Dear Firms: A Rejection Letter Is Not A Marketing Opportunity
Should a law firm try to market itself to job applicants it has just rejected? Maybe not -- some rejected job-seekers can be pretty sensitive.
On a nice, lazy, summer Friday, it’s good to know that rudeness still exists this world.
Today’s example of questionable behavior comes from a midsized Midwestern law firm. Yeah, apparently Midwestern manners don’t extend to how you treat people while you are rejecting them. This firm decided to use its rejection letters as an opportunity to market its new iPhone/iPad application.
It’s an app for people looking for work, of course…
Navigating Financial Success by Avoiding Common Pitfalls and Maximizing Firm Performance
The firm is Benesch Friedlander Coplan & Aronoff. It’s based in Cleveland. A tipster reports on how Benesch rolls out their rejection letters:
Today’s mail brought a rejection letter with an amazing degree of chutzpah. I opened the letter from Cleveland-based Benesch Friedlander Coplan & Aronoff as soon as it arrived, using the “college admissions letter” test — it was far heavier than your usual rubber-stamped rejection form. It turns out, the letter was so heavy because — no s**t — they’d enclosed a flyer for their recruiting department’s iPad app. With a QR code and everything. After the usual rejection language, the Recruiting Manager encouraged us to download their app, saying “One way to stay in touch with us is through our new recruiting app for iPhones and iPads: Apportunity (TM). Check out the enclosed flyer outlining details of this interactive app that will send an alert to users any time an attorney position opens at Benesch.”
Look, Benesch, we’ve all seen your app. And we like it; we’ve said nice things about it here at Above the Law. But you need to get your marketers under control.
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(If Benesch recruiters really want to reach unemployed attorneys, they should just place an ad on the Above the Law Jobs Board. It’s a great way to reach available attorneys without trying to get people you’ve just rejected to download your app.)
Anyway, here’s the ad:
It’s just a trifle… rude. “We won’t hire you, but download our app to be notified of other positions you can also be passed over for.” You can see what a Benesch marketer was thinking:
HUMAN: We should send this with the rejection letter?
MARKETER 1000: That’s when they’ll be most receptive to learning about other employment opportunities.
HUMAN: But won’t they be kind of angry, since they just got rejected, and not want to log on and download something from us?
MARKETER 1000: I know now why you cry, but it’s something I can never do.
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In any event… for everybody else out there, don’t all download the Benesch employment app all at once.
Earlier: Finding a Legal Job? There’s an App for That
