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penpusherIt's time to discuss the business of the caller. Yes, we're talking about telemarketing companies, these monolithic and anonymous organizations and how they are run, but ultimately, the "voice" of the company are the people who are actually making the dials. The callers.
I can't speak for every telemarketing company in their practice of who they hire to do these calls. But dependent on how stringent the screening process is, there are some potential problems with some of these companies, so, for safety's sake, and for your own peace of mind, let's go over some of the basics of that person who wants to get your credit card info.
When any legitimate telemarketing company calls, representing a client that you have previously dealt with, they should identify themselves by their first and last name, by telemarketing company name and by the organization they are calling about. For example, if I was calling you about the ACLU, you would hear me say: Hi, My name is Dean Anderson, calling from DCM on behalf of the American Civil Liberties Union Foundation.
That information is there to help protect you, the patron. I give my name, I give my company and the organization we are repping as a method of being transparent. We want you to know who we are, so if there are any problems that occur, from something you find insulting or offensive being said during our conversation, to a problem with the transaction as it was processed, you will know the name of the person who called, you will have the name of our company and you can, of course, go back to the organization with any complaints as well.
I think most legitimate telemarketing companies are now operating using this standard, for just that reason.
In addition, we are happy to link you to our Company Website so you can learn a bit more about us, put managers on the phone to speak with you if there is a request or need for that and generally make it very clear who we are and what we are trying to do. We, as a telemarketing company, are the conduit between the organization we represent and the patrons who support it, and that is an important responsibility, that is taken very seriously.
Of course, some people are long time patrons who have been called by us countless times on behalf of certain clients and recognize us by name or even voice. Some of our clients have been long term users of our company, because we are very good at what we do.
Another element that adds to the legitimacy of the call is our phone number. If you have caller ID on your phone, cable system or smartphone, you can see both the number and some sort of identifying name to let you know who is calling before you pick up. (Which is why we still get a lot of unanswered phones during a shift - people see our ID and ignore the call!) Having the phone number visible allows you to have another piece of information if there is a problem.
Sometimes people dial that number back after they let it ring at a different time to try and figure out who called them. People can be so Passive-Aggressive.
There is a lot to protect you if you are called by a telemarketer. You should, if you can, take note of the name of the person who calls you and their company. You might be surprised that you may have been called from the same company multiple times over the years on behalf of different clients! Anyone attempting to place fraudulent charges on your card would be caught and the charges would be revoked.
Now, there are some telemarketing companies that want to have a high rate of turnovers when dealing with calling people. What I'm saying is that by design, some companies want to dump out a lot of callers and work them for 8-9 months, maybe a year and get a bunch of new people.
Why would that be?
It's simply to cut down on costs. Depending on the pay structure, it's more affordable for some companies to go through callers in a hurry, because some companies have to pay veteran callers more. And depending on the pay scale, it might actually benefit the telemarketing company (but not the client who hires them) to have less-skilled workers dialing. It's definitely cheaper in the short term, and depending on what the client wants to get for funding, it may not matter. If you're asking for 5 dollars per call, pretty much anyone could potentially ask for that and get it.
It gets rather complicated when you need to start doing the math, but the bottom line is companies that are trying to cut costs usually do it first by reducing the money made by callers. And really, that will hurt those companies in the long term because no good caller is going to work for a company that always abuses them.
To take it to that final step, the negative element of this is something these companies may not have considered. If the caller is getting abused, not getting paid fairly, they might start jotting credit card numbers and working a scam to defraud people. While the caller themselves would be the criminal in a case like that, the telemarketing company would also be on the hook for it, and knowing how lawsuits work, that company would likely have to pay a lot in civil damages, and maybe go out of business themselves. Clearly the potential risk is there, under those circumstances.
So, my word to the wise is to be aware of the people who call you via telemarketing. Ask them to repeat their names and company if you didn't catch it the first time. Get a phone number if you don't have a caller ID; that will provide extra security. And if the call has a blocked phone number, find out why. Ask questions about the company if you have any, including the URL to the website. Request to speak to a manager if you are at all unsure of what's going on, and, as always, if you don't like what you hear, you can always hang up!
