Steve Murphy
2004-Sep-15 08:16 UTC
[Asterisk-Users] Results of 13 month study on reducing telemarketing calls
Hello--
I've been playing with the privacy options on my home/home-office system
since August last year, and have some results, gleaned from my CDR
records, which over the last 13 months, number a total of 8672, which
includes incoming, as well as outgoing calls.
Before I start spitting out numbers, let me note that with the current
setup, I haven't had to tell a single telemarketer anything in the last,
well, I don't know. I don't think I've had to talk with one all this
year.
So, something I'm doing is working. Let's see if we can figure out what
it is.
My line characteristics:
I have two phone lines in rural Wyoming. One for business, one for home.
Both are listed in phone book. I tried to unlist the business number.
Because I live in the country, the phone numbers are listed in the wrong
town. Boundaries of prefix areas sometimes defy logic. I's a long
distance call to the nearest town.
As far as areas go, I am a in farily backwater, remote location. I'd
expect my call volume to be fairly low.
Home line: I usually have 4 kids in the age range to get calls. My wife
gets the gross majority of the calls.
1. NATIONAL "DO NOT CALL" LIST
Before I go any further, let me state I signed up all my numbers as soon
as the list opened. This has had a definite impact in reducing unwanted
calls. I did not remove my name from the list as a control measure. I'll
let someone else do that dirty work. The NO-CALL list, tho, is not
completely affective, though. Charities, political parties, government
recruiters, those with remote "pre-existing business relationships"
are
still clear to call.
2. ZAPATELLER.
The Asterisk Zapateller application, which plays the SIT (Special
Information Tones) (the dah-dee-die tone, usually followed with the
female voice, "The number you have dialed...") to those with no caller
id, is the first app run on incoming calls on both my business and home
lines. Humans usually do not react immediately and slam down the
receiver when they hear these. But autodialers can. And according to my
stats, they do, with reaction times varying from 1 to 3 seconds total
call length.
Total number of calls ending in Zapateller: 40
By Context:
homeline: 23
workline: 17
In the above, over the last 13 months, 40 calls ended in the Zapateller
application. It takes pretty quick reflexes for this to happen. Reflexes
that only a telemarketer or his machines can develop.
3. PrivacyManager
The PrivacyManager application gets run after the Zapateller on just my
home line. Its function is to require that an anonymous caller enter
some sort of callerid. My system will accept just about anything, but it
does react strongly if the caller enters my own phone number. If a call
ends in this application, it is either because they hang up at this
time, or have severe physical impediments that render them unable to
dial a ten-digit number. While it is impossible to tell whether people
we know just can't handle this hurdle, and hang up, or a telemarketer
can see the writing on the wall, and does the same, here are the
numbers:
Total number of calls ending in PrivacyManager: 38
By Context:
homeline: 38
3. MENUS
When I started, I didn't really consider that presenting the calling
party with a set of choices (as to whom to talk to) as a possible
telemarketing deterrent. But, months of watching the system in action
has led me to he conclusion that is exactly that. Not all telemarketers
call from unlisted numbers. If I'm not getting their call, and neither
Zapateller nor PrivacyManager affects them, then I'm doing something
right in my menus. They are hanging up during the introductions (the s
priority) in my menus. Who? How many?
There are many reasons why legitimate as well as telemarketers will hang
up after they dial you. Wrong number, confusion, wrong selections, mind
change, etc. all serve as possible reasons.
Total number of incoming calls that hung up in the start menus: 837,
which is about 10% of the total CDR's in my database, a rather high
number, one would think.
Of the 837, I found these to be interesting:
homeline (""zzzzzzz college""): 13
homeline (""CAPITOL US ""): 1
homeline (""CPI ""): 1
homeline (""CREDIT FOUNDATI""): 1
homeline (""EI ""): 23
homeline (""MICROSTAR SOFTW""): 9
homeline (""MILLER PLANTE I""): 4
homeline (""NATL PRO LIFE ""): 13
homeline (""PAI INC""): 15
homeline (""Privacy Manager""): 1
homeline (""STRATEGIC TELEC""): 1
homeline (""UNITED STATES G""): 1
homeline (""): 16
workline (""): 3
workline (""CA MKTNG ""): 16
workline (""INTEGRATED SALE""): 1
workline (""LESTER INC""): 1
workline (): 29
That's 150 calls from anonymous or questionable sources,
that have hung up over the last 13 months!
I have come to the conclusion that my simple menu of choices may form
the most formidable barrier to telemarketers. I'm thinking that most
telemarketers must have instructions not to traverse menus to make a
call. All these folks had to do was dial "1", "2",
"3", or "6", and
EVERY SINGLE ONE (except the few who chose the torture menus) decided to
hang up instead.
