Autopsy Round 5, 2021: St.Kilda v Richmond *MADDIE'S MATCH* *CARLISLE 150TH*

[George]

I dont think any response was going to appease members but some responses aggreavate them more.

This is an example of the latter. The optics of this sort of thing are important and that response shows a lack of foresight that this might happen, a lack or preparedness to respond and a lack of any plan to deal with it.

Again I doubt it matters to be honest, if Joffa has had enough to the point he is emailing the club threatening to cancel his membership then I don't reckon anything will appease him apart from better performance on-field. And that's the same for pretty much anyone.

They need to win games of football, any other response is futile.

 

[LiterallyNobody]

On an unrelated note I cannot wait until this stupid thread is closed so I don’t have to scroll past that bloody post on the top of every page. Tempted to put George on ignore until after the port game just to avoid it.

but I won’t because putting people on ignore is a soft way of dealing with problems.

 

[George]

yes exactly George. You have worked in a membership organisation, there are strategies to cope with diisgruntled members.

If, as you suggest, there was a flood of emails, maybe a couple of decisions needed to be made.

1) don't give the whole club the day off
2) get back with an email suggesting that there is has been a high volume of corrospondence and someone will get back to you in due course. THis is acceptable as it means the organisation is working through the usual supporter rant email's they get after every loss (as you would know that happenes every loss) and others that are unusual.

However to get a sorry to see you go, stock email from the trainee Receptionist is the worst possible strategy an organisation could give to a financial member.
It basically say F*ck off, we don't need you. Lovely. And feeds into the belief that the club don't care about the members, only your money.

There's a lot of hyperbole in that post. When was the club given a day off? Over the weekend sure, that's normal if the game was on a Thursday.

Judging by your tone and previous responses I don't even reckon a "we will get back to you" email would've done enough anyway. I get you are pissed off and you've been a member for a long time but if it's impractical to respond individually to all emails then it's impractical.

 

[George]

On an unrelated note I cannot wait until this stupid thread is closed so I don’t have to scroll past that bloody post on the top of every page. Tempted to put George on ignore until after the port game just to avoid it.

but I won’t because putting people on ignore is a soft way of dealing with problems.

Sorry. I have removed it.

 

[BrutThough]

Everyone is pointing out the reception trainee wrote that. I doubt that.

Reads like a copy and paste job, stock standard reply. The type Telstra would send to its clients.

If a member of the last 31 years is questioning whether they can financially support the club in the future, it should mean something.
The team has been incredibly poor over those 30+ years, but now is when their support is wavering? That should mean something, but I guess they just don’t care.

Or they have been doing it long enough to know people who send emails like this aren't going to be satisfied with any response they get anyway so having a prepared standard response is the most efficient thing to do.

 

[phantom13]

Again I doubt it matters to be honest, if Joffa has had enough to the point he is emailing the club threatening to cancel his membership then I don't reckon anything will appease him apart from better performance on-field. And that's the same for pretty much anyone.

They need to win games of football, any other response is futile.

With due respect it absolutely matters. My wife is a fairly senior comms advisor with private and public sector experience.

The message, the person and the output are the drivers for all comms. The message in response to Joffa is poor, it doesnt adress concerns or outline how were going to improve, the person issuing the letter is about as low as you can get and the output is basically "oh well".

I just showed her all of this and she laughed and said "they shouldnt have replied at all".

 

[phantom13]

Everyone is pointing out the reception trainee wrote that. I doubt that.

Reads like a copy and paste job, stock standard reply. The type Telstra would send to its clients.

If a member of the last 31 years is questioning whether they can financially support the club in the future, it should mean something.
The team has been incredibly poor over those 30+ years, but now is when their support is wavering? That should mean something, but I guess they just don’t care.

That exactly the point, its absolutely copy and pasted so send it from someone senior.

 

[George]

With due respect it absolutely matters. My wife is a fairly senior comms advisor with private and public sector experience.

The message, the person and the output are the drivers for all comms. The message in response to Joffa is poor, it doesnt adress concerns or outline how were going to improve, the person issuing the letter is about as low as you can get and the output is basically "oh well".

I just showed her all of this and she laughed and said "they shouldnt have replied at all".

Once again, without knowing the volume it is impossible to know If a personalised email could be considered.

Your wife said they shouldn't have replied. Joffa would've reacted the same way if he didn't get a reply I reckon.

It all comes down to playing football it doesn't matter what the CEO or the boot studder say. And we should understand that after the last few years.

 

[Joffaboy]

Well yeah I can pass the feedback on but again it's impossible to know what the situation is like right now, and if this thread is anything to go by the club would be receiving hundreds of similar e-mails.

With that in mind, how plausible would it be for a small team like the one at the club to handle the sheer volume of something like this whilst also appeasing every member with an individualised response. It seems pretty obvious having worked in similar environments that this is just not a practical solution and no matter the response it will not be enough because if the response was great but the performance on the weekend isn't then there is no difference. Back to square one.

Of course no response will be adequate. We can't expect to say ' stick with us, we guarantee you we wil win the flag this season'. zto be honest i didn't what to expect as a response.

