Less would indeed be more

These days every other service provider- mobile service provider , bank etc seems to have either set up a call centre or engaged the services of a call centre . Or worse - use technology to inundate customers with messages .

Having incurred the cost of a call centre they then seem to try to come up with ways to keep the folks in the call centre or their servers busy . Consumers feel the impact by way of incessant , intrusive , pointless communication via phone calls , text msgs .

Case in point - a mobile service provider . I have the same mobile number for at least 8 years now . Every month the bill is received and paid for ( this would be one of the cases where the payment is paid almost always several days in advance of the due date) . In the past few months there has been a steady stream of text messages...

approximately a fortnight before the due date "You can view your ebill with password 800 "

Few days later " If you have forgotten your password sms 500 to 800 "

A day later " Your bill has been couriered "

A day later " Your bill is due by 16/09/07 . If you have made the payment pl ignore this msg"

A few hours later " Your bill is due by 16/09/07 . If you have made the payment pl ignore this msg "

This message is then received daily for 2-3 days post the due date irrespective of whether the payment is made or not .

Strangely , when the payment is made there is never a message that says " Thank you for your payment " .

There is never a message that says " How happy are you with our service ? sms 1 for very happy , 2 for ok , 3 for unhappy to 800 "

At the very least companies like these can attempt to use technology prudently by sorting through customer history and sending messages such as these where the history shows a need for such messages ( I checked with few folks who endure this service provider and found that they all receive messages with the same frequency )

There seem to be a lot of companies out there who think that communication of this nature constitutes service . Certainly a case when less would be more .