NOTE: I don't know if this a factor or not, but the "Dial 6 if you are
calling me, because I am on a list of any kind", is the FIRST option on
the menus.
4. Telemarketer Torture Scripts
When I wrote them, I seriously doubted that any telemarketer would ever
fall for something like this, but I was wrong-- a few did spend some
time. Here is a list of all calls ending in the scripts.
telemark-mag-new (""""): 1
telemark-mag-new (216377zzzz): 1
telemarket (""LIR ""): 2
telemarket (""Privacy Manager""): 2
telemarket (""UNITED STATES G""): 1
telemarket-charity (""INTEGRATED SALE""): 1
telemarket-charity (800349zzzz): 1
telemarket-political5 (""UNITED STATES G""): 1
telemarket-sorry (800349zzzz): 1
There were, of course, a lot more calls that ended in the scripts, but I
know that they were friends looking for a laugh. I think that the
government caller may have been a local military recruiter, curious
about the menus. I did once end up with a customer on the workline,
making a wrong choice and ending up in them. Ugh.
Well, that's it.
murf
--
Steve Murphy <murf@e-tools.com>
Electronic Tools Company
Scott Stingel
2004-Sep-15 09:07 UTC
[Asterisk-Users] Results of 13 month study on reducingtelemarketing calls
Steve-
That's an interesting/amusing story! The only thing I would worry about is
using the Zapateller SIT tone as the first thing whenever there's no caller
ID. In many places (like here in California), a good percentage of people
have caller ID blocking on outbound calls from their home phones (something
like 35% I think). I would worry that you might be losing a lot of
legitimate calls (that you'd like to receive) from people who would give up
forever when getting the SIT tone. In my area, I'd probably instead put the
prompt that requests that they enter their number if blocked.
But, everybody has a different situation! I thought the information you
gathered was interesting in any case!
Regards
Scott
Scott M. Stingel
President,
Emerging Voice Technology, Inc.
Palo Alto California & London England
www.evtmedia.com
-----Original Message-----
From: asterisk-users-bounces@lists.digium.com
[mailto:asterisk-users-bounces@lists.digium.com] On Behalf Of Steve Murphy
Sent: Wednesday, September 15, 2004 8:17 AM
To: asterisk-users@lists.digium.com
Subject: [Asterisk-Users] Results of 13 month study on reducingtelemarketing
calls
Hello--
I've been playing with the privacy options on my home/home-office system
since August last year, and have some results, gleaned from my CDR records,
which over the last 13 months, number a total of 8672, which includes
incoming, as well as outgoing calls.
Before I start spitting out numbers, let me note that with the current
setup, I haven't had to tell a single telemarketer anything in the last,
well, I don't know. I don't think I've had to talk with one all this
year.
So, something I'm doing is working. Let's see if we can figure out what
it
is.
My line characteristics:
I have two phone lines in rural Wyoming. One for business, one for home.
Both are listed in phone book. I tried to unlist the business number.
Because I live in the country, the phone numbers are listed in the wrong
town. Boundaries of prefix areas sometimes defy logic. I's a long distance
call to the nearest town.
As far as areas go, I am a in farily backwater, remote location. I'd expect
my call volume to be fairly low.
Home line: I usually have 4 kids in the age range to get calls. My wife gets
the gross majority of the calls.
1. NATIONAL "DO NOT CALL" LIST
Before I go any further, let me state I signed up all my numbers as soon as
the list opened. This has had a definite impact in reducing unwanted calls.
I did not remove my name from the list as a control measure. I'll let
someone else do that dirty work. The NO-CALL list, tho, is not completely
affective, though. Charities, political parties, government recruiters,
those with remote "pre-existing business relationships" are still
clear to
call.
2. ZAPATELLER.
The Asterisk Zapateller application, which plays the SIT (Special
Information Tones) (the dah-dee-die tone, usually followed with the female
voice, "The number you have dialed...") to those with no caller id, is
the
first app run on incoming calls on both my business and home lines. Humans
usually do not react immediately and slam down the receiver when they hear
these. But autodialers can. And according to my stats, they do, with
reaction times varying from 1 to 3 seconds total call length.
Total number of calls ending in Zapateller: 40 By Context:
homeline: 23
workline: 17
In the above, over the last 13 months, 40 calls ended in the Zapateller
application. It takes pretty quick reflexes for this to happen. Reflexes
that only a telemarketer or his machines can develop.
3. PrivacyManager
The PrivacyManager application gets run after the Zapateller on just my home
line. Its function is to require that an anonymous caller enter some sort of
callerid. My system will accept just about anything, but it does react
strongly if the caller enters my own phone number. If a call ends in this
application, it is either because they hang up at this time, or have severe
physical impediments that render them unable to dial a ten-digit number.
