At the brokerage firm I work at, there are a small group of clients who call over 1000 times a year. I think most of them are lonely old people who spend their day watching CNBC and every time they hear a commentator mention a stock, they’ll call up to discuss it.
There is also a group of people who tend to call during their commutes asking for numerous stock quotes and news stories. They tend to average about 400-500 calls per year.
Could you ever see yourself calling a company this often? I can’t imagine being so lonely or bored that I need to call some company’s 800 number.
Back in the days before the internet, living paycheck to paycheck, I would often call my bank’s automated phone system to check account balances and to see what checks had cleared. Still, that was an automated system.
Wow, that’s over 3 times a day! (assuming your business doesn’t accept calls on weekends and holidays)
Do they call the same people or different people? If they’re calling the same person 3 times a day, you’d think it would be noticeable to that person, and the person would put a stop to it.
Could they be day traders who call to get some advice on what they want to do? Hmm. That seems unlikely since day traders would need more access to information than just a phone call that’s unpredictable.
Even lonely old people calling someone 3 times a day seems pretty excessive.
I feel like a squeaky wheel when I have to call a vendor more than once in the same week.
I cannot imagine under what circumstances I’d ever call a business even 100 times in one year. I hope that in your OP when you say “small group” you mean “I can count them on my thumbs” small.
Well I have to admit, I probably came close to calling some of my vendors 1000 times in a year. Any number of days I would be resolving issues, and have to exchange phone calls as we researched issues. I know I called Wendy a WMI at least 15 times one memorable day … and 4 or 5 times a day was not entirely unusual.
When I was writing and negotiating contracts, I would be calling the vendors multiple times a day in the detail hammering out phase.
But a business is not an individual … I was calling on behalf of our customers, who might have 10000 sub accounts [walmart] 3000 sum accounts [sears] or 10 subaccounts [Shakey Pizza, such as it is now]
Well, it is a huge call center for a major online brokerage firm so clients don’t usually reach the same people. Still, there are some callers who are so well known that the mention of their name results in a chorus of groans. I often think that some of the clients substitute calling the brokerage firm rather than calling talk radio. Unlike a talk radio host, I have to sit there and listen to their rants on Obama, health care, bailouts, you name it.
Well, unless they’re directly insulting you, you pretty much have to sit there and listen to their spiel, at least if this call center is anything like the place where my wife used to work. To do otherwise would be considered rude. And even if they do insult you, you’re pretty limited in what you can say (think along the lines of “would you like to speak my supervisor?”).
Plus, you don’t want them getting offended and pulling their money out of your funds. Or even threatening to do so. I’d imagine that would get you in trouble, right?
I once worked for a small company which had a free tech support line. One of the support guys mentioned that over 50% of their calls came from a handful of customers. I was shocked, and asked why, and he said they were just lonely. I asked him if he could just cut them off, and he said that was against the company’s policy, and he didn’t really mind just chatting with them…