THE COMING BATTLE FOR CUSTOMER INFORMATION

Companies collect information about customers to target valuable prosp ects more effectively, tailor their offerings to individual needs, imp rove customer satisfaction, and identify opportunities for new product s or services. But managers' efforts to capture such information may s oon be thwarted. The authors believe that consumers are going to take ownership of information about themselves and start demanding value in exchange for it. As a result, negotiating with customers for informat ion will become costly and complex. How will that happen? Consumers ar e realizing that they get very little in exchange for the information they divulge so freely through their commercial transactions and surve y responses. Now new technologies such as smart cards, World Wide Web browsers, and personal financial management software are allowing cons umers to view comprehensive profiles of their commercial activities - and to choose whether or not to release that information to companies. Their decision will hinge, in large part, on what vendors offer them in return for the data. Consumers will be unlikely to bargain with ven dors on their own, however. The authors anticipate that companies they call infomediaries will broker information to businesses on consumers ' behalf. In essence, infomediaries will be the catalyst for people to start demanding value in exchange for information about themselves. A nd most other companies will need to rethink how they obtain informati on and what they do with it if they want to find new customers and ser ve them better.