Are you up in arms about the increasing number of unsolicited and pre-recorded telephone calls you get…?
I am. It may work — why would they do it if it did not? — but it gives marketing a bad name.
Just this morning, I had two come in to my business phone. First was a pre-recorded “courtesy call”; second was a pre-recorded broadcast demanding “attention business owners.” How aggravating. In email marketing we call it “spam,” and we have laws against it. In telephone marketing, we have “do not call lists.” But these laws do not keep marketers away from these obnoxious practices. While the practices may produce results, they do little to improve the stature of marketing.
Maketers should think about how the tactics we use do our own profession a disservice.
I think anybody who is responsible for this sort of marketing should be beaten severely in the face.
I don’t see how it works, unless they’re counting on people who are too nice to hang up the phone and who will order something just to make the call end. For my part, I will strictly NEVER buy anything that is telemarketed to me, and that includes long distance service, magazines, and it even includes donations to places like the Fraternal Order of Police. If you market me by telephone, you will never see a dime of my money, and if I’m already invested with you, I will drop your service as soon as I hang up on you.
I second your and JD’s sentiments. I dont think its what Alexander Bell had in mind. Unsolicited calls on a cell phone is akin to walking into a bathroom stall on someone. I haven’t recieved any yet but, when I do, marketers beware, your rudeness will never reap rewards. For those of you who do this type of marketing, I hope you waste money untill you find yourself in a soup line for being so mindless.
As a consumer I get many of these which is a problem because under the “Do Not Call” spirit they are invading my home, the idea of “personal sanctuary.”
From a business perspective I have received them as well but its not as annoying because when you work in Marketing you are a spender of money and its not wrong for other business to solicit you. I won’t say a recorded message would win any business from me. However, we have experimented with recordings for things like reminders when people registered to attend a webinar or live event and we remind them about it the day before. This is different because to some degree the targets opted into the process by registering. THat being said, we found after testing that the recorded calls were less effective than live calls. So we decided to go back to spending resource time for live reminder calls.
There may be some limited legit application for this but its a question of efficacy.
And what’s with the newest breed of spam calls that I keep getting lately? A collect call from a “prisoner” in the local county jailhouse?!? At first I thought it was a horrific/brilliant/sneaky marketing tactic. Then after the third occurrence, it dawned on me that it might have been one of my ex-husbands.
Naw… none of them were that clever. ;]
I HATE those spam calls with a passion. I just got a new number maybe four months ago, and I was on the calling list for an automated service instantly. It was unreal! Luckily I got myself on the “Do not call list,” but that takes a month to go through. I think it’s ridiculous that marketing services are using this as an effective form of marketing. Don’t they realize most people just ignore them?
Last year I assumed a marketing leadership role with a company that utilized this type of outbound communication. The company experienced some amount of positive success with it. They also incurred some very strong unpleasant reactions from prospects. I have discontinued the practice entirely.
The most annoying thing about them is when they go to voicemail and start “talking” before the outgoing message is finished. It ends up sounding like somone suddenly turned on “The Price Is Right” and decided to blast it to your phone.
Then, of course, the hang up….they won’t! When I’m attempting to ignore a “spam call” and I have finished listening to how I can buy the secrets to becoming a millioniare in less than 2 years by working only 5 hours a week from home for only $69.95; I get the joy of hearing their phone go off the hook and start that lovely 30 sec, 120 decibal lulaby: “WHA-WHA-WHA-WHA-WHA…”. (The “secret” is probably instructions on how to get phone #’s, record your voice, set your computer to make calls 24/7, and the 5 hours a week is spent counting how many orders you landed)
Needless to say, I quickly and permanantly “fixed” the volume.
It is interesting though. Someone has to be buying. Otherwise, why waste the time and money.
Hey, does anyone know about telemarketers getting cell phone numbers? I’ve been seeing notices all around Oklahoma City warning people and telling them to call a “Do Not Call” number. I’m afraid the “Do Not Call” number is a way to GET your cellphone #.
Thanks for this post. It was nice to finally vent.
Just as I was reading a new comment today, I got another pre-recorded phone ad. So what are we marketers going to do about it? I welcome all ideas.
Does it work? That’s the bottom line. If it produces more compensation than agravation then it will continue. Has anybody experienced either positive or negative results. Love to know
Everytime you get a call like that, hang on and punch numbers till you get a live person on the phone. The caller gets paid a fee for each person they talk to, as well as a commision on what you might buy. Too many fees paid and too much time wasted without a sale and this methold of marketing becomes too costly to use effectively.
My name is John Papageorge.
I have a complaint that’s right out of a motion picture:
I am getting calls that when I pick up no one is there. What’s strange is that they are sometimes my friends numbers without them having any record of calling or calls that dangerously come close to imitating my friends numbers such as 925-863-7773 when my friend Lisa’s number is 925-683-7773. No one has been able to help me.
Please give me advise.
John Papageorge
415-699-6910
Sadly I’m so fed up with the practice I no longer accept calls from charities either. When I do get snagged by one of these calls I immediately stop them and request the number they are calling from and the number I need to call back along with their name and business address. 9 time out of 10 they hang up. I used to turn it into a sex call, but can’t do that when the little ones are awake.
Thanks Roy, but I solved this problem using Call Control for BlackBerry. It’s excelent application. It works awesome!
You can try it here http://www.everycall.us/store/product/call-control-blackberry/details.html
Mobile spam is really horrible!!