Generation CPO
August 22nd, 2009 by Nico Luchsinger
Don’t call – we won’t pick up
Last week’s «Economist» carried a report on the declining use of landlines in the U.S. and the problems this brings with. More and more people are ditching their landlines and switching to mobile phones only. This creates political problems, because the landlines are subsidized, but it also has other implications – for example for telemarketers. It’s much more difficult to reach people with cellphones only (the so-called CPOs) and ask them questions, which is why the opinions of this group, which has an average age of around 30 and is very, well, mobile, are often only poorly represented in polls. As more and more especially young people become CPOs, will it be impossible to know what they’re thinking?
Not so much. Agreed, this generation is probably hard to reach for telemarketers, and also has the annoying habit of switching places and careers all the time, making it virtually impossible to put them in a demographic box. But we’re not shy with stating our opinion: We actually do it all the time on Twitter, Facebook and many other social networks. If you want to know what we’re thinking, you should be there and listen. Because if you call us (provided that you can track down our mobile numbers), it’s likely that we just hang up on you.
Nico is one of Sandbox’ co-founders. He still has a landline, but rarely picks it up (because if it’s ringing, it’s mostly telemarketers). If you want to know what he’s thinking, go ask him on Twitter.
even before the CPO era, I always "doubted" the real quality of Telemarket reseach (having work in the sector) and its real value as a decision making tool. you can always find out what your clients think, get out there in real and virtual space and start asking and observing, rather than "calling" them.
Suresh, thanks for your thoughtful comment!
Two additional thoughts from my side:
1 - The more I think about this, the more surprised I am that pollsters, especially political ones, have not yet picked this up and started aggregating opinions from social media. Or have they and I just missed that?
2 - It's interesting that in most of the "business" or "professional" world not having a landline number is still somewhat frowned upon. It seems to imply a regular jog and fixed income, just because you're not glued to a desk with a phone. On the other side, I **always** call people on their cell, even when I know that they are sitting next to a landline phone.
Absolutely agree with you, Nico.
On the rare occasion I have to answer the landline to a tele-marketer, my answer is almost always the same: sorry, I don't have time. (Normally, this is even true.) But as you say, we are not shy of giving our thoughts on things that we actually think about through twitter, facebook (a quick browse of the groups someone is in can reveal a lot, and that's beside any polls we take part in). However, we don't give our opinion on things we don't think about, which is normally the issues that telemarketers ask about.
You could argue that it is an important demographic to know more about for things like elections, but a) still not very many (or just not enough) people vote from this demographic, especially the 'youth' b) those who do vote are probably expressing their opinions in a loud manner through facebook in any case c) if they vote but do not poll, it does not really matter as they still vote and hence 'are heard' at the end of the day.
And as you say, having a landline isn't worth it - people move so frequently and have so many contacts that it would be a full-time job updating your friends' numbers. But with a mobile phone - no need!
Also, consider students - typically living in student accomodation / their own place during term time, and at home with the parents when it's not. There is then no point in having a landline in their student flat - typically shared anyway, and each person will already have their mobile.
538 had a few posts on the problem during election season last year - see http://www.fivethirtyeight.com/search/label/cellph... . some pollsters seem to include at least a certain part of cellphones nowadays and others (i think yougov?) use internet polling as well.
i've never myself had a landline (aside from at my parents house) and i am 23. i'd guess that people ten, fifteen years younger than me will maybe never even use a landline in their life.
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