In keeping clients aware of relevant new developments, be that through lists of new articles or summaries of news, a special challenge is tuning the periodic alerts and heads-ups not just to the topic at hand but also to the recipient's "appetite". Years ago, I wrote an article for SEARCHER magazine entitled "Keep Me Posted - But Not Too Much" commenting on the dilemma clients see between wanting to be comprehensively abreast of their fields and avoiding overload. When we instigate a flow of current awareness information for clients, it is essential that we gauge their preferred style of consumption ... are they "infovores" who prefer to glance at 50 items to select the 3 they care about because they do not want to lose out on serendipity, or are they "selectovores" who are content with a more limited number of items to look through, relying perhaps on supplementary means of being made aware of key new developments? It is important to ask up front: "If it's between getting too many hits so you have to scan through many items yourself, or getting too few so you might miss a potentially relevant item ... where do you lean? Do you want a daily email, or should I batch the news?"
Time will tell if the client begins to lean differently from the original answer. One helpful value-added service is to categorize the hits in a set of alert results: Of the 15 items on the global market for product category X, these 5 focus on consumer research, these 7 point to trade statistics, and these 3 discuss tariffs. Such groupings walk the line between wholesale forwarding of hits and stepping in to judge on the client's behalf what should be deleted, and help clients formulate their modification requests ("the trade statistics items are the most useful for me while tariff items can be placed at the end"). As always, appropriate ongoing follow up with clients is paramount.
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