In a time where the protection of personal information is at an all time high, I wanted to share something with the other biz's on this board what is happening in our industry.
Awhile back someone brought to my attention how the personal information we submit with certifications to the different agencies is being used which I kinda heard about half of what was being said from disbelief the agencies would actually use it this way. Although all the agencies say they protect that information, some do a better job than others. Here's a case of where a private Florida corporation was able to acquire a mass emailer from one of the largest agencies in the business. Last week on an in-house email account we recieved an email from this agency addressed to a customer that had taken a class from us, encouraging him to visit other stores just a short trip down the road from us to to patronage a private Florida corporation. At first I thought it was a joke, then as I reread the email and it sank in, this agency which would have no idea this customer was even ever born had it not been for our marketing dollars to acquire and provide the agency with the customers data, was selectivly promoting another areas dive centers over another, even though geographically the targeted customer information came from a dive center a short ride from their promotion.
With the popularity of email, the customers you invest in acquiring and serving are at even a greater risk of being solicited away from your stores from the agencies who sell/give away the data. From this I have come to the conclusion that we must be more diligent in protecting the investment in our customers personal information in which they entrust us with.
A couple of the steps we are employing here after this fiasco are 1) customers email addresses will no longer be provided to any agency, 2) All ancillary offers packaged in the c-card package will be removed. By not providing the email addresses, no more mass emails damaging our relationship with the customer can be sent. By removing the extra offers, the agencies extra offers no longer get a free ride into the customers hands through a certification, they can afford alot more stamps than we can.
Has anyone else had similiar issues?
Schott
Awhile back someone brought to my attention how the personal information we submit with certifications to the different agencies is being used which I kinda heard about half of what was being said from disbelief the agencies would actually use it this way. Although all the agencies say they protect that information, some do a better job than others. Here's a case of where a private Florida corporation was able to acquire a mass emailer from one of the largest agencies in the business. Last week on an in-house email account we recieved an email from this agency addressed to a customer that had taken a class from us, encouraging him to visit other stores just a short trip down the road from us to to patronage a private Florida corporation. At first I thought it was a joke, then as I reread the email and it sank in, this agency which would have no idea this customer was even ever born had it not been for our marketing dollars to acquire and provide the agency with the customers data, was selectivly promoting another areas dive centers over another, even though geographically the targeted customer information came from a dive center a short ride from their promotion.
With the popularity of email, the customers you invest in acquiring and serving are at even a greater risk of being solicited away from your stores from the agencies who sell/give away the data. From this I have come to the conclusion that we must be more diligent in protecting the investment in our customers personal information in which they entrust us with.
A couple of the steps we are employing here after this fiasco are 1) customers email addresses will no longer be provided to any agency, 2) All ancillary offers packaged in the c-card package will be removed. By not providing the email addresses, no more mass emails damaging our relationship with the customer can be sent. By removing the extra offers, the agencies extra offers no longer get a free ride into the customers hands through a certification, they can afford alot more stamps than we can.
Has anyone else had similiar issues?
Schott
