Who's Calling Me From An Unknown Number? .8.

With training over it was time for us to delve into the real work. This consisted of making calls to set up the interviews for our research. I was introduced (or rather put a name to) to the concept of "cold calling" which is basically contacting someone you are not familiar with. This requires a different approach to "warm calling" where you are familiar and even close to the person you are contacting. My partner, Samuel, and I came up with calling scripts to follow while we were contacting the various organisations. I didn't realise how much thought had to go into the script though; I didn't get it right the first time. But! with some insight from our supervisor, Jenai, we were all able to come up with a solid script so no one would slam the phone down on us LOL.

To be honest, I thought the first week would be a lot easier than it actually was. In some cases the persons I contacted were on holiday, at other times I was transferred several times before I got to the right person. When I did get through, it was a matter of whether they would be able to accommodate us with their busy schedules. All in all though, everyone I spoke to tried to be as helpful as they could and were very nice to me, which was a blessing because I really prepared myself for persons who may not have been so nice. The first day was pretty slow, but after getting the hang of it, the rest of the week was much more encouraging. We were able to set up quite a few interviews for the second week. Conducting the interviews should be fun and I hope Samuel and I can leave a lasting impression on each interviewee both professionally representing SEED and personally.