I was employed by a Silverleaf Resorts telemarketing center in Arlington, TX. We are not referred to as telemarketers as we do not sell, but rather reservationists. The selling comes later at the actual resort.
We were given a stack of cards everyday with names and numbers to call. There was a dry erase board where you turn in the card after a successful reservation and were given a check mark by our name for every reservation. Yes we had a quota.
We were reminded constantly that we had until 9 pm to call people. The push would really come approx. 3 min before 9. As long as we dialed before 9 pm we were considered ok by the company. We were under great pressure by management to actually dial right to 9 pm. Management would physically stand right behind people forcing them to call.
What people do not realize is they we, the employee, are misled as well. The opinion of management was that the reservationist would have the same information about the resort and rewards as the person we were reserving for. Plauseable deniability.
The contact information is generated from an inital "source" who gives the company the names of friends and relatives. This tactic is used as a third party authorization to contact.
I witnessed DNC request cards placed aside and eventually redispersed after a few weeks. The typical attitude toward DNC is that we are not soliciting since we are not actually selling (yet), but reserving and doing so with a third party authorization. I actually once heard from a manager that if a person doesn't want us to call, they should tell their relative not us.
I did give people I called my contact information at work. I wanted to know if people were happy with the "experience" I reserved for them at the resort. I began to get calls from people that were put through ruthless sales techniques, were not given their free gift such as airline ticket vouchers, or were blatently given accomidations contradictory to what they were promised.
I confronted management with these complaints. I was genuinely concerned as I feel this was my name on the line not just Silverleaf's. I was eventually asked to go in to the chief manager's office whereupon I was told any attendance write-ups etc. I had on file would "disapear" if I let this "thing" go. I was disguisted, quit, and walked out.
I hope this information is helpful.
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