By the second day as an incubee, I had gotten used to saying "Hi, I'm Lloyd! I'm calling in behalf of Food Engineering Magazine. I just need to verify some information so that I can send you a free subscription, would that be okay? I'll be very quick."
Before we hit the floor, the seven of us were once again gathered in the training room. Frog Princess reminded us to get at least eight completes or else.
Within ten minutes after I logged in, I got my first complete of the day. I talked to the secretary of my contact somewhere in Alabama at around 8:00 am, Central time. In my excitement, I forgot to ask the verifier question "Can you tell me the first letter of the state in which you were born?" and I had to call her again with profuse apologies. A trainor approached me and told me that I would be deducted points for it. I hastened to dial another number and proceeded to have an hour of ringing, voicemails, answering machines, circuitous phone systems, wary receptionists and dropped calls accompanied by a resounding bang of the phone by whoever answered my call.
Approximately an hour after I made my first complete, I got another. I talked to a polite man also in Alabama. This time, I was careful to ask all the necessary questions to make a complete. After four minutes, I said with enthusiasm and in a voice that carried to the adjacent cubicle "Okay, we're done. Thank you, Robert, and I hope you would enjoy your free subscription to Food Engineering Magazine and have a wonderful day."
The others I called were either very polite or just banged down the phone after I delivered my opening spiel. If the contact says ,no, we were supposed to make two rebuttals like "It's absolutely free" and "Maybe you can use it as a reference". I had one female contact who said "I know it's free but I'm not interested. i have no use for that". I rebutted."I KNOW it's for free. Please take me off the list" she said in a polite yet ominous tone. I wished her a lovely day.
Ten minutes before lunch(12:30am-1:30am), I got my third complete from a guy who worked at Frito Lay in Nebraska, which is also in the Central timezone. During lunch, we compared notes. Greg, who worked at People Support for more than a year and worked in sales for a car company before that, got six completes. Argie, got one and Chris, who was assigned to Storage Magazine, got depressed because he got none. The other incubees did not volunteer any information.
Throughout the next six hours that I called Americans, I discerned the characteristics of the people I called in the three timezones. In Eastern, the respondents were cranky and rude. I had more phones banged on me than in the other two timezones. I only had two completes from Eastern and the people I wanted to talk to were usually not available. They also have the most complex phone systems. Almost all of my calls there had to go through automated phone systems that usually forwarded me to voicemails.
The receptionists in Central were usually old women and were mostly polite and patient, except in Texas. The receptionists in Texas were stern, tense and stressed. If I was not quick in stating my purpose, they snapped at me. I also had my most number of completes from Central. The contacts there were willing to spend time answering my questions and patiently repeated their answers if I didn't hear them properly.
Among the three timezones, Pacific or California was the most interesting. we only got to call Pacific within the last hour of our shift since Californians are the last people to go to work in mainland USA. I got to hear muzak in the form of live radio streaming, company jingles, Fallout Boy, Matchbox 20 and even Red Hot Chili Peppers! The receptionists were young and suspicious. Also, most of my contacts were on vacation and I was told to call back on Monday.
Most of the receptionists I talked to were either Latinas or Asians. They hesitated to give out their names and I even had to tell them that the first initial of their lastname would do. They still refused. I guess they must be illegal aliens and were just careful not get caught by immigration officials.
I also talked to a stern woman who manages a wine company."What's this about?" she asked. I delivered my opening spiel but she cut me off,"Where did you get my number?"
"We have a research team for that."
"Why?" she asked.
" Food Engineering magazine is a magazine for those who are in the food industry. It contains news, features and information on applications, developments and issues on food processing technology."
"Is this one of those things where we supposedly get a free subscription and we suddenly get billed?" she asked in a guarded tone.
"No. It's absolutely free and there's no catch at all" I said while cramming all the sincerity I could muster into my vocal chords.
" Not interested" she replied curtly.
By the end of our shift, I managed to get seven completes. Greg got thirteen, Megan got five and Chris got three.. We didn't get lectured and we were allowed to go home early.
Chris, Greg and Ken caught up with me at the corner where I was waiting for a jeepney. They asked me to join them at Mindy's near Divisoria. Since it was one of those rare moments that I felt sociable, I agreed. We took a motorcab and weaved our way through the early Cagayan de Oro traffic.
At the restaurant, we had delicious burgers, bottles of Red Horse and the three of them smoked to their hearts' content. We talked about weirdest fears, types of obsessive compulsive behaviours, armed robbery experiences, dogs and ways to get away with not paying jeepney fare.
When it was time to go home, it turned out that Greg and I were going to ride the same jeepney home. He told me about his experiences, some family history and his hobbies as the near empty jeepney raced its way to our respective destinations. When Greg reached his stop, he shook my hand and got off the jeepney." See you on Monday" I said while I lightly scratched the red bumps on my left arm.
1 comment:
Thanks for writing this.
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