Ask Mr. Marketing: About those robo-callers.......
After all, we’ve spent several years analyzing various communications tools and general marketing trends.
Yet many readers report they see the connection between marketing and their daily lives, so we must be doing something right.
Then, last week, my insurance agent convinced me there’s still plenty to discuss.
MAD Magazine defines hell as spending eternity talking to an insurance agent. So I’m really lucky, since I genuinely like my agent. She watches out for my needs and does battle on my behalf.
Sure, insurance is a commodity. But I’m buying the relationship, knowing I’m much more than figures in a ledger to her.
Or so I thought until the automated phone call from her office touting me on some new product the firm’s introducing.
For many months I’ve been receiving dozens — nay, hundreds — of robot-voiced calls. Between my daughter’s school, my temple, and the recent election, I’m now numb to these “important messages.” I’ve stopped listening to the disjointed words, echoes, and impersonal communiqués, hanging up the moment they start.
After all, if I don’t matter enough for you to talk to, then you don’t matter enough for me to be listening.
Robo-calls may appear to be a cost-effective way to reach me, but I find them to be counter-productive.
Out of respect, I called my insurance agent to register a complaint. “TALK to me” I pleaded. “Pick up the phone, send an email or a postcard. Do NOT have a machine call me.”
Her regional supervisor wanted more feedback. “This was a test,” he explained. “We rarely get to speak with customers about their feelings in cases like this. Most people just get angry and stop doing business with us.”
Which means if the supervisor’s as smart as I suspect, he recognized I speak for 1,000 other people who feel as I do but haven’t yet said anything.
If you’re not happy with the way you’re being treated by robo-callers, speak up. The person behind the automation might be surprised to learn you’re not interested in developing a relationship with their computer.
With that said, I wish you a week of profitable marketing.
Send in your question for Mr. Marketing at www.askmrmarketing.com.