A friend whose out-of-the-box thinking has delivered some great ideas for his employer, sometimes confides about frustrations with his company’s “compliance” team. I got a taste of what he goes through yesterday when the compliance department of our email delivery service Mailchimp decided to block the delivery of the Biznews delivered Daily Insider (the INCE distribution went smoothly as ever).
We’ve had a smooth ride with US-based Mailchimp since Biznews started five years ago – paid our bills on time and avoid any spam accusations by only sending out mails to those who subscribed directly for the service. Yesterday’s mail included a link to an online quiz by a new political party. Mailchimp’s Artificial Intelligence tool didn’t like the link. And “compliance” blocked our distribution.
Doing that without warning was irritating, But what’s unforgivable is for almost 24 hours there was zero response from “compliance” to our continuous requests. I did manage a live chat with a friendly fellow called Dante in Mailchimp’s technical department. But all he could do was promise to send a copy of our chat to the sticklers.
We’ll be voting with our feet just as soon as we can find an alternative. You have to wonder how much business that otherwise efficient companies have lost through similarly heavy handed “compliance” police.