“rural people can’t waste time boycotting or picketing”
Fair point—but it is amazing what even one person can do if they want to do it.
I have done it—all by myself. Here is what I did....
Years ago the local bank (statewide, so not that small) gave no notice and added a bunch of charges on accounts of its customers.
I had been banking there for decades with no issue and it ticked me off...and I decided to create my own public relations campaign to see if I could reverse the decision.
Step 1: I got on the Internet and got the names and snail mail addresses of each member of the Board of Directors.
Step 2: I then looked up the senior marketing executive and president of the bank and their snail mail address.
Step 3: I spent a few days on this and carefully researched and then drafted a letter making my case. I argued that they were sacrificing short term gain for long term customer relationships—and gave specific examples of companies that had done this in the past and paid the price. The first letter went out to the Marketing VP and the President of the bank.
Step 4: They responded and told me to go ^%$# off....lol.
I was ready.
Step 5: I sent a copy of my letter and attached the bank’s letter to each member of the Board of Directors. I added a paragraph listing the state and federal bank regulators and legislators who I planned to contact if I did not receive satisfaction.
But—I was not done yet.
Step 6: I sent a copy of all of this to the local newspaper consumer reporter with a cover note saying this affected a lot of people in the area and asking them to cover it.
What happened next:
One week later the newspaper published a full article (page long!) from the consumer reporter on this topic. It quoted parts of my letter almost word for word without attribution.
One week later the bank sent out a letter to all customers fully reversing their policy!
Yeah—I did it. Just me.
Good job!
Yeah—I did it. Just me.
Keep up the good work.