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20 Jun

2008

More IT madness

A friend of mine received a letter from their telecom company the other day. It said:

"Dear Jane Anne Smith,

We would like to advise that Jane Smith gained online access to Jane Anne Smith account details on xx Jun 2008.

This provides access to our online services using these account details.

If you have any questions regarding this letter, please visit xxxx online assistance or call us on xxx xxx xxx."

Jane accessed the online account because the company was promising to provide more environmentally sensitive invoices and reduced the amount of information on the printed account. Jane logged onto the web to access the information that was previously published on the older version of the invoice.

Then the telco sends her a printed letter specially to warn her that someone accessed her account. This seems pretty bizarre because:

It kind of ruins the whole line about environmental concerns.
It shows their system can't recognise that "Jane Smith" and "Jane Anne Smith" are probably the same person
They haven't really explained how this "other" person gained access to the account if she wasn't recognised as its owner.
In fact the whole letter is a bit ambiguous - does my friend need to contact the company, and if she did what would she ask them??

The common sense test

Like out of control bureaucracies IT policies and processes can become total madness. They separate action from simple common sense and they divorce anyone from taking responsibility for something which is clearly nuts.

At Acorn we recognise that its not always easy to avoid the nuts (if you will excuse the confusing pun). But we also know that a process isn't completed until it is nut free.

Creating good relationships

Business is all about relationships. We want to do business with people and businesses that we have relationships with - but it is expensive for a business to create a real relationship with all its customers. That is why mass media and mass marketing has become so important.

The telecom company would not have sent the letter out if that letter had to be handwritten and hand addressed. However it still needs to work to build a good relationship with the customer.

In this case a confusing and impersonal letter leaves the customer feeling unloved and doubting the efficiency and professionalism of the business that sent it. Its a lose-lose situation.

Everyone out there who is using technology like the web to send out communications should be looking twice at the affect their communications have on their customers. Are they helping their relationship or hindering?

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