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tez
2007-01-20 02:00 am UTC (link)

For the latter -- I have to wonder if some companies look at 'time spent on each call' as a measure of an employee's performance. Like -- the more calls you make is good, but if they're all ten-second hangups they're going to look twice at keeping you in your job or something.

I've never worked telemarketing, I don't know if that's true or not, but it kind of makes sense to me.

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thesilentsenshi
2007-01-20 02:06 am UTC (link)

Interesting point. It doesn't make me less inclined to hang up. I have enough on my plate I don't have time to waste on people who keep selling me something I've already said I don't want.

We also get magazines sent to our house that we never ordered and are never going to buy. Why do they keep sending them? ^^; I swear some of these places don't follow ordinary logic. >_>;

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	tez 2007-01-20 02:10 am UTC (link)
	Oh, it doesn't make me less irritated either but it does explain why they might be motivated to try and ignore your 'not interested'. (Reply to this)(Parent)

faemageforsaken
2007-01-20 02:31 am UTC (link)

From my experience (over 10 years ago), it doesn't make any difference. If it's a quick hangup, that just means they have time to get more calls in and up their chances of getting someone who *will* buy or whatever. It all depends on the place, I'm sure, but hanging up quickly was always a bonus to me in the few telemarketing jobs I had. It meant it was one less call where I was being abused for doing a job beneath my dignity in the first place. Oh, the things we do when we're young, stupid, and desperate for money....

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grand_sealink
2007-01-20 05:37 am UTC (link)

I have heard from some friends that used to work call centers that they had to talk for a certain amount of time/attempt to sell a certain number of times.

So when telemarketers call, I say directly, "I'm not interested in what you're selling. But talk to me until you get paid." Works pretty well.

What *I* hate are those GODDAMN RECORDED TELEMARKETERS. I don't even get the opportunity to screw with them.

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	(Anonymous) 2007-01-20 04:24 pm UTC (link)
	I hate the ones that go, "Please hold for an important call from so-and-so." WHAT. (Reply to this)(Parent)

(Anonymous)
2007-01-20 06:33 pm UTC (link)

I get telemarketers that call repeatedly- three or four times a day, every day. (I know it's them because it's the only time my Caller ID says Unavailable) When I finally break down and answer the phone, half the time there's no one there. That is what frustrates the hell out of me- I mean, if I called someone that often and then hung up when they answered, I would probably get charged with harassment.

...sorry, I'll clean that up.

prairiedawn

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pointandlaugh
2007-01-20 04:20 pm UTC (link)

When I worked there it wasn't quite that high tech - you just had supervisors listening to your calls. And if they heard you give in without rebutting arguments often you were in for a yelling.

(And before anyone thinks getting fired from that job wouldn't be terribly horrible, they would also tell the unemployment office after firing you certain things that would stop you getting any benefits. Having beenn out of it for 7 years I'm pretty sure they were acting illegally towards employees, but we were all 16/17 and terrified of them)

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	tez 2007-01-20 06:48 pm UTC (link)
	Same result then -- if you don't make a serious effort to sell them you get yelled at. (Oh lord, I can imagine -- having tangled with the state L&I department over an unemployment claim, I've learned that all they have to do is say you were fired with cause and zippo, nada, no benefits for you.) (Reply to this)(Parent)

v_digitalwytch
2007-01-22 07:43 pm UTC (link)

At the call centres I worked at, time spent was looked at but depending the department, each looked at it in a different way. Granted we weren't telemarketers, but Sales it didn't matter how long one was on the call as long as a sale was made, the bigger the better. Tech, it was get them off the phone within 10 min or explain why the call went so long. Not sure what billing had, but cancellations had to have at least 2 rebuttals to try and get the person to change thier mind on cancelling.

I was in Tech, and quickly learned to dread the type relay calls since it always seemed like the relay operator was a complete ditz when it came to typing. We were told in training to just speak to the operator as if we were speaking to the customer and every operator I'd get would keep telling me to speak slower or repeat myself no matter how slow I'd go.

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