Dear Jason, The Phone Company Sales Hack
Dec. 12th, 2017 05:07 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
peristaltorWe have a sign near our door. It gives our street number and, in fairly large font, the message
No
Soliciting
We think it is self-explanatory. Why, then, am I always needing to explain it?
There was the young man who, when I pointed out that offering me magazine subscriptions was soliciting, responded with, "Ah, naw, that's just hustling." Not exactly a defense, that one.
Then there were the non-profit clipboard carriers who refused to acknowledge that, even though you aren't asking for any money or monetary sales, asking for (dare I embolden? I dare, I dare) anything constitutes soliciting. Signatures, souls, don't matter. You are asking.
The most recent douche move involves sending people out from the phone company to its current customers, "just to check on their service." Uh-huh. So Jason (as he identified himself) asks me if my phone service is working. "I made a call, so sure."
"How about the internet?"
I assured him I was able to download stuff.
He tells me they were doing some work in the area, so they needed to check.
Okay, I said.
Then he casually pulls the cover off the real reason for his visit, steering the "conversation" into download speeds, and suggesting an "upgrade in service" ——
At which point I quite heatedly said, "Now you are soliciting! Watch yourself!"
And slammed the door.
The Wife™ noted that it wsan't very Hanuka of me (the first decorative candle had just been lit). I agree.
In my defense, we live currently in a society that is placing a greater and greater emphasis on advertising. Our lives are further being tracked to gather data that refines the specificity of the ads coming our way. My most recent work mentions a poor father who found out about his daughter's pregnancy after he discovered coupons for baby things addressed to her——the company had gleaned the purchase data of women who ad their names to baby gift registries, worked backwards, and identified about 25 items which, when analyzed, gave a pretty accurate window of probability not only into the pregnancy itself, but could roughly predict a delivery date!
This advertising is leaving its more traditional position and worming its way through our social media to hit us right between the eyes without bothering to leave a trace of its presence to others. This allows advertisers to first glean that user data well enough to psychologically profile the user, and send advertising that affects recipient behavior with greater and greater accuracy, without alerting a person's social group of the probable problems with the customized message (what advertisers call "leakage").
By the way, folks, this was one tool used by the Trump campaign, and I'm not talking about the mere hundred grand spent in roubles by Russians that many are obsessed about. I'm talking about a five million dollar targeting advertising campaign that went completely under the radar of mainstream news (at least so far).
This advertising, this soliciting, has gotten out of hand. Is it any wonder I guard myself from it with what many might regard as an overly-zealous attitude in my own home?
Soliciting
We think it is self-explanatory. Why, then, am I always needing to explain it?
There was the young man who, when I pointed out that offering me magazine subscriptions was soliciting, responded with, "Ah, naw, that's just hustling." Not exactly a defense, that one.
Then there were the non-profit clipboard carriers who refused to acknowledge that, even though you aren't asking for any money or monetary sales, asking for (dare I embolden? I dare, I dare) anything constitutes soliciting. Signatures, souls, don't matter. You are asking.
The most recent douche move involves sending people out from the phone company to its current customers, "just to check on their service." Uh-huh. So Jason (as he identified himself) asks me if my phone service is working. "I made a call, so sure."
"How about the internet?"
I assured him I was able to download stuff.
He tells me they were doing some work in the area, so they needed to check.
Okay, I said.
Then he casually pulls the cover off the real reason for his visit, steering the "conversation" into download speeds, and suggesting an "upgrade in service" ——
At which point I quite heatedly said, "Now you are soliciting! Watch yourself!"
And slammed the door.
The Wife™ noted that it wsan't very Hanuka of me (the first decorative candle had just been lit). I agree.
In my defense, we live currently in a society that is placing a greater and greater emphasis on advertising. Our lives are further being tracked to gather data that refines the specificity of the ads coming our way. My most recent work mentions a poor father who found out about his daughter's pregnancy after he discovered coupons for baby things addressed to her——the company had gleaned the purchase data of women who ad their names to baby gift registries, worked backwards, and identified about 25 items which, when analyzed, gave a pretty accurate window of probability not only into the pregnancy itself, but could roughly predict a delivery date!
This advertising is leaving its more traditional position and worming its way through our social media to hit us right between the eyes without bothering to leave a trace of its presence to others. This allows advertisers to first glean that user data well enough to psychologically profile the user, and send advertising that affects recipient behavior with greater and greater accuracy, without alerting a person's social group of the probable problems with the customized message (what advertisers call "leakage").
By the way, folks, this was one tool used by the Trump campaign, and I'm not talking about the mere hundred grand spent in roubles by Russians that many are obsessed about. I'm talking about a five million dollar targeting advertising campaign that went completely under the radar of mainstream news (at least so far).
This advertising, this soliciting, has gotten out of hand. Is it any wonder I guard myself from it with what many might regard as an overly-zealous attitude in my own home?