But to get a stock standard response from the Trainee Receptionist just inflames the original issue.

it also gives me a small insight into the lack of professionalism at the club. They knoew the hammer was coming down from members, but they decided to give everyone at the club the day off.
I can see why players and cpoaches needed it, to reflect and get their heads around their appalling efforts. But the management of Admin should have been there to formulate a strategy to placate the member.

Their strategy was to get the 19 y.o at the front desks to copy and paste a template to the member. Appalling lack of business acumen.

It is really quite funny actually.

 

[George]

Of course no response will be adequate. We can't expect to say ' stick with us, we guarantee you we wil win the flag this season'. zto be honest i didn't what to expect as a response.

But to get a stock standard response from the Trainee Receptionist just inflames the original issue.

it also gives me a small insight into the lack of professionalism at the club. They knoew the hammer was coming down from members, but they decided to give everyone at the club the day off.
I can see why players and cpoaches needed it, to reflect and get their heads around their appalling efforts. But the management of Admin should have been there to formulate a strategy to placate the member.

Their strategy was to get the 19 y.o at the front desks to copy and paste a template to the member. Appalling lack of business acumen.

It is really quite funny actually.

What response from the club would reverse your decision to cancel your membership at the end of the year?

 

[lewdogs]

Trying to educate you as you seem very ignorant and you are actually embarrassing yourself.

There's only one person who has embarrassed themselves here.

Given where the industry and our club is at at the moment, it's pretty amazing seeing our own supporters trying to discredit and humiliate the club. Whatever gets you off I guess.

 

[lewdogs]

 

[phantom13]

Once again, without knowing the volume it is impossible to know If a personalised email could be considered.

Your wife said they shouldn't have replied. Joffa would've reacted the same way if he didn't get a reply I reckon.

It all comes down to playing football it doesn't matter what the CEO or the boot studder say. And we should understand that after the last few years.

Im not saying a personalized reply, that would be ridiculous to suggest.

A reply that is drafted in response to the (surely expected) angry member emails that

- Adressed the concerns
- Noted an action plan and review
- Assured members that the club is aware of the issues

Signed by someone senior, sent from someone still reasonably senior.

So much of this is optics and the optics of the response to Joff are awful, really, truly awful.

Also i promise you Joffs response wouldnt have been the same if he got nothing, he might still be mad but he wouldnt be mad about a bullshit lip service email from the trainee receptionist.

 

[phantom13]

There's only one person who has embarrassed themselves here.

Given where the industry and our club is at at the moment, it's pretty amazing seeing our own supporters trying to discredit and humiliate the club. Whatever gets you off I guess.

Yes how dare he vent to an organisation he has paid tens of thousands of dollars to over a 30 plus year period.

What a monster.

Christ we love to eat our own.

 

[Joffaboy]

There's a lot of hyperbole in that post. When was the club given a day off? Over the weekend sure, that's normal if the game was on a Thursday.

Judging by your tone and previous responses I don't even reckon a "we will get back to you" email would've done enough anyway. I get you are pissed off and you've been a member for a long time but if it's impractical to respond individually to all emails then it's impractical.

No hyperbole at all. From the moment I was inducted at my place of work, it was conditioned into our very work being that the member was everything. Everything we do, every time we go to the office, or send corrospondence, or meet a member in the wild, it is all about them, the member, and how they are getting value from the membership.
When they have a complaint (we have 170,000 members in 80+ countries) we will send a response telling them we are looking into the issue, and then we will get back to them.

Does it solve their issues? Not always, but we have a defined process to treat our members with respect and dignity.

You say nothing but improved performance will satisfy my issue. Mostly true, however the other part of my issue is that the club is only interested in the member for their money, and will do the minimum to make sure we keep coughing up the coin.

Nothing from the response to my email would suggest otherwise. Absolute minimum responses from someone just higher than the cleaner. they would have been better not to respond at all.

 

[Saintbloke]

Joffa got a reply from the trainee receptionist, as the bloke who cleans the toilets at Moorabbin was too busy to send an email.

 

[Joffaboy]

There's only one person who has embarrassed themselves here.

Given where the industry and our club is at at the moment, it's pretty amazing seeing our own supporters trying to discredit and humiliate the club. Whatever gets you off I guess.

Enjoy your Stockholm Syndrome buddy

 

[George]

Im not saying a personalized reply, that would be ridiculous to suggest.

A reply that is drafted in response to the (surely expected) angry member emails that

- Adressed the concerns
- Noted an action plan and review
- Assured members that the club is aware of the issues

Signed by someone senior, sent from someone still reasonably senior.

So much of this is optics and the optics of the response to Joff are awful, really, truly awful.

Also i promise you Joffs response wouldnt have been the same if he got nothing, he might still be mad but he wouldnt be mad about a bullshit lip service email from the trainee receptionist.

Nothing is going to appease any member from reversing their decision to cancel their membership aside from playing good football.

If members got the response that you think is acceptable, and then we lose by 12 goals on Sunday, it's not going to matter. Nobody is going to say oh the club responded well to my complaints so I'm not going to cancel anymore despite having won four games.

