Wednesday, August 18, 2004

Article: The Privacy Dilemma

Computerworld, once again, has a useful privacy-related article that encourages businesses to adopt customer-friendly practices:

The Privacy Dilemma

AUGUST 16, 2004 (COMPUTERWORLD) - Personalization is only as good as the data it's based on: The more you have, and the better it is, the more relevant the personalized interaction. The problem is, privacy concerns have customers increasingly shy about sharing. This, coupled with legislative handcuffs such as the "do not call" initiative, means businesses have to figure out ways to maximize each interaction with a customer and then securely develop the relationship.

"Companies have to avoid the 'marketing gone wild' mentality, as every interaction is a reflection on brand," says analyst Elana Anderson at Forrester Research Inc. She recommends that they focus on building customer relationships based on proactive service, leveraging personalization technologies on inbound channels to maximize the interaction when a customer makes contact. "It's the reason marketing should own the contact center; if messages are done right, they're service-oriented instead of the hard sell," she says.

I'd encourage readers to take a look at the rest of the article, available here.

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