Social Screening?
Ok, here's the first topic, I'm starting simple.
We have all at some point been subject to one form of social screening, whether it is our car insurance company upping our premium on receipt of our postcode, or our bank or credit card company rating our risk as a fraudster or potential debtor by means of our housing type, marital status or income.
My topic for discussion today sees this system taken one step further.
Call centres have begun to tag particular numbers within their customer databases in order to differentiate between 'less desirable' and 'more desirable' customers. Callers who are deemed to be more affluent are often dealt with as a priority.
You as the customer are being assessed, classified and dealt with accordingly.
Britain has already been subdivided into 17 groups categorised by the likelihood of that area having high levels of 'financial services fraud', based on social profiles of each area, by Leeds University Credit Management Research Centre. The Mosaic system developed by Experian has divided the UK into 61 distinct postcode types ranging from 'corporate chieftains' to 'low horizons'.
These systems along with call tagging via caller line identification allow companies to discriminate between customers they wish to treat as a priority, customers they are happy to keep waiting, and customers they wish to ignore altogether; and they are doing so.
What is your opinion of this technological development which has received mixed reactions from the business world? Please take a moment to consider this and either complete the poll in the side bar or if you wish leave me a comment, or follow the references links below to find out more.
I intend to forward the results of this poll to the Office of Fair Trading although no personal data will be forwarded, simply statistics in relation to questions posed. Feel free to be as extensive or brief in your answer as you wish and thank you in advance for your time.
Data Sources: Andrew Bibby 'Left hanging on the line as call centres prioritise the wealthy' ,
CRMC Credit Supplement - Using Postcode Data to Predict Fraud Risk .
We have all at some point been subject to one form of social screening, whether it is our car insurance company upping our premium on receipt of our postcode, or our bank or credit card company rating our risk as a fraudster or potential debtor by means of our housing type, marital status or income.
My topic for discussion today sees this system taken one step further.
Call centres have begun to tag particular numbers within their customer databases in order to differentiate between 'less desirable' and 'more desirable' customers. Callers who are deemed to be more affluent are often dealt with as a priority.
You as the customer are being assessed, classified and dealt with accordingly.
Britain has already been subdivided into 17 groups categorised by the likelihood of that area having high levels of 'financial services fraud', based on social profiles of each area, by Leeds University Credit Management Research Centre. The Mosaic system developed by Experian has divided the UK into 61 distinct postcode types ranging from 'corporate chieftains' to 'low horizons'.
These systems along with call tagging via caller line identification allow companies to discriminate between customers they wish to treat as a priority, customers they are happy to keep waiting, and customers they wish to ignore altogether; and they are doing so.
What is your opinion of this technological development which has received mixed reactions from the business world? Please take a moment to consider this and either complete the poll in the side bar or if you wish leave me a comment, or follow the references links below to find out more.
I intend to forward the results of this poll to the Office of Fair Trading although no personal data will be forwarded, simply statistics in relation to questions posed. Feel free to be as extensive or brief in your answer as you wish and thank you in advance for your time.
Data Sources: Andrew Bibby 'Left hanging on the line as call centres prioritise the wealthy' ,
CRMC Credit Supplement - Using Postcode Data to Predict Fraud Risk .
A local bank has asked its lesser customers to contact them by 'on line' banking, there by leaving counter space for the more affluent.
ReplyDeleteHello! Thank you so much for your vote, comment and the information. And congratulations on being my first visitor and voter! I feel like you should get a prize! Well just wait until the weekend! xx
ReplyDeleteThere is much talk about integrated communities and the benefit this would bring in terms of tolerance, and the sharing of ideas, skills and culture. The type of screening you talk about is antagonistic towards this social aim, and if it is used as you suggest then it is, in my opinion, shameful.
ReplyDeleteIf adopted, such a system would have to be updated on a ragular basis, if it were to continue to be "of use" to businesses, as areas evolve and become trendy and then force out the original inhabitants in favour of migrating DINKIES and the like.
However, I would also like to see what business processes the system were applied to, as the current credit crunch is caused by businesses seeking the custom of people on low or less reliable incomes in order to boost their sales. Therefore I imagine that saleslines would not seek to bar people from perceived "low income or low achievement" areas, and the barring would only come into force for subsequent service enquires.
What an interesting debate you have raised. Well done!! This kind of site gives blogging a good name.
Hey Mac's Niece! Thank you for your detailed comment and compliment. I am greatly enjoying the debate of this topic. I have little information on the specific companies and business processes that this is being utilised for at present however it seems to be the future for call centres across the board in an attempt to turn them into profit making departments. As companies are also able to make money out of callers on hold simply by using certain telephone numbers, then keeping people waiting who they do not favour for business sales will also increase their income. Perhaps I will do a follow up post on this in the future once more information is available.
ReplyDeleteYeah, the call centers are focusing on preparing such database. They are making more calls to those customers who gave positive response to their last products they sold.
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Hi Tracy! Thanks for your comment. I decided during a recent spell on hold with a utilities company that given the time it took to get through I must be a bad consumer and undesirable!
ReplyDelete