I can't speak for every telemarketing company in their practice of who they hire to do these calls. But dependent on how stringent the screening process is, there are some potential problems with some of these companies, so, for safety's sake, and for your own peace of mind, let's go over some of the basics of that person who wants to get your credit card info.
When any legitimate telemarketing company calls, representing a client that you have previously dealt with, they should identify themselves by their first and last name, by telemarketing company name and by the organization they are calling about. For example, if I was calling you about the ACLU, you would hear me say: Hi, My name is Dean Anderson, calling from DCM on behalf of the American Civil Liberties Union Foundation.
That information is there to help protect you, the patron. I give my name, I give my company and the organization we are repping as a method of being transparent. We want you to know who we are, so if there are any problems that occur, from something you find insulting or offensive being said during our conversation, to a problem with the transaction as it was processed, you will know the name of the person who called, you will have the name of our company and you can, of course, go back to the organization with any complaints as well.
I think most legitimate telemarketing companies are now operating using this standard, for just that reason.
In addition, we are happy to link you to our Company Website so you can learn a bit more about us, put managers on the phone to speak with you if there is a request or need for that and generally make it very clear who we are and what we are trying to do. We, as a telemarketing company, are the conduit between the organization we represent and the patrons who support it, and that is an important responsibility, that is taken very seriously.
Of course, some people are long time patrons who have been called by us countless times on behalf of certain clients and recognize us by name or even voice. Some of our clients have been long term users of our company, because we are very good at what we do.
Another element that adds to the legitimacy of the call is our phone number. If you have caller ID on your phone, cable system or smartphone, you can see both the number and some sort of identifying name to let you know who is calling before you pick up. (Which is why we still get a lot of unanswered phones during a shift - people see our ID and ignore the call!) Having the phone number visible allows you to have another piece of information if there is a problem.
Sometimes people dial that number back after they let it ring at a different time to try and figure out who called them. People can be so Passive-Aggressive.
There is a lot to protect you if you are called by a telemarketer. You should, if you can, take note of the name of the person who calls you and their company. You might be surprised that you may have been called from the same company multiple times over the years on behalf of different clients! Anyone attempting to place fraudulent charges on your card would be caught and the charges would be revoked.
Now, there are some telemarketing companies that want to have a high rate of turnovers when dealing with calling people. What I'm saying is that by design, some companies want to dump out a lot of callers and work them for 8-9 months, maybe a year and get a bunch of new people.
Why would that be?
It's simply to cut down on costs. Depending on the pay structure, it's more affordable for some companies to go through callers in a hurry, because some companies have to pay veteran callers more. And depending on the pay scale, it might actually benefit the telemarketing company (but not the client who hires them) to have less-skilled workers dialing. It's definitely cheaper in the short term, and depending on what the client wants to get for funding, it may not matter. If you're asking for 5 dollars per call, pretty much anyone could potentially ask for that and get it.
It gets rather complicated when you need to start doing the math, but the bottom line is companies that are trying to cut costs usually do it first by reducing the money made by callers. And really, that will hurt those companies in the long term because no good caller is going to work for a company that always abuses them.
To take it to that final step, the negative element of this is something these companies may not have considered. If the caller is getting abused, not getting paid fairly, they might start jotting credit card numbers and working a scam to defraud people. While the caller themselves would be the criminal in a case like that, the telemarketing company would also be on the hook for it, and knowing how lawsuits work, that company would likely have to pay a lot in civil damages, and maybe go out of business themselves. Clearly the potential risk is there, under those circumstances.
So, my word to the wise is to be aware of the people who call you via telemarketing. Ask them to repeat their names and company if you didn't catch it the first time. Get a phone number if you don't have a caller ID; that will provide extra security. And if the call has a blocked phone number, find out why. Ask questions about the company if you have any, including the URL to the website. Request to speak to a manager if you are at all unsure of what's going on, and, as always, if you don't like what you hear, you can always hang up!
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no subject
Date: 2014-03-12 02:54 pm (UTC)I think those hours were some of the most stressful I've encountered.
no subject
Date: 2014-03-13 02:28 am (UTC)There is less stress in telemarketing, even on something like the DNC, if you can believe it!