I was somewhat amused to get a customized email from a company, addressing me as Samantha in the opening line. I know the pitfalls of customization, when someone messes with a database before it goes to a variable-data press, and merely deleted the e-newsletter. Didn’t think too much of it, except that I wanted to call the person I knew at the company and tell him to make sure this was not a major booboo.

This morning, I got another, with subject line ‘Who is Samantha.’ Needless to say I couldn’t delete it without checking why. Turns out to be Rod Key, President of R and R Images. "Unless you are my sister," he starts, "chances are pretty good that you’re not Samantha."

After a short explanation of how this happened, Rod’s had this to say:

"Please accept my apology. We all learn from experiences in life, both good and bad. Today’s lesson? The only way to get more attention than the three-pronged approach of sending the Right Message to the Right Person at the Right Time is to get 2 out of 3.

Lesson learned."

Not often does someone at this level of the organization come out so strong, and -minus the spin- say exactly what heppened. R and R could easily have: (1) Pretended this did not happen. (2) Tried to cover up for the error by using a folow up gimmick. What’s the big deal, some would say. To a database marketing company, it could mean a lot. A client’s databases is a valuable asset. But we all know that companies do make Samantha-like mistakes. Terrible ones, in fact. Remember the AOL database fiasco earlier this month? Not often do they own up to it. I tip my hat to R and R!