While it is impossible to tell whether people we know just can't handle this
hurdle, and hang up, or a telemarketer can see the writing on the wall, and
does the same, here are the
numbers:
Total number of calls ending in PrivacyManager: 38 By Context:
homeline: 38
3. MENUS
When I started, I didn't really consider that presenting the calling party
with a set of choices (as to whom to talk to) as a possible telemarketing
deterrent. But, months of watching the system in action has led me to he
conclusion that is exactly that. Not all telemarketers call from unlisted
numbers. If I'm not getting their call, and neither Zapateller nor
PrivacyManager affects them, then I'm doing something right in my menus.
They are hanging up during the introductions (the s
priority) in my menus. Who? How many?
There are many reasons why legitimate as well as telemarketers will hang up
after they dial you. Wrong number, confusion, wrong selections, mind change,
etc. all serve as possible reasons.
Total number of incoming calls that hung up in the start menus: 837, which
is about 10% of the total CDR's in my database, a rather high number, one
would think.
Of the 837, I found these to be interesting:
homeline (""zzzzzzz college""): 13
homeline (""CAPITOL US ""): 1
homeline (""CPI ""): 1
homeline (""CREDIT FOUNDATI""): 1
homeline (""EI ""): 23
homeline (""MICROSTAR SOFTW""): 9
homeline (""MILLER PLANTE I""): 4
homeline (""NATL PRO LIFE ""): 13
homeline (""PAI INC""): 15
homeline (""Privacy Manager""): 1
homeline (""STRATEGIC TELEC""): 1
homeline (""UNITED STATES G""): 1
homeline (""): 16
workline (""): 3
workline (""CA MKTNG ""): 16
workline (""INTEGRATED SALE""): 1
workline (""LESTER INC""): 1
workline (): 29
That's 150 calls from anonymous or questionable sources, that have hung up
over the last 13 months!
I have come to the conclusion that my simple menu of choices may form the
most formidable barrier to telemarketers. I'm thinking that most
telemarketers must have instructions not to traverse menus to make a call.
All these folks had to do was dial "1", "2", "3",
or "6", and EVERY SINGLE
ONE (except the few who chose the torture menus) decided to hang up instead.
NOTE: I don't know if this a factor or not, but the "Dial 6 if you are
calling me, because I am on a list of any kind", is the FIRST option on the
menus.
4. Telemarketer Torture Scripts
When I wrote them, I seriously doubted that any telemarketer would ever fall
for something like this, but I was wrong-- a few did spend some time. Here
is a list of all calls ending in the scripts.
telemark-mag-new (""""): 1
telemark-mag-new (216377zzzz): 1
telemarket (""LIR ""): 2
telemarket (""Privacy Manager""): 2
telemarket (""UNITED STATES G""): 1
telemarket-charity (""INTEGRATED SALE""): 1
telemarket-charity (800349zzzz): 1
telemarket-political5 (""UNITED STATES G""): 1
telemarket-sorry (800349zzzz): 1
There were, of course, a lot more calls that ended in the scripts, but I
know that they were friends looking for a laugh. I think that the government
caller may have been a local military recruiter, curious about the menus. I
did once end up with a customer on the workline, making a wrong choice and
ending up in them. Ugh.
Well, that's it.
murf
--
Steve Murphy <murf@e-tools.com>
Electronic Tools Company
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Jay Milk
2004-Sep-15 22:55 UTC
[Asterisk-Users] Results of 13 month study on reducingtelemarketing calls
Thanks for the complete statistics -- very informative. I noted that you received a number of calls from "PAI INC". I used to receive a lot of hangups from them (whether I answered or not), usually three or four in a row until a filed a nuisance complaint with our local carrier. I think numbers came from the 784 area code, but I could be mistaken -- it's been a while. I'm far from Wyoming, FWIW.> -----Original Message----- > From: Steve Murphy [mailto:murf@e-tools.com] > Sent: Wednesday, September 15, 2004 10:17 AM > To: asterisk-users@lists.digium.com > Subject: [Asterisk-Users] Results of 13 month study on > reducingtelemarketing calls > > > > Hello-- > > I've been playing with the privacy options on my > home/home-office system since August last year, and have some > results, gleaned from my CDR records, which over the last 13 > months, number a total of 8672, which includes incoming, as > well as outgoing calls. > > > Before I start spitting out numbers, let me note that with > the current setup, I haven't had to tell a single > telemarketer anything in the last, well, I don't know. I > don't think I've had to talk with one all this year.