Call Centers

I've been getting more and more calls and text messages from call center agents selling health insurance, garden implements, sports club memberships, and tours to animal parks and sanctuaries. This annoyance became a topic of conversation with some friends in the call center industry and they taught me the basics in telemarketing.

Telemarketers easily get contact details from referrals from a person's own circle of friends. But the thing I didn't realize is how thorough some a call center's database can be. Call centers "affiliate" and "partner up" with older, more established niche-market stores selling specific goods like specialty toys, flowers for delivery, books, hardware, etc. These stores share, swap or even sell the names and credit details of their customers. Call centers then build their database with this information through what they call "leads management."

So I guess it makes sense that I've attracted this kind of sales pitch. My last online purchases are for organic ingredients, multivitamins, and health foodstuffs. I've also made contributions to a wildlife sanctuary and recently joined a marathon, which required filling up an online information sheet.