04/01/14 23:55
psykofaxnot registered
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Re: I was a PaceSetter tele-marketer, back in the day...
(continued)
Then he described the job. We received stapled sheets of phone numbers and were to call them, in order, reading from a script filled with information and "just the right things to say." If the number had a line through it, we were not to call it. Interesting. That means someone has already called these people, right? He didn't respond to that question. Then he said he would be on the phone with us and would help us handle the call, that the customer would not hear him but we would. He said we were to always ask for "Mr" this or that, or the "man" of the house, and never talk to the women because they didn't know as much about these things and were a lot more likely to hang up (never mind that the vast majority of my calls were answered by women, if they were answered at all). He said that he had made mountains of money with Pace Setter and had started out the same way we were starting out, and if we did well, we could advance in the company, just like him. Ummmm, okay, sure! Why not? Life is weird, after all.
After a total of four hours, including the initial interview, "testing," acceptance, video presentation (45 minutes) and initial information, we were asked if we wanted the job, and we both said "yeah, okay, sure." We were handed the appropriate paperwork and filled them out and were told to report the next morning at 8:45 am for a team meeting. I went home having no idea what was going to happen. He also told us that he would give us two months of work, guaranteed, before letting us go, so we had more than enough time to find our rhythm and get into the "pace" of the job.
I arrived the next morning. The other girl was not there. I was offered a seat in a room. There were other people standing around, team members, as it were. They were young and desperate, like me. I remember this in detail... none of them smiled. They were all nervous, and chose the words they spoke with care. In my experience, people have a variety of things to say about their workplace, even around new hires. Not these people. They said nothing but carefully chosen words about their working there. None of them had been there very long. None of them said anything disparaging about the job. None of them said anything disparaging about our boss, either.
The meeting, led by our boss, commenced, and amounted to everyone talking about how the previous days' calling went and how many appointments they set. In 8 hours, the highest number of appointments set the previous day was six. Sounded like a long day, to me. Then, when everyone had gone through, he made note that the young woman he had hired had not arrived and was therefore fired, and introduced me to the group. Then we went to the call center.
This was not the sort of call center you would find today. In each cubicle was a stapled stack of xerox copies out of various phone books, a couple of pencils, a telephone, and a bulletin board covered with push-pins, and a notebook...no computer, no auto-dialing. This was before the no-call lists were circulating. My job was to start at the top of the sheet and call people and talk to them about Pace Setter, ask if they were home owners, and if they were not, thank them for their time and hang up. If they were, go forward with the script we were given to talk to them about their house, their windows, their siding, their garage doors, and whatever else they might need for their homes, and then try to set them up with an appointment to talk to a sales representative. That day, we were calling South-Central Washington. I sat and listened to some of the other appointment setters to hear what they said. They always said the same thing - they wanted to talk to the man f the house, they were not making a sales call, they were with Pace Setter (have you heard of us? No?! Its because we save you money by selling direct to the customer and not through retail outlets!), very friendly, etc. if the caller was hostile, they returned the hostility in kind, before they identified themselves. Fascinating. I started feeling a little queasy.
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