What do I do when my company asks me to call customers and do market research?

Question

Out of nowhere, everyone on the development staff just received an email telling us that we are going to be calling customers and asking them survey questions. We have never done anything like this before, and in every job I've ever had I've been in a position where I do not talk to customers directly.

We are being told this is a policy that all the other subsidiaries of our company follow (we are one of several purchased companies) and that we are just now catching up.

I have a rather striking phone phobia, especially about calling perfect strangers. And I hate telemarketers and phone surveys. I can't imagine putting anyone else through anything like this even if I could imagine myself capable of making the calls.

Apparently we are to make two calls on Friday and then about eighteen on Wednesday next week.

Is this normal in the industry? I have never heard of anything like this. How can I fight this and get the message across that I am a programmer, not a telephone market researcher? Do I just need to suck it up and do whatever they ask me? I'd rather clean the toilets...

Answer 1

This is unusual. In most cases you will need to update your resume. Pick one of the following:

• Tell them you won't do and potentially get fired.
• Do it poorly and potentially get fired.
• Quit before they fire you.
• Do the task well. (Still, send out those resumes.)

I would be sending out resumes before posting here.

Answer 2

Time for a new job mate. There are some kinds of selling that are fun and enjoyable but what you've described smells of a business that is floundering for income and is trying to fix a round problem with a square peg.

Hit the job boards...

Answer 3

Are you calling customers regarding software you have written? If so, then your phone phobia might be slightly alleviated since you will be knowledgeable about the conversation and I find that if you are passionate about what you are talking about, the nerves go away.

This seems a bit fishy and odd for them to have developers speak directly to customers since, we typically aren't the most social creatures.

I would try and ask your supervisor to not have you do this and explain that you might cause more harm than good by speaking to them.

I might update your resume as well :)

Answer 4

Its not normal, how you deal with it is up to you.

Your reaction is going to depend on a number of things:

• Your current job description
• How much you think your employer needs you
• How much respect you get from your superiors
• How much you need the job

Not doing it is potentially going to lose you your job, you have to accept that. But in my opinion just rolling over is going to also affect you, and how you are treated in the future.

Only you can make the call (no pun intended).

Answer 5

I'm going to buck the trend and tell you that if you are asking survey questions about your software, this is good thing for you (even if you need to follow the resume advice). It will open your eyes to all sorts of problems your software has that you are not aware of. Developers should not be shielded from talking to users directly. It has a clear impact on the quality of software you deliver. 20 calls won't kill you. Calling customers at work about your software is far, far different than bothering people at home about some product they never heard and don't care about. A lot of the people you talk to will probably be very happy to take your survey. And you wil learn to consider things outside your developer tunnel vision.

I do agree though that since this is an unusual request, updating your resume and sending it around may be the prudent course. They may just be trying to do better customer service, but even if this is so, if it makes you so uncomfortable you may not want to be in the changed culture that puts more emphasis on customer service than they did in the past.

Edited to add:

Get ready to have a humbling experience. You are probably very proud of your software, it can be hard to hear from customers why they hate it or what they see as wrong with it even when they don't hate it. You'll be a better developer for it, but it's not an easy thing to hear. (I know I'd give an ear-full to the developers who wrote that horrible Clarity program we are forced to use!)

Further edited: If you have a genuine phobia that has been diagnosed by a psychiatrist, you can use the ADA to get out of the task in the US. Be aware that in doing this you need to be consistent, you can't use it to get out of calling one group of people and then be willing to call someone else later. Do not play this card though unless you seriously can't make a phone call not just becasue someone asked you to do a task you feel is beneath you.

Answer 6

Why should talking to customers about your own product be so much of a problem? In my opinion this is a very good move, you seem to think you are in an ivory tower and customers/users don't matter to you. That view is wrong, you are writing software for customers so it is entirely reasonable for you to know first hand what your customers think, ultimately they are paying your salary.

The first role I had after University was as a Programmer and once or twice a month I was involved in a pre-Sales support role talking to prospective customers about the technical aspects of the Software I was working on. It made the software better for me to understand first hand what the customers knew.

I'm now a Software Architect and often go to the shop floor and spend a few hours talking to my end users, doing the same job the people that are using my software have to do, using my software. I usually do this before I start and after the system is installed, during the acceptance phase. I've processed receipts, I've processed returns, I've even packed boxed and done picking, it can be a deeply deflating experience, being confronted with your own mistaken assumptions and bad design decisions first hand. I have no doubt the systems I design are better as a result.

Look at this as an opportunity to learn about how your software work for customer out there, you will do your job better as a result.

Answer 7

Working in a small company I once had to pick up technical support calls one afternoon a week, and I found it a pretty refreshing change. Depending on the type of software you develop I think it could be extremely valuable to talk to real customers. I'd rather be a software developer (someone making usable products for people) than a programmer (someone typing lines of code).

Answer 8

Now here's an answer from the other side of the fence:

Dealing with clients/strangers is absolutely mandatory in our field

If you ever consider starting your own software business in the future (maybe go into consulting), cold-calling is a valuable skill. And this is an opportunity to learn/practice pretty much for free.

Granted, this is quite unusual, and maybe higher levels don't appreciate the social requirements/interaction skills that are required. But as others have pointed out, these are extreme times.

Maybe the team could ask the company for "Telephone Market Researcher" training. That might make them think twice!

Answer 9

To answer your first question, no, this is not a normal job task for software developers.

The salaries of software developers are usually pretty high, compared to wages for people they could get to do the phone surveys. So the company is making a big sacrifice by having you do this task. This implies that it's important to them that the software developers do this task. I'd ask for clarification of exactly why they're doing this.

I would encourage you to have a sincere and open talk about this with your manager, or perhaps with a Human Resources representative. Tell him/her exactly what you described in your question here on StackOverflow.

It can be helpful for developers to have frequent and direct contact with their customers, in fact this is a tenet of many forms of Agile Development. But cold-calling customers with survey questions doesn't seem like the best way to do this, so I'm not sure this is the company's goal. You should ask your manager to clarify this too.

I like the point that @JackM said, that you're concerned you might do more harm than good for the company. You can request some training or at least mentoring in telephone skills. This sort of skill can be learned. It's not unreasonable to ask for training when they have asked you to do a task so far outside your past job duties.

You could also treat this as a growth opportunity. It's sometimes a good thing in the long run to confront one's phobias and not let them limit your life.

Answer 10

This is very unusual. I haven't heard of any company doing this.

If you're asking about software you're responsible for, to people who are using it, this may give you some insights as to what can be improved and what is a real pain for the users. This is good. (It may also get users to call you directly when they have problems, and this is generally bad.)

If you're asking anything else or anybody else, then the company is taking highly-paid developers, and having them do work that is usually done by people who aren't paid as well but are much better at doing it. This suggests that the new management is in desperate straits, or they're stupid, or they're in the market for lower-paid people who do development on the side (well, that also falls under stupidity, but I've seen it done). In any case, your best bet is to polish your resume and start looking.

You might well talk to your manager, or anybody on up you're comfortable talking to, about this and what it means, and whether it's a permanent change in your expected duties.