As some of you know, our company now offers full service offset printing, where orders can be placed online 24/7, files uploaded, and your nifty new shiny pieces of marketing collateral show up at your door within a week or so. We invested quite a bit of time, money and soul into this addition to our suite of services, and are feeling pretty darn good about the whole thing.
Yesterday, we got the bright idea of sharing this bit of news with real estate and related industry professionals in Florida via a cute little email we drafted. Let me backtrack here for a sec - my fault, I drafted it, the hubby just made it look all pretty. We dropped it into a broadcast service, clicked send, and off it went - to a scarily large number of email addresses.
Shortly thereafter, we get a VERY irate email from one Florida Realtor, who shall remain unnamed SCREAMING AT US IN ALL CAPS, and I quote: "WELL IM SURE NOT THE HELL FILLED WITH OPTIMISM ABOUT A NEW MUSLIM PRESIDENT THAT WENT TO A HATE FILLED CHURCH FOR 20 YEARS! YOU OBVIOUSLY ARE - AND YOU SHOULD LEARN THE NUMBER ONE RULE IN BUSINESS - DO NOT TALK POLITICS OR RELIGION!! FOR THAT REASON I WOULD NEVER USE OR RECOMMEND YOUR COMPANY. TAKE ME OFF YOUR LIST."
In the interest of full disclosure, here are a few paragraphs from the message she received:
"Season's Greetings from all of us at HaMediaShop.com.
There is something to be said for magic that is the Holiday Season in Florida. Warm enough to wear shorts, golf or fish and still have the twinkling lights of Christmas gracing our palm trees and evergreens.
For some, this Christmas Season is the toughest ever financially, but still most people are filled with the spirit of optimism and impatience for the New Year. The promise of a fresh start, the new President, the new business plan - we all resolve to do better, to try harder.
With the warmest wishes this Season to all of our Florida Realtors, here are a few tips that should help you make 2009 a great year, and of course, a holiday gift from all of us at hamediashop.com"
The rest of the message included some free suggestions on keeping in touch with clients and prospects and a discount offer on postcards from our store.
So I went back and read and re-read the message, and then it hit me: this person honestly and truly got this angry over two words: President, and Christmas. So here is my little message to the disgruntled person who would like to teach me a lesson by not doing business with me:
I am not religious, but have always referred to the little lights that make the universe a magical place every December as Christmas lights - nothing else would do! I say Merry Christmas to people I know and love this time of year - not to the exclusion of anything else, but because it is to me more an issue of tradition, one that has emotional and historical value. The email did include a few Happy Holidays references in addition to the one or two politically incorrect uses of "Christmas".
The fake evergreen in my living room is also called a Christmas Tree, and it has Christmas ornaments all over it, you know, the ones with Santa, and Angels, and Ginger Houses.
As for my reference to the New President - anyone coming in after a two term presidency would be a New President, last I checked, and I was by no means making a political statement of any kind with addressing that fact.
So to anyone who may get this email from us and chooses to be offended, by all means Do Not Use our services. Our first rule of business is to provide the best possible service for our clients. Our second rule of business is to remain human. If that means being politically incorrect and losing some business because of it, I can live with that.
Merry Christmas, Kwanzaa, Chanukah to all and Happy Festivus for the rest of us.
Copyright (C) 2008, inna hardison. please, don't steal from the starving artists, it's illegal and well, just plain freakin' wrong!
:-)
For AR only discounts on printing with hamediashop, see this blog, and save big bucks. Postcards, Business Cards, Flyers and more at awesome prices. Print, Design, Layout. www.hamediashop.com
See our design portfolio at www.teamhardison.com
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