Do Robocalls Work?  New Study Says Yes!Listen

Have you heard these statements?  “I hate Robocalls!” or “I never pick up the phone or listen to robocalls”.

If you are in politics you have heard some of these statements, or similar ones, discounting the value of using robocalls.  Yet, as a deliverer of calls, I have personally seen that people do listen and respond to automated phone calls.

Do people listen?  Are robocalls effective or can they be done effectively?  How can you find out if they are listened to and effective?  There is much anecdotal experience that shows that they are effective.  Meeting turnout has been established by this vendor to be increased by 30 to 50%.    We have seen entire meeting attendance come from automated call announcements.  We have seen our clients win very close races.

Now, for the first time, there has been published in the Berkeley Beacon, an article on a ground breaking study by Spencer Kennedy,  a Communications Professor and Scholar in residence at Emerson.  The article on the study can be found at: http://www.berkeleybeacon.com/news/2013/10/17/communication-professor.

In Professor Spencer’s study he asserts that people do listen to these calls and that they do have an effect.  Professor Spencer’s study spent several weeks analyzing the results of actual automated calls made to listeners.  He led a team of researchers and found the following ,
‘Kimball found that 75 percent of people listen to more than 19 seconds of a prerecorded robocall, or auto-call message, which means they hear about 40 words. About 97 percent listen to a minimum of six seconds, according to his study.  “People aren’t just hanging up when they get these calls; they’re actually listening,” said Kimball.’

This study decidedly refutes the reports of those who strongly decry the use and effectiveness of “robocalls” showing that, just like most marketing efforts, “robocalls” work!