Schedule for not tomorrow, but next Wednesday--

[azurelunatic]

I'm probably going to be late to writing group next Wednesday, the 22nd. Work called this morning and wanted me to come in for a client call. I'm a supervisor, and I'm still one of the first people pulled out of the woodwork off their regular schedule when the $ISSUE_SIDE_JOB clients are going to be listening to the survey.

I'm not going to be saying no to the client call bonus and extra hours. I'm very good with $ISSUE_SIDE_JOB. I monitor it very well because I can nitpick. I can recognize that the proper response to a "Nobody here" is not "ah, that means no one in the demographic category lives in the household -- NEXT!", it is along the lines of "Do you mean someone of $CATEGORY lives there, but isn't available right now, or do you mean that there is no one of $CATEGORY that lives there at all?" There are different categorizations for the "not home right now", the "they do live here but I won't let you do a survey with them", "no one fitting that description lives here at all," and (my favorite), the "you've got to be on crack to think that someone of $CATEGORY lives here, because this is an $INCOMPATIBLE_BUSINESS!" (My favorite incompatible business combination has to be "teenagers" and "strip club".)

Comments

[kokuten.livejournal.com]

I occasionally get telemarketing calls of one sort or another. There's 2 local charity organizations that are allowed to call me in this manner, and both get polite, enthusiastic responses (big brothers big sisters and ARC of Anchorage).

Most everything else gets.. different.. responses. Usually it's a simple "no, and do not call this number ever again". Sometimes I get.. wrong.

So, how can I convey that anyone calling my house who does not share blood with me is unwelcome, without breaking poor little phone goons minds?

[azurelunatic]

For actual telemarketers, mention the Do Not Call list, and if you can, remember the organization's name in case they call back.

For survey joints, it really depends on internal terminology. "I don't care what you call it, I do not ever want your organization to call me again, and I don't care that you're not selling anything, I don't want to hear from you" might do it. My company's computer system calls it "remove" (irate or non-irate) rather than just "refused"; what that *does* is puts the number in the company's internal "exclude file", which file is run against the numbers that come to Field from Sampling. So even if your number is being bartered about on a list of residential numbers in the Anchorage area, being in a company's exclude file would prevent them from calling you. Automatically.

If an individual phone goon is incapable of figuring this out (and Snarky Lady Monitor/Supervisor/Trainer tries ever so hard to deter the dumb ones at the application meeting, to the point of saying "Just go home. This job is not for you.") the supervisor should be able to sort out what you want, even if they can't make the phone goon figure it out. (Inability to figure out what a respondent means by "I don't want to do a survey" or "I don't want your company to call me ever again" is distinct from a job-mandated "You have to at least attempt to convince them to do the survey once". Repeated failure to attempt to avert can cost someone their job. Repeated failure to understand a "Don't call me again ever" can also cost someone their job.) In order to block your number from being called, the supervisor will need, at minimum, the phone number to be blocked and the knowledge that you want them to never call you again.