I received the following letter the other day:

Dear Valued [name of organization] Member,

 

Please excuse this form letter, but it is an inexpensive way for us to let you know that your membership is up for renewal. We wanted to be sure you have the opportunity to receive all the benefits of membership without interruption…

Excuse me, but if you really wanted to save time and money you could have sent an e-mail.

Form letters are lazy. Form letters without a hint of personalization send the message that you can’t be bothered to actually talk to people.

This is how you value me?

My friend Shonali Burke had a great blog post the other day about bad business pitches. At least those are from strangers.

The organizations you do business with should at least know your name.

What do form letters say to you?

Photo by Alan O’Rourke (Flickr).