Don’t You Know Me

A Harris Interactive poll published in AdAge a few weeks ago, talked about the value people put on companies knowing who they are. We have all had that experience where you put in your phone into the IVR then get asked to verify it when the person picks up the phone and asked again for the number and your name when you get transferred. How annoying!

I always joked with our VP of Call Centers that Dominos was more likely to know who I was based on my caller ID then we were. There are so many technologies out there that there isn’t a good reason for companies not to take advantage of them. There is technology that based on your voice can tell if you are depressed. There is technology that based on your voice can tell if you’re angry. There are plenty of screen pops and technology that can pull in the caller ID.

Even the companies that do that don’t often have a consolidated view of the customer. They don’t know that you called yesterday; visited the website earlier; got a call last week; had a mailing sent to you last month; filed a complaint about the same issue you are calling about; etc.

So, how do consumers feel…

• 95% believe it is at least somewhat important that companies know “who I am, my buying history, past problems or complaints, preferences, and billing record”
  • 37% said personal history is important
  • 27% said it’s very important
• 62% said they would not hesitate to cancel or switch services if they had a negative experience

Of course, healthcare makes this hard. With employer sponsored healthcare, I can only switch annually or with certain events. With individual healthcare, I might not switch for fear of having some condition excluded. Plus, companies worry about trading privacy for personalization.

But, the reality is that this is going to continue to be an issue. Technology is putting more and more information out there and raising the bar.

On the flipside, doing something wrong quickly gets put on people’s Facebook pages, their blogs, or other tools where the experience ripples real-time and never disappears.