Robo Calling

By Peter L DeHaan

February 14, 2008

I've been receiving too many robo calls lately.  Although there are warranted applications for automated calls, the ones I've experienced miss the mark.  These calls include residential political calls and business solicitations.  Let's start with the political calls; they are the freshest and most irksome (see my blog entry).  Here's an overview:

• The day before the Michigan Primary, my wife stopped answering the phone out of frustration; she lost count of how many calls we received.

• We received multiple calls per candidate per day during the final push.  This gives one pause.  Were multiple call centers hired, but not coordinated?  Were centers told to keep calling until they ran out of time or met the candidates' budget?  Perhaps the centers were merely instructed to make x number of calls; so they stopped tracking duplicated numbers and met the target.

• On one call, the audio was severely chopped.  We ascertained it was political in nature, but couldn't determine the cause.  What if hundreds or thousands of calls were like that?  Who would know?  The dialouts could be verified; the fact that the calls were answered could (presumably) be verified.  Therefore, the client's calls were made, the call center would be paid, but the communication was useless.

• One day we got the same survey call three times.  For the first two, I gave different answers to the first question ("Yes" and "I already told you"); the survey ended at that point.  The third time, our plan was to respond "No" and see what happened, but our machine answered the call, so we'll never know.

For both political and business calls:

• Some dialers don't recognize (or don't receive) answer supervision.  If you delay answering, the recording starts before you're ready.  (Although the side effect is that more calls can be made per hour!)  If the call goes to voicemail (or an answering machine), there is a high likelihood that the beginning will be missed and you won't know who is calling or why.

• If the call is too long, voicemail might cut it off.  This is problematic if the candidate's or company's name is only provided at the beginning or end of the call.  It did happen.

• If the call is interactive (such as, "press 1" or "say, yes"), it is wasted effort if it ends up in voicemail.  To allow for some utility in these situations, a toll-free number should be given for people to call.  Amazingly, not all recordings include this provision.

• Give people a chance to opt out.  It's common sense – and easy to do if the call is interactive.

• While we're at it, allow the called party to repeat the call – or have it loop – so that desired messages can be replayed in their entirety.

Leading up to the election, I heard a persuasive discourse by a politician as to why political calls are excluded from the DNC legislation.  His eloquent explanation essentially boiled down to "what we have to say is more important then everyone else, therefore our free-speech should not be restricted."

Lastly, people are on the DNC list because they don't want to be called, therefore don't call them.  Just because it is legal doesn't make it right.

Much can be learned from the diatribe – if we are willing to hear.