“I’m on the do not call list.”

A phrase our QualiSight on-site call center here in Syracuse, NY, hears sometimes from potential respondents over the phone. This phrase is often uttered even though Research & Marketing Strategies (RMS) is a full-service market research firm that conducts legit surveys, which makes our company exempt from the National Do Not Call Registry. If you’d like more information on the Do Not Call List and how market research firms do not apply to these restrictions, read our former blog post about it by clicking here.

Although market research firms and call centers may know the difference, typical consumers treat a telemarketing call and a survey call as one in the same, which undoubtedly does harm the productivity for conducting surveys. The usage of caller ID within households has grown immensely, coupled with cell phones. With many potential consumers having caller ID, there is a significant number of people who simply won’t answer a phone call if they do not recognize the number or the company name that appears on the ID. Some assume if it’s a company they’ve never heard of before, it could be a telemarketing call or something unimportant, which limits a telesurveyor’s ability to reach a live respondent to complete a survey.

Telemarketing has also generated a fair amount of skepticism from the respondents if they answer a call from an unknown company. Even if the respondent answers the phone, in most cases they are “on guard” waiting for the sales pitch. It’s the job of the telesurveyor to put this skepticism aside and assure the respondent the call is for research purposes only. It takes some time to build legitimacy by fully explaining our market research company, where we are from, why we are calling and who we are calling on behalf of (in some un-blinded studies).

Typical happy RMS survey call.

Typical unhappy telemarketing call.

How else has telemarketing negatively impacted market research call centers? Feel free to comment on our post below or through LinkedIn. RMS is a full-service market research firm located outside of Syracuse, NY. If you’d like more information about our firm, visit our website at www.RMSresults.com or contact Sandy Baker, our Business Development Director, at SandyB@RMSresults.com or by calling (315) 635-9802.