They sneer. They jeer. They say things like: “Why don’t you get a real job?” Hanging up can be the kindest thing New Yorkers do to telemarketers and pollsters.
One man with caller ID even called a poll-taking company back pretending to be a detective and kept them on the phone for 50 minutes gathering information about their firm.
How much harder is it to reach New Yorkers than people in other areas of the country? “Ninety-five percent harder. And that’s no exaggeration,” reports Linda Finch, president of national polling company Teleforce Research Group, Fargo, ND. “Three in 55 will answer. Basically, in the rest of the country, it’s one in six.”
That’s why pollsters who persuade residents of Gotham to spill get combat pay. Across the industry, they receive $3 more an hour than telemarketers who call other regions.
Finch says it’s not that New Yorkers are nasty, just that they don’t have a New York minute. “They are preoccupied with themselves and don’t have time for this,” she explains. “They work a lot. Family people want to spend every spare minute away from work with their families.” Single people are frequently out. The best time to reach singles is Saturday morning; family folk respond best on Sunday, Finch has learned.
Poll-takers at Teleforce who will be calling the city get special training. Finch provides them two or three “fallback statements” for each of the Top 10 New York brush-offs. For instance, in response to, “Why don’t you get a real job?” Teleforce staffers may say, “Sir [or Ma’am], this is a real job and I like talking to good Americans such as yourself. I especially enjoy the fact that I’m not selling or fundraising and I’m sure you have time to give me your opinion.”
Plus, trainees do role-playing in which they undergo rejection after rejection from “typical” New Yorkers. Finch teaches staffers that these city-dwellers are merely “more abrupt” than people in other regions. “They don’t beat around the bush; they are very direct,” she says.
Trainees who can absorb the barbs get the New York beat. Often, Finch says, they are older – between 55 and 75 – people who have the life experience not to take abruptness personally. “New Yorkers seem to trust older people,” she adds.
Although New Yorkers are the coldest, residents of California and Florida aren’t easy to warm up either, Finch claims.
It’s very different elsewhere. A resident of North Dakota, for example, is not only friendly, but frequently excited to get a call from a pollster.
“They might say, `Oh, no one’s ever called for my opinion. I can’t believe you actually called me!'” Finch says.
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