4 responses to “Inspiration, Anyone?”

• leslie June 17th, 2008 at 08:49

  The trick here is to learn about the consumer and target them without invading their sense of privacy. One of my favorite analogies about this is the observant sales clerk at your favorite department store. Imagine they call you and say,”I noticed that your wife’s birthday is coming up soon. We just got in a sweater I think she will really like. Would you like me to put it aside for you?”

  That is an example of excellent customer service. If that was done online, however, some would call it an invasion of privacy. What is the difference?

• holly June 17th, 2008 at 09:43

  There really isn’t a difference. It is all about the person’s feeling of privacy. For some reason knowing the sales clerk on a face-to-face basis makes people feel more comfortable, yet people are willing to freely give tons of personal information online and expect marketers to avoid it. Amazon has done a great job with offering this type of personalized services, but there is a fine line that can be easily crossed.

• Linda June 19th, 2008 at 13:52

  It depends.

  If I had some kind of relationship with the clerk (IRL), like if I’d been shopping at that store for a while, or we grew up in the same neighborhood, I would credit them with being thoughtful.

  However, if I were a relatively private person who did not go around sharing information like birthdays, and a perfect stranger correctly commented on my spouse’s upcoming birthday, that would give me a serious case of the heeby-jeebies.

  I think the key (IRL or online) is to have some sort of relationship established before getting personal with people.

• holly June 20th, 2008 at 08:34

  Linda I couldn’t agree more….establishing that relationship prior to getting overly personal is the key.