Canadian Marketing Blog

Can I End This Call? Technological Hurdles

There are indeed a vast array of channels by which a company can “market” these days, however a more common method of choice lately seems to be that of a pre-recorded voice message.

Personally, I have always responded more favorably to a “live voice”, yet can see the value in utilizing technology to take the place of a human in marketing circumstances. That being said, one would hope that if a company chose to market using this “high tech” methodology, they would at least ensure that the message itself could be both heard and understood.

Upon answering my phone last evening around the dinner hour (always so timely of them!) I was greeted by one of these alien pre-recorded voices, who was already in mid sentence. Apparently she had begun her conversation minutes before the call actually came through my line, so if I chose to listen further, I would have to “assume” certain things about the purpose of her call seeing as I missed the first part altogether! In the middle of making dinner for two young ones, I immediately decided (or at least I thought I did) to end the call.

Moments later (not seconds later, but moments later) with the phone still close by, I attempted to make use of the quiet in my surroundings, and make a social call, only to discover that when pressing “talk” to begin to dial out, this pre-recorded voice was STILL continuing her rant on the other end! I made two other attempts to end the call by hanging up and then trying to get a line to dial out, to no avail!!!!

Finally, on my third try, I was able to connect to the outside world and make my call, all the while wondering what would have happened if my surroundings became one of dire straits emergency, requiring me to dial 911 instead of merely a social call? Would those additional 55 seconds to a minute have been the difference between life and death to one of my children???

It is companies like these that give the telemarketing business a bad name. I wouldn't mind a call from my bank letting me know about new services I might like to take advantage of.

It's experiences like this that drove over 100 million people to sign up for the Do Not Call list in the U.S.

In my opinion, this is a lazy way of doing business to try and save money. Do these companies actually believe that consumers will repsond to this? I agree with Graham, these practices do give the industry; specifically telemarketing a bad name. I still prefer a "live voice" to tell me about new products and services that could be of benefit.

I actually had that emergency situation happen when my children were younger. My wife called at work to say my son was very sick and so I left work to come home. I come home to find the house empty. Before I could do anything I got one these automated telemarketers. I immediately hung and I tried to call my to find what had happened to my family. The message was still playing and I had to wait what seemed like an eternity before I could use my phone. It turned out my wife had taken my son to the hospital. When I later called Bell Canada they said, of course, that their hands were legally tied, but they did offer to send a letter to this company.