Admittedly, this store probably did miss the cluetrain when it pulled out of the station and they need to get their poop in a group. I suspect, if they are that clueless, that their next step will be an overcompensating dive into indiscriminate customer data mining.

BTW…I use my calendar to remind myself of appointments, but I take your point. As long as its the customers choice, that works for me.

Do you really need to be reminded to schedule dental appointments? If not, you’re unusual.

Put this store on the side of the angels, even if only accidentally, for protecting customer privacy. The first rule of privacy is data minimization. This certainly counts!

Now I’m all for personalization of services and mass customization, and am willing to balance that against my desire to have some control over the information about me in circulation, but seriously, do you really need to be told when its time for new Chuck Taylors? If markets are conversations that kind of marketing is just gossip.

ADDENDUM: To track publicized privacy breaches on an RSS feed check out http://attrition.org/rss/attrition_dataloss.rss – be prepared to be depressed.

You can find the Zoho Creator app here: http://creator.zoho.com/gabrielcoch/form/52/. You’ll also need to get an account with both Zoho Creator (www.zoho.com) and LetterMeLater http://www.lettermelater.com in order to take it for a spin.

I can see this being useful in many more ways that running shoes(or tennis shoes in my case). How about all the recurring maintenance work to your home (i.e. termites, outdoor painting, etc.)?

The problem is that maintenance, in all forms, is boring, costly in terms of time and effort, and easy to avoid. If my dentist didn’t have me on a schedule of regular cleaning, I wouldn’t initiate appointments, and I’d be paying a high price for that procrastination.

Regular replacement of running shoes is the same kind of all-too-easily-avoided maintenance task. I know I should do it more often. But I’m human, I procrastinate, and then something starts to hurt, and that’s the wrong kind of reminder, because I’ve learned the hard way how pernicious soft tissue injuries can be.

It’s a healthcare issue really. When the dentist reminds me, I feel like they’re taking care of me, not hassling me. This could be handled in the same kind of way.

Now in my case the point is moot because I’ve (finally) set up a recurring reminder for myself. But of course that reminder doesn’t connect me to that particular store, I might go anywhere. If I invite a retailer to be the source of the reminder, and to have a privileged long-term healthcare-related relationship with me, it seems crazy not to jump at that offer.

Recently I read an article about the pioneer of IA and author of Eliza (Joseph Weizenbaum) dying last week and what tweaked my interest was that towards the end of his life he was convinced that there was danger in allowing machines to do much of our chosing (and by extension thinking) for us. His concerns of course were emotional but I think it is reasonable to suggest that unless our brains are incapacitated in some way (i.e., Alzheimers or similar disorder) we shouldn’t need a reminder system to tell us what kind of toothpaste to buy, or when the milk in our fridge is running low, or that we really need to start thinking about new underwear soon.

I know this store responded out of ignorance of the latest marketing tools available, but if I were the clerk I might have looked at you and asked why you would need to be reminded. (Heh, of course that’s why I don’t work in public service because you probably would’ve looked at me like I was the one who was insane).

Just another opinion is all. Of course I love your blog and read it all the time.

The correct riposte would have been, “No you don’t, there are websites these days that do it all for you – much easier than messing about setting up your own database and then having to keep it backed up and everything all the time …”

Thanks for the story!