Metadata gets a lot of bad press. Between security breaches, snooping, and identity theft, it is no wonder this very valuable tool doesn’t get to show its positive attributes very easily. This interesting information came to our attention by Marketing Profs in their article, “Metadata Helps You Create Better Customer Experiences.”
Customer service is a constantly evolving process. Expectations change as do the skills to be responsive as well as recover any service lost. Metadata can help.
An online advisor is a perfect example of metadata being used for good. Each question and answer is a metadata field with a set of possible values. The key is to have corresponding fields and values in the metadata associated with each product. The online adviser can then match these values in the form and the product. By offering the shopper the chance to indicate likes and dislikes, the adviser can learn more about the shopper’s preferences.
With any database project, it is important to remember the value of a solid taxonomy. How the content is classified impacts the findability of your data. Professionals should look for an experienced builder of solid standards-based taxonomies to associate content for appropriate machine-assisted indexing. Access Innovations can provide solutions that are ANSI compliant.
Melody K. Smith
Sponsored by Access Innovations, the world leader in thesaurus, ontology, and taxonomy creation and metadata application.
