Danke an die Abteilung für Zustellbarkeit

For those who know me, I regularly contribute to the start-up environment here in the North Texas region, which is a great place for any company to start. I'm a partner in a mentor-driven technology start-up accelerator. I mention this because of a recent spam compliance story involving me, my use of social media to make that story known, the not-so-great response I received from the company, and how I saw something that changed my way of thinking about customer service.

Our good friend Gary Vaynerchuk recently visited Dallas to promote his new book, "The Thank You Economy." On a regular basis, Gary talks about the thank you department he has at his Wine Library TV business, and this is a premise he continually pushes into the companies he invests in as an entrepreneur. I love this idea for any company or any position you work in, because it addresses those who love you and your products, those who don't (or as we call them, the "squeaky wheels"), and those in between.

What's my point here? Well you may have seen from my Twitter feed last week that the company SkyAuction, a travel auction and deals site, sent an email to one of my spam traps that's been hidden on websites waiting to be harvested. Overall, I wasn't surprised by the account receiving spam as it has these past 12 years. This occurs when people harvest it and resell the address or use the common name before the @ sign to sign up on websites in order to get more information without my knowledge. So, I tweeted the issue and tagged SkyAuction to let it know about the spam I received.