When Automated Lead Generation Leaves a Sour Taste
There is an annual event my company attends to network, gain insight into new technology, and learn about new technology partners that may help us provide more solution options to our customer base. Over the past couple of years, I attended on behalf of the company. This past year I had one of our other executives attend but I used my account to register him. I submitted his name and tried to submit his email address and phone number, but the registration tool couldn’t handle it for some reason. Fine, I accepted the prep emails that came across advertising the sponsors, various sessions, and wide variety of contests being held for iPads.
When he arrived at the conference, he also tried to have the registration desk change his email and phone number. They confirmed it was changed – back at my office I knew this wasn’t true. Why else would I continue to get all that marketing information? Throughout the conference, he networked, exchange company information with partners and contacts, and attended sessions as per plan. The conference however used a scanner to just automatically register the fact you stopped by a booth or attended a presentation.
My company has sponsored events and one of the options a sponsor has is to access to the attendee list. Perfectly fine, if the information they receive is correct. Many will import the list into their lead tracking tool and spread those cold calls among the sales team or perhaps a cold call center. So now I get phone calls from the conference in addition to the emails.
That wouldn’t be so bad if they actually didn’t start out with ‘it was great talking with you at the conference’ or ‘thank you for stopping by our booth’. Just goes to show automation takes the human element out of the equation. I know business cards were exchanged but if you have an automated system, why bother paying attention to the business cards? I’m sure someone has read them but as the recipient I’m convinced they are just thrown away as long as the automated scanner or contact list is available.
What is interesting is that I continue to get phone calls asking for my colleague. When I reply ‘are you calling from the so-and-so conference?’, the caller seems genuinely surprised. It’s obvious to me these people are calling from automated call lists, not the exchanged business cards. Little does the caller know they are actually talking to the president of the company. Something I chuckle about under my breath because they don’t ask any information about who they are talking to, they just assume it’s a receptionist and move on. I first find out who is calling so I know what companies are relying more on technology than personal contacts.
As a business owner, I’ve certainly learned the do’s and don’ts from this unexpected experiment. Our contact list is actually a list of people we have met personally, received either a business card or they have provided their business contact information, and, if we are given other names to contact, we have a reference person to mention on calls and emails. The most automation we’ve introduced is email lists for webinar announcements, campaigns, etc. and if we get any bounces, they are removed.
We’re a small company and I can see how automation may be necessary for the larger companies out there, but there has to be some type of human element that checks or audits information. There has to be someone responsible for following up on call lists for accuracy. There has to be someone that knows you shouldn’t start out a sentence with ‘it was great talking to you’ when they have no clue who they are emailing. There has to be someone who knows that any direct phone call may have you talking directly to the president of the company and not the receptionist…..I’m just sayin’.
[tfg_social_share]
