Relay-Version: version B 2.10 5/3/83; site utzoo.UUCP Posting-Version: version B 2.10 5/3/83; site grkermit.UUCP Path: utzoo!linus!decvax!genrad!grkermit!larry From: larry@grkermit.UUCP (Larry Kolodney) Newsgroups: net.flame Subject: Re: A serious flame against telephone so - (nf) Message-ID: <642@grkermit.UUCP> Date: Thu, 1-Sep-83 11:31:33 EDT Article-I.D.: grkermit.642 Posted: Thu Sep 1 11:31:33 1983 Date-Received: Thu, 1-Sep-83 19:55:30 EDT References: <287@inmet.UUCP> Organization: GenRad Inc., Concord, MA Lines: 62 With all this flaming about telephone solicitors, I feel obliged to set the record straight. I spent a year and a half working for a firm that did telephone surveys and soliciting. The method they used to get the phone numbers varied according to the job. For intance, if we were doing newspaper readership survey's we usually got the numbers straigth out of the phonebook, EXCEPT, we added 1 to each number to insure that we got all the unlisted ones as well. For nationwide type surveys, such as political, or product recognition, we got the numbers from a computer printout provided by some company in connecticut. They seemed to be generated so that each area code appeared in proportion to its population. SInce these were often also bumped (add or sub 1), we got plenty of unlisted numbers from them too. For the selling end, we were selling a totally useless "lost credit card service". We got the names from VISA card holders at a big NY, who was selling the service. The people who do these things generally fall into two categories. High school/college students, and housewives. THese people get paid less than $4 an hour, and usually don't last much more than a few months. The work is boring (after a few days anyway), frustrating, and degrading. You are forced to lie and beg on the phone just to keep people talking. You have a quota per hour that you must fill, and are constantly being berated to get more done. Please, if you get one of these calls, don't take it out on the person calling. Odds are he/she is an underpaid worker who dislikes calling you as much as you dislike getting the call. If you have the time, humor the person and do the survey or listen to the sell. If you don't, be civil. Always remember to get the name of the company though, so you get call them up and blow an air horn into the phone of the manager. As a postscript, ever since I've worked there, I've lost all faith in any sort of survey results. The survey's we did were done by poorly trained, barely literate people who had no qualms about making up answers if the person on the phone did not answer correctly. Many of the people you speak to on the phone don't really seem to understand the question, but answer anyway. I had one case where the lady just kept saying 'yes'. So, that what I put, as I was intructed to do. Larry ("Hi, my name is Larry, and I'm calling you from NY for RMH Research, a national firm the conducts public opinion survey, we're doing a survey on 'household products' and I'd like to ask you a few questions if I may") Kolodney -- Larry Kolodney (The Devil's Advocate) {linus decvax}!genrad!grkermit!larry (until Sept. 8) (ARPA) lkk@mit-ml (after sept. 1)