tuesday, February 12th, 2008

If you get a catalog mailed to the same name and address but there is a new customer number, the system now allows you to enter this as a new opt-out request.

We have also made the Still Receiving area much easier to use. If you get a catalog in the mail that you have already opted-out of (sorry, this will happen in the short term until we get better merchant compliance), you can find the catalog title in your My Choice page and select Still Receiving. We then show you all the name address combinations that you have entered for that catalog. If you can match the name address combination with the catalog you just got, select This One to report the infraction. If you don’t see the name address combination, you can add a new entry at the bottom of the page where it says Create a new opt-out.

catalog-choice-eliminate-unwanted-catalogs-you-receive-in-the-mail-2.jpg

So, why do we need your help reporting infractions? Well, as it stands honoring mail order catalog opt-out requests is a voluntary process. We need your help to let us know who is not honoring the consumer’s choices. We are working on a process where the industry can self-police rather than having the consumers do the work. You will be the first to know when we get this in place. In the meantime, thanks for your help.