When SHOULD You Use Robocalls?
Most of the time, robocalls are used all wrong
I once wrote, “If you are trying to sell me something, or if you want my vote, I want contact with a human being who can answer my questions.” Yet I get robocalls all the time from clueless “marketers” who don’t understand this simple truth, or can’t be bothered with it. Worse, a lot of these calls are hangups, and far too many show up in the middle of the night. Would it be so difficult to program a function that blocks each area code between 9 p.m. and 9 a.m, local time? It won’t help cell-phone travelers but it will help a lot of home-based entrepreneurs who don’t always remember to turn the bedroom ringer off at night.
I have one message for these cretins:
–> Stop spamming me. I don’t buy from spammers.
I’ve spent years preaching the gospel of client-centered marketing. Marketing should be driven by the customer. You want to be found when the prospect is searching for great content about what you do. You want to be ready when that client calls or emails. But you don’t want to be spamming the prospect with canned, inflexible messages. It doesn’t work in social media, it doesn’t work in e-mail, and it doesn’t work on the phone.
But that doesn’t mean the technology should be tossed out. There are times I actually welcome a robocall, and other times when I tolerate them:
These robocalls are welcome:
- From a school where I have a child enrolled, or the one where my wife works, announcing a closing or delay
- From my town or state government, warning of a road closing, water service issue, etc., or giving polling hours for an election
- From my utility company, updating me on a storm-related outage
- From one of my credit card-issuing banks, flagging potentially fraudulent activity and offering to connect me with a human being if there is an issue
And these I’ll grit my teeth and tolerate:
- A healthcare provider confirming an appointment
- A business that I regularly patronize, announcing a special time-limited offer and giving me a reason why it can’t wait for me to check my e-mail
- A reminder that an online or in-person event I’ve signed up—and especially one that I’ve paid for—is about to start
Notice a pattern? What do all of these have in common? I’ll skip a couple of lines so you can take a guess before I tell you.
Figure it out yet?
Here it is:
These are organizations with whom I have an existing relationship, using the tool to convey crucial information. They are not interrupting my day—or worse, my sleep—to sell me something. They are not horning on on me and forcing a relationship where none exists. The ones I welcome are telling me something I need to know; the ones I tolerate at least tell something they need me to know on the basis of our past interaction.
And that should be your guideline in using any intrusive marketing (or informational) method.
