Liquidmatrix Security Digest » Guest Post: Fight Back Against Telemarketers

Guest Post: Fight Back Against Telemarketers

Author: Dave Lewis
May 3, 2007 at 3:25 pm · Filed under How To, Privacy, Telecom

I had this email sent in today from a Security Digest reader, “superfly”. I read it through, and I felt this is worth posting. This is a little off topic for us but, worth a read. This outlines a campaign to fight back against the telemarketers. Here in Canada we don’t have a “do not call” list. I feel that we sorely need one. Not sure if this will work but, I’m willing to give it a go.

It’s time to take a business approach to solve the issue of unwanted calls at home from telemarketers. We must first recognize that they are a necessary evil, as the numbers strongly support telemarketing campaigns as a cost effective way to generate business. Once we understand that, we can peel the layers of the onion a bit and arrive at solution that might take hold. This solution is so beautiful it will appease the sales organization as well as you, the person who does not want these calls to happen.

Here is the plan: when you get a call that you expect (caller ID, or ring pattern) to be from a telemarketer, answer the phone. Wait for the computer that dialed your number to hand you off to a live person (1 to 3 seconds), and when they start talking simply say ‘Block Me’ and hang up.

Why this will work: First of all, telemarketing companies live and die by analyzing statistics of all shapes and sizes. Don’t think for one minute that they are not using every aspect of the outbound phone campaigns to their advantage. One example: Did you ever wonder why you sometimes get a rash of calls during the day as evidenced by your fancy phone log, and then slowly but surely you start getting more when you are home at night? They use the ‘no answer’ statistics to track down when you are most likely to be home, and then they move in for the kill.

Cut to the chase: ok – here is how we use the stats, and a business case to our advantage. If you simply ignore the calls, the system will track it as a ‘no answer’ call. This means you are still a ‘nobody’ and they will keep dialing around the clock to track you down. If you answer the call, you are now being tracked for other bits of data – we are focusing on is call duration, and response to the call. If a call is transferred by the computer that called you to a live agent, they are now engaged with what the company hopes to be a potential customer. This costs them MONEY to answer this call. More money than it costs them to have a call go unanswered. If they analyze their statistics, and your number is consistently answered but the call duration is less than one second “Block Me”, this makes a very strong case that your number should NOT be used. By dialing your number It is clearly costing them more money, and they are getting NO RESULTS. That’s the business case, short and sweet.

By saying “Block Me” you are requiring the agent to type this into their call record application, which takes time which equals money. (note: not all call centres are required to make notes for short calls, but the majority do – remember they LOVE their DATA). Also, by further saying ‘Block Me’ we can identify ourselves as an organized (somewhat) group of citizens that do not want to be harassed via the telephone.

As word spreads, call centre managers will probably realize that this is a big help to them. I mean what business person is going to waste money on extremely cold leads? Sure, it does fly in the face of the core concept of telemarketing – but why can’t they be smart about it? I understand that it’s a ‘numbers’ game – the more you call, the more you can sell. This number will actually increase as a percentage if they can weed out those who DO NOT WANT TO BE CALLED.

They will still have those that enjoy the calls, and spend money and allow them to make their quotas. But then they will have an entire community of ‘Block Me’ people that are helping them make their calling lists more efficient.

Not to mention that saying ‘block me’ and hanging up provides a great satisfaction.

So get out there, answer the calls and say ‘BLOCK ME’ and then hang up. Let’s see if they are really listening.

Superfly – Toronto.

PS: Quite possibly the government will get off it’s arse and implement a call blocking scheme similar to the US (http://www.cbc.ca/news/background/telemarketing/), but I’m not holding my breath just yet.