It’s the old we have work in your area scam

Small businesses are going to need to be more vigilant as the scamming cold calls are seemingly mounting in volume with the “we represent a number of people in your area” or as the one we’ve just had this morning “we have a number of properties in your area which need flat roofs – I was wondering could you quote?”

Whilst some businesses will immediately see the scam calls for what they are. There will be those businesses that will undoubtedly hinge a glimmer of hope on the call. In the hope of getting work from it. With realisation starting to sink in towards the end, that it was what it was something which was too good to be true.

When we were asked “if we could quote on flat roofs” we answered by saying “we possibly could if we were in that line of business “- the answer came back as “errrr okay” and the phone went dead as they quickly hung up.

Does this mean that we were being funny or bullish or even sarcastic in what we said, or that it was a genuine mistake by the caller and they didn’t know what to say because of embarrassment? Or that it was supposed to be the start of some elaborate scam call that had nowhere to go as we don’t fit flat roofs?

You make your own mind up, but there is no doubt that other local regional businesses are receiving similar calls and warning people as such via social media.

Maybe the call was not a scam call then perhaps the calling company should look at their processes and staff training perhaps especially the quality of their database.

We all make mistakes but we’d like to think when mistakes are made that we’re grown up enough to say sorry or be human and engage in some form of humorous conversation to appease the awkward situation…..not just hang up.

When your company carries out the sales process on the phone do you know what and how your staff are doing? Do you get correct and proper feedback from them? Is there a suitable follow-up system in place? And so on .........

Information is important and it’s vital that a company’s database is cleansed in the correct and proper manner, many businesses see a database for nothing more than a one time or occasional calling list to sell something – but it could and should be so much more.

Obviously, it will depend on the size of the business and industry sector it operates within, but often with databases, you will find that ‘SIZE DOES NOT MATTER’ – it’s the quality that matters.

This is never more apparent in these modern times when we look at the use of databases for email marketing, businesses who have been happy in the knowledge and almost bragging about having a database of 10,000 will send an email via an email content system and on the first mail out - their list may have reduced by 50-60% because the email addresses were spelt incorrectly, and out of date and/or dead email addresses – so the 10,000 database becomes a 4,000 database.

So if you wish to continue to connect with customers via your database you’ll need to put on your yellow coloured marigolds and use some elbow grease.