When CRMs Go Too Far

https://www.salesforce.com/blog/2012/07/does-customer-service-ever-go-too-far.html

Corinne Roberts from Salesforce wrote an article on what aspects of customer service turn customers off of buying products. She identified 3 key areas to keep in mind when using your CRM. These are:

Oppressive: She said that you should make yourself available through many channels but not communicate with the same customer through all of them. People get annoyed when you sent them too many messages. The best way to utilize your CRM is to identify the way customers prefer to be contacted and only use that channel to talk to that customer.

Intrusive: Customers don’t want to feel like you’re constantly watching them. She warns to be careful of how much predictive analytics and targeted advertising you use so they don’t feel like you are invading their privacy.

Unsafe: Just because you can do something, and it might be more convenient for the customer, doesn’t mean you should. For this one she gave an example of a car company putting an espresso machine into a car that will endanger drivers. I think a better CRM specific example would be posting publicly about a customer’s current location or their daily routine.

What do you think of these practices she identified? Do you think there are more way that companies can go too far with their CRMs? Do you have any examples of a company going too far?