The Evolution Of Service Delivery Models

I grew up in South Africa and when I was 10 years old, there was no household internet service provider. In fact the entire service delivery model was entirely different from how it looks today. In my world, there was no such thing as email, or e-commerce or online services, it was all done with a letter or over the counter or through a personal relationship with the person providing whatever the service was. I remember a time when my mum knew her insurance broker by first name, and when my dad saw his mechanic or bank manager down the local pub. I remember a time when communicating with your friends meant rotating a circular dialling ring on one of those old telephones that you now find in museums. I remember a time when I didn’t have a “digital footprint”.

My children will never know that world, much like I never knew the world my grandparents grew up in where stress was about bomb raid sirens not choosing which of the latest mobile phones to buy. I will be a father for the first time in January next year and I have realised that my unborn child already has a digital footprint in the modern world and there is nothing that I can do about it!

My children will grow up in a world where email is too slow, where e-commerce is done on mobile devices rather than clunky PC’s and where value added services are seen as a commodity delivered in ways we are yet to think of. This evolution of the service delivery model has shaped the way that we as citizens of the digital economy interact with the world around us. Our service providers are more reliant on our digital identities than ever before.

Think about it, whenever you sign up to a new service, the first thing you have to do is offer up some information about your digital footprint. Maybe it’s an email address, maybe it’s a telephone number or a shipping address or even more sensitive information like your banking details. Most of the time these service providers include clauses in their terms and conditions explaining that gathering this information is vital to the very sevices they are looking to provide to you. They may also explain in depth how they would never share this information with anybody, but trust me when I say that the fine print offers up a very different story.

Mark Zuckerberg famously said that privacy is dead, and for the most part he is right, digital privacy is virtually non-existent. The evolution of the service delivery model has meant that any modern business operating over the web, telephone or mobile channels are collecting as much of your digital footprint as they can under the auspices of wanting to provide a better consumer experience for you. The truth of the matter is that it is a business and revenue driver! By harvesting your digital information these service providers can tailor their service to be more relevant to you as a customer and thus drive more spend from your wallet be it plastic, electronic, contactless or otherwise.

Next week I will discuss how these service providers use our personal information, why we should be concerned and how it impacts our digital identities.

Enjoy your digital week…

Richard