Let's NOT get cosy

It's been a while since my last blog and I have to take full blame for being a lazy so-and-so. Sometimes I feel like blogging, sometimes a twittering, sometimes - well you get the picture.

I'm compelled to mention that I have just successfully re-arranged the house insurance via the site that sports an annoying, singing, moustachioed irritant and saved over £110. Not much wrong there and, after checking all the details, I must say that I am very happy with the whole thing (and not a bloody meerkat in sight).

My delight has been slightly dented, however, by the prompt email that followed. This opened with 'Dear Tony.'

If you want to really upset me, try calling me by my first name without any invitation to do so. At 59 years old, I was brought up in a world where everybody was treated with respect and addressed properly until invited to be familiar. A younger person would always be expected to use formality and, in the rest of Europe, this is still very much the rule.

Now, I know that it's just a computer algorithm that is assembling the information and pinging off the mail to me but that's beside the point. It took somebody to make the decision that these communications, most of which want to sell me something, should be familiar in tone.

I'll bet anything you like that he/she was no more than half my age and very used to a world which has now thrown away most of the rules. Nothing wrong with that at all unless you want to sell into the large market of baby-boomers and retirees - large and growing.

And that is my main point. What kind of business decision says 'let me potentially alienate a third of my market in just two words?' Only a dumb one.

All the information is present to Go Compare my DOB, title and surname and to politely address me as 'Dear Mr Balmforth.'

I have no intention of being intimate with a computer.