Spammers and Marketers....
One of the greatest inventions of our time has been caller ID. To say that it has saved me hours upon hours of precious time is an understatement.... and I make it a practice to never answer the phone without checking first. Why is this an such an important tool? Because of the ridiculous amount of marketing calls I get in one day.
In the past (pre CID), no matter how many times I stop them from continuing further with the latest offer they have, they would continue on how I needed their product, service, etc.... I used to wonder what part of "NO" didn't they understand. Besides, if I wanted said product/ service, I would have contacted them.... after all, I still think I'm still intelligent enough to know how to use the phone book, and I've never been afraid to ask questions or directions to things I needed.
In the course of our daily lives, we are inundated with offers from credit cards via the mail system. If I wasn't interested then, and fed my shredder with the contents, what would make me interested now? Calling me with the same offer a month later will not make me change my mind.... besides, I know well enough that these promos never come cheap, or free. Somehow, it's going to change the dynamics of payment schedules or added fees, or some other fine print they never really discuss with you. No thanks! Leave me alone, I don't want your wonderful offers. Quit cutting down so many trees to send me four or five of the same letters in the mail, and quit calling me to tell me how much I need this in my life. If I've gotten this far without you, I can continue on without your accumulated waste of time.
It's bad enough when they hit you up at home, now they've invaded my office as well. Because I'm a local caterer, I know that 99% of my calls will be local calls for food. Anything that comes up on the caller ID from another state will most certainly be a marketer.... so I throw them into voice mail by not answering. We may travel far from the city to deliver food, but not to Utah.
What's annoying about this is that their calls now come in at unheard of times. What ever happened to the etiquette of not calling before 9 AM, and not after 5 PM? I guess 7:30 AM is the new 9 AM, and 9 PM is the new 5 PM. Hmmmm.... guess I should ask them that sometime, if I choose to answer the phone. Or better yet, pull a Jerry Sienfeld on them and ask for their number to call them back. Well that wouldn't work, because they never have a number to call back... only outgoing lines.
Spammers are right up there on the list as well. When you take the time to type out a post, you are mainly doing it for some type of internal well-being.... whether to keep your friends up to date, or just plain venting at lifes woes. The last thing you expect is a spammer to come invade your comment section. Oh yeah, thanks for the comment on how wonderful my post is, but no I am not interested in the web address you give me on how I could make money by going to some site out there in cyberspace. It's that very cyberspace that leads me into viruses and fried computer parts. Once again, no thanks!
I could never understand why anyone would willingly pick a job that leads to nothing but an acute amount of disappointment. If I had a job that continually irrated people with annoying phone calls, was blasted out for said phone calls.... it would surely lead me into a depressive state of uselessness. That is one reason why I do not do cold calling with my business. My method is to market with venues, and depend on word of mouth.... as well as put a nice ad in the yellow pages. Cold calling leaves a bad taste in peoples minds, word of mouth doesn't. This has become a very successful tactic in getting my business name out there.
Besides, when you come to think about it, don't you do most of your daily business relying upon the advice of others? It's become a world of "who you know" and "who you trust"... and I just don't trust all these unknown propositions that inundate me by the hour. I do trust the people who I've known through relationships we've built up, as well as years we've invested in each other... and it only makes sense for me to start there. As I mentioned before, I don't have trouble with asking for help and getting directions, I just need a "friend" reference to feel comfortable with certain things. And yes, sometimes I do stick my neck out there farther than usual, but I've had some great luck with that... and only do it on a absolutely necessary basis.
In the process of typing this post, I've already received three marketing calls. Bear in mind that it is a saturday and not quite noon yet. These are the very people who have called me day in and day out for months. If I don't answer or call back from their voice messages, don't they get it?
posted by Ellen at 2:35 PM
8 Comments:
Guess I'm pretty patient not to have caller ID. I just break in n say "I'm sorry, I'm not interested, please take me off your list." but they always seem to call repeatedly.
I never even got on the do not call list, because I figured it puts you on another auto list somewhere, such as for the charity calls. I'm registered as a business, too, n that gets ya double-calls!
Sometimes I choose not to be interrupted by letting the machine pick it up, almost all those are ads, who'll hang up on it, n if it's some one I know, I can pick it up, after cleaning the paint-brush or whatever I'm working on.
I really hate when no one but the ads call ya for weeks!
I used to break in on them to tell them I wasn't interested either, and had some very unsavory remarks said back. Being that I was always taught to be polite, it was hard at first, but not anymore. The worst thing that happens is when I'm on the line with a client and get a call waiting beeping in.
Thinking that it's another client, and with no way to tell, I get roped in on the marketer.
You're right, Snaggle, they always call repeatedly no matter what you do.... and I am on the no call list.
So it doesn't work ID on call-waiting? I've never had call waiting.I tried 3-way for awhile, but didn't use it often, so dropped it.
Well, this week every one's complaining they can't call cause the line's been busy (dial-up) all week!
Nope, caller ID only works on a free line for me... and never could figure it out on the phone if there was a button for it otherwise. By the time I learn how these new fangled phones work, usually it's time to replace them.
My home phone has dial-up and that ties up that line when my son is on the internet.... office is better with DSL.... and it's all in my house. What would we be without all those wires? A simple trip to the mailbox requires me to take 3 phones, so I don't miss anything.
Soundz like ya need a huge bag or a tool-belt-like phone belt! that's alot to carry. Never mind answering the right one, that would do me in... getting it before voicemail comes on 3-rings...
A trip the the "ladies room" is even more of a challange... but at least they all have different ring tones so I can tell the difference.
Tool-belt... great idea!
I remember those days, you are right, they are so annoying. I haven't had a land line in over 5 years, and I love it. Fortunately I don't get any marketers on my cell (at least at this point in time). Spammers are bad too, very annoying, but I just delete them.
Sounds like you have the right approach when it comes to marketing your own business. Too bad people don't take a lesson from you.
Lee Ann- Thanks for the kind words on my marketing technique... since I'm a lousy cold caller anyhow, I had to figure out a way to make the situation more comfortable for me. (I figured I'm probably not so good at it because I hate it being done to me).
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