PERSUADING AMERICAN RESPONDENTS: A Step-By-Step Guide

When dialing on American-based projects, there are certain things you need to keep in mind in order to be successful at persuading respondents, keeping them on the line and ultimately completing surveys.

Remembering back to your ART of Persuasion Workshop training and you’ll recall that we’ll often hear respondents say they’re “not interested” without explaining exactly WHY they aren’t interested. Just remember that when we call into the US we’re reaching a market that is often “burnout” from many, many other calls and if you encounter a respondent who says “I’m not interested” instead of just trying to ask for a callback time, why not respond with “I understand you get a lot of calls but this is actually a survey with no sales, can I ask you a few questions to start?”

Whatever concerns a respondent raises it’s important to remember you need to diagnose what their concern is (confidentially, time, purpose of the call, what’s in it for me?, etc.) it is CRITICAL to address their concern accurately, quickly and while transitioning back to the script or plan to get them focused on starting the survey.

Think back to this element of the ART of Persuasion Workshop:

Of course WHAT you say is very important, as outlined above, but HOW you say it is also key to your success.

1. Pacing As you know, proper pacing during surveys and introductions are essential to be successful at this job, when

calling Americans it’s especially important. Compared to Canadians, U.S. citizens tend to speak slower and more deliberately, and the further south you’re calling, the more this becomes the case. It is vital that you match the pace of the person you are speaking with, as speaking normally may be too quick a pace for a particular respondent, especially if they’re older. If you find that you’re receiving a lot of complaints like: “You’re speaking too fast” or “What? I can’t understand you,” this is usually a good indicator that it’s time to slow down and take your time. Although speaking quickly might seem like a good way to get through surveys at a faster rate, it becomes counter-productive if you end up having to repeat yourself constantly.

2. Know your audience On average, Americans receive far more calls from charities, telemarketers and market researchers (like our

company) than Canadians do. Some respondents you call may have received as many as 2 or 3 calls from different companies by the time we get a hold of them. It’s important to keep this in mind during your shift as it will explain some of the outright anger you may encounter.

3. Tone Again, this is an aspect that’s applicable to all surveys you’re working on, but a consistent, professional and

conversational tone is important when dialing Americans. You, as an interviewer, are required to read the scripts that are laid out in the survey, but it’s also part of your job to make sure you don’t sound like you’re reading from a script. Be friendly as you can, while maintaining a professional demeanor, even if the respondent isn’t as courteous. Be engaging, but try to keep people on topic as much as you can (certain survey topics may likely cause individuals to go on rants, it’s important to not overly indulge these respondents).

4. Play with your introductions (when permissible) Your introduction is arguably the most important factor when attempting to get completions. Think of yourself

as a salesmen, the survey is the product you’re trying to sell, and your intro is your sales pitch. Here, all of the above mentioned factors come into play (pacing, tone, etc.), so utilize those to the best of your ability. Make your intros short and sweet (as Shakespeare said, brevity is the soul of wit), the less wordy they are, the less likely respondents will be to hang up on you. Be as informative as you can, but pay attention to project instructions, as certain projects will have different regulations in terms of how much you can reveal about the project. Keep in mind as well that certain projects require that you read their intros word-for-word, so, again, pay attention to your project-specific instructions.

Overall, make sure you’re always implementing the 3 BEs:

1. Be Enthusiastic2. Be Engaging3. Be Empathetic

As always, feel free to e-mail your team lead if you have any questions or concerns.