The Future...
http://www.adcritic.com/interactive/view.php?id=5927
I got the link above sent to me in an e-mail from my cousin who works at SBC.
I think something such as the scenario demonstrated in the link is in our future (how soon in the future is difficult to determine). Some aspects the scenario presented are convenient… such as having your address listed as soon you are connected … making each order of pizza easier by not having to repeat your address with every phone call and ensuring that the address is correct.
However, I'm sure if jobs like this are outsourced (which soon enough they probably would be)... the operators on the other end of the telephone may have great difficulties in understanding our orders... Furthermore, as has been my experience with talking to people working halfway across the globe, they are persistent in areas that have nothing to do with why I am calling them. I once spoke to a computer tech inquiring as to what the different causes of my computer not turning on could be. I made my situation clear: I turned my computer on, it was on for about 5 seconds, and then it shut off. The operator did not seem to understand this concept. He insisted I access the control panel and adjust different functions. After each suggestion, I kindly reminded him that I COULD NOT open the control panel because Windows was not loading... My computer shut off before that happened. Having competent people taking orders is a necessity when it comes to ordering pizzas if the companies intend to keep their customers.
What if when ordering a pizza simply because we are calling from work (such as the gentleman in the skit) the operator assumes that we want our pizza to arrive at work... or even if we remind them to send it home they still send it to work? Operators might be more persistent in delivering to us wherever we are (perhaps as a tactic to encourage us to return to their store)... or might have problems understanding where we want our pizza delivered if it is different from the address associated with our calling number.
Most importantly, what concern is it of any pizza place to know any of these things:
-what our medical ailments are (although knowing our allergies can ensure that we do not eat any foods we are allergic to)-- and then charging extra if we order things that only exacerbate our current medical problems... what happens to our freedom of choosing what we eat?
-our psychiatric issues? Does Pizza Hut really have to know that you only order an extra large meat lovers pizza every time you come back from an appointment with your psychiatrist?
-the size of our waist by viewing the last clothing purchases we made?
-where we are going on vacation, how much we spent on the tickets?
-our credit history?
Having such information shared with those that take our pizza orders gives them an advantage over us, the consumers… they know practically everything there is to know about us, while we only know what their voice sounds like and what pizza company they work for. This information is certainly more than they need to know about anyone simply calling to order a pizza. We have no intention of fostering relationships with them… we just want them to take our order.
If scenarios such as these were currently possible, I think people would prefer computerized orders rather than having to deal with a human that had all of one's personal information listed on the screen in front of him. Although the advancements that have been made by computing are beneficial… I do not view this as being one of them.
Comments
Posted by: jkj
Posted on: October 14, 2005 12:24 AM
Definitely not the long article I was expecting. A few comments on the source of the ad. The ACLU, while I agree with them on topics especially such as these, I do not on others and well the ACLU has a tendency of taking things to an extreme in my opinion. If we move slightly in a direction they think is wrong the end of the world will come. But the ad did bring up many interesting points. The first thing I noticed was the national ID number. That will never happen...There are even qualms right now that our SSNs have become national ID numbers in which my opinion they have especially when you come to an instution like case where they plaster it everywhere to identify you. Also I do believe corporations do know more about us as consumers than you know. It is how they stay ahead of the game. They are constantly doing surveys, hiring psychologists, and marketing firms in order to find out what we want. Hell before people threw a fit tops I believe used their "advantage" card to track what you bought in order to "serve you better". In your everyday groccery store everything is planned out to the last detail. The bread and milk is in the back so you go through the whole store, the way the store feels especially in Giant Eagle is supposed to be more warm and homy and they do this through lighting and tiles and what not, and when you get that milk there happens to be cereal in aisle stand right next to it. Corporations can and have affected the way we buy things not only to make it more convient but to also make more money but when and where do we tell them enough is enough. I doubt our health records will ever be public knowledge, oh man that is a scary thought especially once we map the human genome...Our credit history on the other hand is public knowledge to corporations to check our credit for loans and credit cards. I hope that it does not extend much further beyond that. I think the biggest problem if we come to a future like that in the ad is security. If a national database is ever setup it would be the largest target of hacking and there is no 100% secure system. That is one of the reasons I doubt that will happen anytime soon.