Sprint Telemarketing To Mobile Phones May Be Doing More Harm Than Good

Just wanted to point you to the comments within the Sprint Still Sucks thread. It seems that Sprint is continuing to solicit customers on their mobile phones, and that they're hanging up on a lot of people. Instead of calling the number back, many folks are Googling it instead. Some are finding this blog. And the past few comments indicate that Sprint's mobile spam is turning people off and making them want to avoid signing with Sprint.

My guess is that Sprint will continue their campaign, though. Marketing data tends to accentuate the positive, and I'm sure there are marketing VPs looking at spreadsheets right now, seeing a trickle of new customers come in from the outbound telemarketing efforts. Since I'll bet they're probably not asking themselves how many customers they're losing due to the effort, it will likely continue.

This is a great example of why the Ethic of Reciprocity rules supreme in marketing, even over fancy spreadsheets that show positive customer growth numbers. If it seems like it's disrespectful, it is disrespectful, regardless of what a spreadsheet tells you.