It would not matter. We don't support the club because we want them to reply to us how we want when we are frustrated we support them because we want them to win games of football and that's all they must do. That would be the response required.

 

[stavro#4]

With due respect it absolutely matters. My wife is a fairly senior comms advisor with private and public sector experience.

The message, the person and the output are the drivers for all comms. The message in response to Joffa is poor, it doesnt adress concerns or outline how were going to improve, the person issuing the letter is about as low as you can get and the output is basically "oh well".

I just showed her all of this and she laughed and said "they shouldnt have replied at all".

Ding Ding Ding. - someone ******* gets it!!!

for everyone else, Joffa isn’t saying they needed to win the flag or be 5 -0. Nor Was his expectation that we have Finnis call him directly.

the response to the email is hilarious because it’s the optics of the situation.
31 year member - financially supportive of the club, gets a fair well and hope the door doesn’t hit you on the way out from a trainee ******* receptionist.

just don’t respond or put a generic response until a practical response can be given.

It is actually laughable that in 6 months time the club will call Joffa and he will get the same treatment others on this forum will vouch for.

invite to Moorabbin.
sit down with finnis/Lethlean/someone who replaces one of them
They will say yep we ****ed up - please re-sign we need your money as 15k jumped off ship because we failed to deliver

and round and round we go.

 

[phantom13]

Nothing is going to appease any member from reversing their decision to cancel their membership aside from playing good football.

If members got the response that you think is acceptable, and then we lose by 12 goals on Sunday, it's not going to matter. Nobody is going to say oh the club responded well to my complaints so I'm not going to cancel anymore despite having won four games.

It would not matter. We don't support the club because we want them to reply to us how we want when we are frustrated we support them because we want them to win games of football and that's all they must do. That would be the response required.

Thats absolutely not the point.

Obviously nothing at this point is going to turn Joff around but that doesnt mean we should just accept that the club clearly had no preparedness for this and clearly has no response for it.

It seems endemic at the club to fold under pressure.

The whole point is this response represents the clubs response and its "stick fat, go saints" from the trainee receptionist. No plan, no care, no idea.

 

[stavro#4]

Nothing is going to appease any member from reversing their decision to cancel their membership aside from playing good football.

If members got the response that you think is acceptable, and then we lose by 12 goals on Sunday, it's not going to matter. Nobody is going to say oh the club responded well to my complaints so I'm not going to cancel anymore despite having won four games.

It would not matter. We don't support the club because we want them to reply to us how we want when we are frustrated we support them because we want them to win games of football and that's all they must do. That would be the response required.

Going out on a limb here...


we are under performing and if someone owned that and said that we are working to rectify itwould probably appease 90% of those emails.

generic.
Signed by finnis.

happy ******* days for the next week until we get fisted by port.

 

[George]

No hyperbole at all. From the moment I was inducted at my place of work, it was conditioned into our very work being that the member was everything. Everything we do, every time we go to the office, or send corrospondence, or meet a member in the wild, it is all about them, the member, and how they are getting value from the membership.
When they have a complaint (we have 170,000 members in 80+ countries) we will send a response telling them we are looking into the issue, and then we will get back to them.

Does it solve their issues? Not always, but we have a defined process to treat our members with respect and dignity.

You say nothing but improved performance will satisfy my issue. Mostly true, however the other part of my issue is that the club is only interested in the member for their money, and will do the minimum to make sure we keep coughing up the coin.

Nothing from the response to my email would suggest otherwise. Absolute minimum responses from someone just higher than the cleaner. they would have been better not to respond at all.

Would that kind of response reversed your decision to cancel your membership? If not then nothing would've appeased you aside from the on field performance IMO.

 

[Joffaboy]

Yes how dare he vent to an organisation he has paid tens of thousands of dollars to over a 30 plus year period.

What a monster.

Christ we love to eat our own.

No he is correct, I should just pay up and shut my mouth, how dare I expressmy displeasure at the organisation I am a financial member of.

Really mate don't worry lewdogs is a bit silly, and really hasn't got the critical thinking to grasp the essence of the subject like everyone else has.

 

[phantom13]

Would that kind of response reversed your decision to cancel your membership? If not then nothing would've appeased you aside from the on field performance IMO.

George i say this with love and respect but you gotta move on from the decision to reverse his membership cancellation. Its not the point.

 

[George]

Thats absolutely not the point.

Obviously nothing at this point is going to turn Joff around but that doesnt mean we should just accept that the club clearly had no preparedness for this and clearly has no response for it.

It seems endemic at the club to fold under pressure.

The whole point is this response represents the clubs response and its "stick fat, go saints" from the trainee receptionist. No plan, no care, no idea.

Going out on a limb here...


we are under performing and if someone owned that and said that we are working to rectify itwould probably appease 90% of those emails.

generic.
Signed by finnis.

happy ******* days for the next week until we get fisted by port.

I think some just want to complain for the sake of it. If we did what you suggest and get Finnis to send an email out to all members the rhetoric would be to stop talking and focus on football. The rhetoric would be we've heard it all before.

There is no winning in this situation at all. Those that want to continue to be upset will find a way to do so regardless of any response. The club would get hammered irrespective of the type of response.