Don’t Answer It!

After nearly a quarter century of commuting from the leafy northern suburbs to New York City, it was, as you can imagine, quite an adjustment getting used to a home office. Like anything there are pros and cons of working remotely.

I did and still do miss the camaraderie of an office and the social aspect. Conversely, I do not pine away for anything related to the commute to Manhattan, i.e. long waits on a 100-plus degree subway platform, or excuses why the air conditioning is not working as you and 300-other commuters are sardined in a space the size of a walk-in closet.

On a sunnier note, I have saved hundreds if not thousands on dry cleaning, or lack thereof and since the kitchen is not all that far away from my desk, I have officially been christened “chief cook and bottle washer,” so I have become fairly adept with imaginative ways to prepare fish and chicken and on occasion, pasta.

But I have also come to the shocking realization of how many solicitation calls our home receives in a day.

Last week for example, I counted an average of 8 a day. Apparently registering our number on the “do not call” line has had little or no effect. Since we have caller ID, it’s fairly easy to spot them - the ones that appear on the display as “unavailable” or “private caller” are subject to the pick-up and instant hang-up policy so as not to leave a voice mail. Others however use the local area code, so it takes a few seconds to discern whether to leave a loud crackling in their ear as the receiver slams back to the cradle.

However the other day, I received an unsolicited and totally unexpected call from a small CPA firm, who must have somehow gotten my name off a local database. The firm used a telemarketer to pitch their services – they had the script ready to go - and I listened for a time before I explained that I was very happy with Rocco, my CPA for the past 20 years but thanked them for thinking of me. However the former journalist in me surfaced and I had to ask the caller about the success rate of soliciting clients by phone.

She explained that it was about 3-5 percent but that they made 50-75 calls per day so the firm owner overall was happy with the results. While impressed I could hardly imagine that any of those newcomers would be all that loyal to the firm for any length of time or would leave in a year if the firm across the street charged $10 less for a tax return. They certainly would be neither brand loyal nor partner loyal clients and that firm’s client census on a year-over-year basis would be fleeting at best.

I’m not sure how many CPA firms build their base via cold calls, but I’m fairly certainly I did not speak to the only one.

On the bright side at least they didn’t ask for a donation.