A second chance for the Spam callers
When rage becomes their daily routine
We all have had this experience. Back in a time when true caller and smart phones were out of the way and all the features we had were just SMS and real calls.
Even I recollect the time when I would spend Rs.1 for each message just to send a joke.
In this period of humanity, there was another thriving business — advertisements and product pitch calls from call centers.
Ugh, Spammers!, goes your mind when the person mentions the organization they are related to. Our response, most of the time was one of the following:
- <Slam the phone down>
- Shout and then <Slam the phone down>
- Rarely, show interest to know more
As more and more companies tried this strategy, the success rate of calls kept falling down. With several metrics to use while analyzing, it quickly became evident to us that the strategy was not working. Even though time passed by and we became more modern, these traditions predominantly prevail to date despite poor success rates.
Yet though we whole heartedly despise them, I would like to give you a view of their side of the equation to have a second perspective about this entire issue and maybe why we should be more caring for these spammers.
Maybe you should try…
When I get the call from my cellular connection company about upgrading, my natural train of thought is usually along the lines of :
Maybe if I did not ask for it, I do not need it?
It might be the new game changing offer that I ought to grab onto, but the very monotonous voice and none captivating manner of speech entirely destroys the message and my zero tolerance mind goes to the I cannot hear you mode where my only course of action is to put the phone down as soon as possible.
Advertising without sounding unnecessary is a problem that many are still trying to solve and these call centers are the go to option. In many ways, these call centers are the first line of defense when corporates reach potential audience and the unexpected hate.
Venting out our fury
Sometimes, calls can be the other way round. We call to complain our products failing expectations and demand for a fix. This is even more challenging because we deliberately seek out ways to vent out our fury and ease our anguished minds. But from their end, they deal with so many complains that I would not be surprised if they get a headache at the end of the day. The worse part is that these employees cannot release this transmitted anger and it will consume them if not well managed.
After returning home from a meet up, we placed for an order on Swiggy. A few minutes later, I received a call about the 6 samosas.
“I am sorry Sir but we have only 4 samosas” said the man who already sounded half scared. For some reason, I decided to have a stiff response to this.
“Then why did you offer 6 on the app? Why betray the customer?”
Words seemed to fail him and all he kept saying was I am sorry sir, would you like to change your order? After a few iterations of my rage, I settled for 4 samosas.
After the call ended, I took some time to think about why this happened. It was then that it struck me that probably the store had only 4 samosas remaining and it was the swiggy call centre chap’s responsibility to ensure that I knew about it. He was just a bit too frail to make the point clear to me.
What surprised me even more was that he had to deal with customers like my self every day, the borderline customers who get angry over such minute details. Living such a life can really be challenging for these frail beings who are just trying to make a living through these calls.
A heart for the obedient employees
How often have we been in this position where we blast at the spam callers when even they don’t really want to do this job? Our demands and the corresponding supplies to be made have a major mismatch which call centres fix. Our machine is not working? They patiently listen our hours and hours long rant about poor servicing and in the end both the parties close the call with headaches, except that the one at the call centre has another such iteration to follow subsequently.
So what can we do differently? How can we not further trample on the simple life that these poor souls lead? Surprisingly, it is not hard! You should first try to understand the point of the conversation at hand and then think if you should give in to your irritation. Maybe you can politely disperse the tension in the banter and make it clear of your disappointments without attacking the one at the call centre.
Spam will remain spam, but maybe the way we deal with it can be improved. No one likes being shouted at and the least we can do is not hurt them through our response. We do what ever it takes to make a living, and this is their way, whether they like it or not.
Being polite to say no can heal lives and help live a better tomorrow.
