BuyRugsDirect.com uses quick polls in e-mail to identify customer interests

BuyRugsDirect.com is using quick polls inserted in its e-mail marketing messages to get customer input on their shopping interests as well as on the retailer’s quality of customer service and the content of the e-mail newsletters.

“I’ve always been interested in hearing from my customers,” says Jamie Carney, president and CEO. “That’s what my business is all about. To stay current and to make sure we’re tuning our web site and our services to what customers are looking for.”

Although only a small percentage of the BuyRugsDirect.com e-mail base responds to the polls, it’s a large enough sample to get a good feel of the direction and type of things people are interested in, Carney says. The retailer uses a quick poll feature included with its SubscriberMail e-mail marketing management system.

One recent e-mail marketing message entitled “Exclusive Coupon Offer from BuyRugsDirect.com, for example, featured a question-and-answer article that addressed why certain rugs are never put on sale by manufacturers. Explaining that some manufacturers have a mandatory manufacturer’s suggested retail price for retail web sites, the Q&A article also noted that customers can get discounts on these rugs from BuyRugsDirect.com by using e-mailed coupons or by calling a customer service rep and requesting a promotion code. A quick poll in the same e-mail offered the following response options: “very informative,” “somewhat interesting,” “already knew,” and “boring.”

“I feel like I’m able to make good business decisions based on the type of information that I’m getting,” Carney says.

Carney says she was inspired to insert polls in BuyRugsDirect e-mails after receiving a similar poll in an e-mail message. “It just allows someone to voice their opinion,” she says. “We’re in that time period with American Idol and everything else going on that people are really interested in letting their voices be heard.”

“It’s important to me and the company to hear from our customers and what they’re interested in, and we do listen,” she adds. “I don’t just send quick poll after quick poll and gather information, but take action based on the results.”

BuyRugsDirect began including quick polls in its e-mail marketing when it signed with SubscriberMail seven months ago, Carney says.