Got Snow?: What our company (and our clients) learned from The Blizzard of 2010

by Ron Daly

This story originally ran on the DigitalMailer Blog. 

Call me an optimist, but I'm going to call this storm "THE blizzard of 2010", in the hopes that it's not just "A blizzard of 2010". 

It's been an interesting week here at DigitalMailer. In case you missed any news outlet of the past week, the DC/Metro area got almost THREE FEET of snow dropped on us in the span of a week. Many of our account managers, operations staff and marketing department had to work from home for the entire week - and one of our staff members won't be dug out until days from now. Hang in there, Steve! 

When the snow hit, we made it a point to send out reminders to all our clients about our limited support capacity, letting them know when we'd be out of the office and how they could reach us. Our clients had the same idea - DigitalMailer sent out over 300,000 emails regarding closings and delays to members. Clients from all around the DC/Metro area were able to get the word out ahead of the storm and in the thick of it. 

The Value of Email 

For our clients, email is not just about marketing. It's a communication channel that members know to look out for because it's a channel the CU is eager to use. Whether it's a weather crisis or a financial crisis, our clients use our email engine to reach members, provide support and comfort, and let them know what happens next. Fellow blogger and all-around CU-wizard Anthony Demangone from the NAFCU Compliance Blog had these four pieces of advice to offer on his own blog about the blizzard:

• You need to plan.
• You need good people.
• You need technology.
• You need to communicate to your "users."

To read all the particulars, go to the NAFCU Compliance Blog Post. Anthony hit the nail right on the head with these four points. See the crisis coming, have a staff you can count on, have the right technology and communicate consistently. 

Send us your blizzard stories and pictures - either here or on our Twitter feed - and tell us how your CU or Business communicated with members/customers during the storm. 

We can get you started with a fast, effective message delivery system right away. All you have to do is give us a call. 866 994 4900 extension 102 or info@digitalmailer.com 

We wanted to give you some idea how much snow we've been dealing with - take a look at these pictures.

Me, in front of a snow bank in a ski jacket that's REALLY come in handy. To give you some scale, I'm 6'2" tall - that snow pile is just about 7'2".

The above picture was taken before the "dig-out" period by our Creative Media Director Jimmy Marks. That's his car - beneath 24 inches of snow!

The snow piles easily tower over even large SUVs. Makes me wonder if maybe there are some other cars buried out there under the big snow piles!

Operations Specialist Steve Mattson lives in a more rural area of Northern VA. Good news? He has a small tractor and snapped a few pictures. Bad news? He's STILL stuck at home! Hopefully we'll see you Monday, Steve!

Comments

[Paul Lucas]

Great soap box Story Ron ONLY us NOVinians can really understand though!

http://brizzly.com/pic/1FNV