Digital Lunch Time

Remember back in the day when telemarketers would call at supper time and your parents would get so angry? Things seem to have changed now that we all have cell phones and the hours worked varies so widely. It's lunch time as I write this so it must be time for telemarketers to pick up the phone and dial my cell. I received three such calls in the span of 4 minutes and the experience was vastly different in each of the three.

The first call came from Medco. This is my mail order pharmacy. It really wasn't a pure telemarketing call, but it was a customer service call that I actually found to be oddly pleasant. The call came with a digital voice that said something like this... "Hello, this is Medco, your online pharmacy. Is this John Israel (my first name is John)? Respond with Yes or No." "Yes" "Great, we want to let you know that the prescription your doctor faxed on Friday, November 12 has been processed. We expect that prescription to be mailed today, Monday, November 15. There is nothing more you need to do. Would you like me to repeat this message?" "No" "Alright, thank you for using Medco, your online pharmacy."

The second call came from a security alarm company. "Hello, this is ADT, the experts in home security. This week we're going to have our security experts in your neighborhood and would like to offer you a free security assess...." Click (on my part.)

The third came in... "Hello, is this Daveeed Ishrael?" "Ummmm, yes it is." "Daveed this is Frank (guessing not his given name at birth since most people with this particular accent are normally not named Frank) with American Consumer Counseling." "I'm not interested, Frank." "We hear that from many people who have not yet taken time to consider their debt struggles." "Goodbye Frank." Click (on my part.)

Now, I'm tend to over analyze most things, so here goes. The first call was a recording, yet I found the pro-active customer service to be refreshing. I think that if they called to say, we can't fill that order until we have further information, I would have been OK with that, since they were telling me ahead of my own frustrated call. Nancy uses a local pharmacy who constantly struggles to get her 'scripts correct. I even encourage her to go elsewhere but she perseveres. They have never called her to say, "We can't process this right now, we'll let you know when we've finished following up." They simply put it aside until she calls to find out if it's done or stops in and finds it's not.

The second call was a sales cold call. I used to do this in my former profession. However, I was a real person showing up at a potential customer's office. I wasn't a recorded voice hoping to set an appointment for a salesman to show up and tell me my home could get raided by any person with a crowbar. I have nothing against ADT, there is a church member who works for them and he is a fine man. As a matter of fact, if I wanted an alarm, he'd be the first I would call. But I won't respond to a impersonal recording trying to get my business.

The third call always tickles me. I've apparently gotten my phone number into the data base for all third world telemarketers. These are real people working for insignificant wages trying to feed their families. I feel for people who are trying to make a living this way. I also know that many times they get paid for the number of seconds they can keep someone on the phone. Sometimes I'll let them go through their whole pitch before hanging up, just hoping that might have meant a few extra dynars in their paycheck that week. However, even though this is a person and not a recording, there's still no way I'm buying.

We are in a digital and technical world. These kinds of interruptions are becoming the rule rather than the exception. Oddly, I thought my pharmacy was able to find that balance between the impersonal recording and the personalized message. I thought the ADT call was far too impersonal and the personal voice from Pakistan was digging for information I just wasn't going to share over the phone.

Sometimes in this age we struggle to find the comfort of the personal in the digital way of life. Yesterday, Bishop Schnase preached at Good Shepherd. In a part of his message he said that Jesus invited us to a way of life and not a system of beliefs. That way of life is very personal. It is intended that we know one another and care for each other's hopes and hurts. In the next sermon series we will be inviting you to make Christmas more personal. We hope that the most important gifts you give will be your personal time and care rather than something you've bought. I know that, in the end, the Christmas time spent with family means far more to me than the gift cards we exchange.

Jesus came to make our faith personal. We can start that way of life this Christmas season.