Tag Archives: promotion

Generic platitudes

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One of the odd little things about running two schools in my district is that often, when someone has gotten hold of our school mailing list to send out emails, I get two of them… one for each school. So when I see a letter designed to be personalized, but is actually a form letter, I get to see it in duplicate.

Here is the introduction to one of those letters that I got twice:

“Dear David,

I’ve been researching schools in the Vancouver, B.C. area and was truly impressed to learn that your school stands among the very best. Because of that, I’d love the opportunity to speak to your students, teachers, and parents while l’m in Vancouver on my speaking tour from November 4th to 7th, 2025.”

(Cue a sarcastic tone) Isn’t that flattering!

In this day and age you have two choices: Either do research and really move from platitude to sincere compliment, or skip the platitude altogether. It’s not honest, it’s insulting. Even if I don’t get it twice, I’d know this letter was insincere, but it becomes especially insulting when I get to see it repeated in my inbox.

I don’t have the time to waste doing this, but I’d get a kick out of calling this person up, thanking them for the email, and asking them exactly what it is that made them, ‘truly impressed to learn that (my) school stands among the very best’?

Anyway, this is my public service announcement: Don’t send out generic platitudes. It’s neither flattering nor effective. And in fact, it feels a little insulting.

Fees and services

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Have you noticed how customer convenience is no longer a priority? We are consumers to be targeted for maximum profit. It’s not a world where the customer is always right, but rather the customer is always ripe… for squeezing out a few dollars more.

Example 1: I went to book a flight for my summer visit to see my mom in Toronto. In the airline website the lowest price didn’t even include a carry-on bag, just a personal item. When I looked at the next price option up, with the only added feature being a carryon bag, the cost was over $140 more. That’s before paying even more to pre-select a seat.

Example 2: We used to pay for premium channels on TV, they still had commercials but they also had movies and shows regular cable didn’t have. Along came streaming. Anytime watching and no commercials. You pay a premium and you avoid those annoying interruptions. Now commercials are back unless you pay a premium on top of your premium.

Everything is tiered not to provide you with better service, but to make the tiers such that you never want the cheap deals. No, you are enticed into paying more to get what you used to get for less. You are priced out of the deal that got you to consider the purchase, and put into flashy named premium, executive, and luxury levels that cost more to add features that you used to expect as the basic minimum.

“Bundle and Save!”

This sounds great, if the bundle didn’t actually just give you things you actually needed. If the bundle really added luxury rather than essentials. Who travels from Vancouver to Toronto with just a purse or a small backpack that can fit under the seat in front of you? Is that really an option? 

‘Customer’ used to mean more than a ‘mark’ to be deceived and taken advantage of with added fees for basic necessities. Good service used to be a value added, not an added service charge. It used to be that fees and services added real value, but now they are simple a means to expect the customer to pay more… for less.

Don’t believe the hype

“Disappointment is the gap that exists between expectation and reality.” ~ John C. Maxwell

Last night was the big boxing match between 58 year old Mike Tyson and 27 year old Jake Paul. I’m not a boxing fan but I watched the fight. It was underwhelming. An old man (and by that I mean a guy just a year older than me) could not keep up with a younger, fitter man. But even then the young man was overly cautious for 4 of 8 rounds, then a bit cocky as he took control of the more and more gassed and exhausted older man.

In the end, neither got really hurt and I’m sure they both took home a significant amount of money. And they were not the only fighters fighting, with 2 other big fights on the card as well as some preliminary fights. So I guess fight fans got a good event.

But if you were only interested in this one fight like me, it wasn’t worth the hype. Part of it is that I remember how great Tyson was and I wanted to think he still had it in him. But another part of it is that there was so much hype that it had to be an amazing fight or it just wouldn’t have met expectations… and it really wasn’t a good fight.

If nothing else, it was a good lesson about high expectations leading to disappointment. Only hype things up if you are already extremely confident about the outcome. Because being pleasantly surprised is better than feeling let down.