ireckon blog

Call me crazy....

Posted by: Emily on 19 Jun 2008 @ 1:57 pm Category: Marketing

There’s that something about a ringing phone. For me – I have a few reactions:

• I smile, and rush to pick it up because I can see the number and it’s someone I’ve been dying to speak with
• I cringe, wondering if I have the energy for a conversation that I assume is coming
• I scream (internally of course) because I’m already juggling 15 things, and a phone call is about to distract me (again) from what I’m doing.

No matter my reaction I’m still one of those people who cannot simply let a phone ring without answering it. Lately, I’ve had a few experiences with telemarketers, and as expected – they have not been great ones.

Experience 1: We often receive calls from people trying to pitch a range of things to us here at the office. I received a phone call earlier this week from a Lady asking to speak with Darryl King. As the CEO of the Company that in itself is not a strange request – but he was in a meeting so I asked if I could take a message. ‘Yes, please ask him to call me back on… (insert 16 digit international phone number here).’

So I say ‘can I ask what it’s regarding?’ and the answer is ‘actually I have an email I’d like him to read before he returns my call – what is his email address?’ Obviously by now I’m aware this is probably something a bit dodgy – so I give her mine and tell her I will pass it on.

5 minutes later and a new email appears – straight to my Junk Email Folder. It’s an offer to create a business partnership with a group of developers in India for our programming requirements. Not interested – it can stay in the Junk Email Folder.

Experience 2: My housemate received a phone call from a mobile phone provider offering him a great plan if he switches over. I love a good deal – who doesn’t? He already uses them – strike one.

Strike two followed fairly quickly when he said ‘I’m glad you’ve called though because I actually have been wanting to discuss my plan with someone’, and the response was ‘Have a good day sir, bye’. (?!) He managed to catch the caller before she hung up on him, and joked that it was traditionally the call receiver who hung up on the telemarketer.

In the end the new plan was discussed in detail, and he decided to go ahead with it. When the telemarketer was reading the terms and conditions over the phone to him he asked – ‘will I get a copy of the terms and conditions when you send the plan information to me, or can I access them online?’ The response was ‘have you missed them sir, would you like me to repeat them?’ Absolutely not the point – she repeated them anyway, and the miscommunication continued for about 10 minutes. I sat giggling, listening to his frustration at her repeating herself, not answering his questions and then asking if he’d like to speak to a Supervisor. Strike three – but I would have been long gone by now.

Experience 3: Another call here at work. This time the caller asked if they could speak to the Office Manager or Business Owner. I don’t even have to guess with this one – I know someone’s trying to sell something.

In fact she was asking if we’d like to donate some money to a Cause – and could she rely on me for my support. I didn’t hear the Cause because she was speaking so quickly – presumably because she’s used to trying to get all her words out before she’s hung up on.

When I said ‘I’m sorry I didn’t really catch that’ she hung up on me.

We’ve all come to expect that calls offering us these ‘great’ deals and opportunities will come at an awkward time, will be made from offshore, and we probably won’t want to hear what they say anyway – and it seems the callers themselves have come to expect the same.

These recent calls have not only left me wondering why Companies continue to engage in poorly structured direct marketing campaigns, but also what it’s now doing to my expectations as a consumer. Because I tend to pay close attention to my day to day interactions on several levels – I notice good and bad communication from Companies and am now rarely surprised by either. There are some great campaigns out there – they are relevant and interesting to me and these Companies know it. There is no guess work, and they are not running the risk of annoying me or losing me as a customer. These Companies use their data and specifically target me.

They know when my subscriptions expire, how much I spend making calls with my mobile phone, what I do for a living, the brands of clothing I like, and one of my favourite sites even knows what I like to attempt to cook. With so much information about me floating around I expect to receive some good quality, targeted marketing and offers to extend our relationship – and because I give my details and allow these Companies to contact me – I’d almost be hurt if they didn’t want to develop more of a relationship with me.

So – rather than wasting my time (and theirs), I actually want to receive some relevant deals or offers. Especially if I’m an existing customer, tell me about the special offers and new products and services that I might be interested in! With email marketing, it takes even less time and money to get the information to me than using traditional direct marketing methods.

Anyway – I’m off – I need to check my email to see what time the Sass & Bide sale is on this weekend.

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