Francisco Guerrero, telemarketing manager. (1) - By Francisco Guerrero

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Entry 1

Posted Monday, May 6, 2002, at 2:56 PM ET

Francisco Guerrero is a telemarketing operations manager at MCI WorldCom.

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Yesterday at 4 p.m. I finally took a nap. It had been an eventful, busy Sunday, and it was the perfect ending for an eventful, busy week. I had gotten up early yesterday and the day before to take my kid to a meeting and an early class for Sunday school at church (he will be doing his First Communion next Sunday) and ran twice the usual errands, as one of the family cars was out of commission last week and will be next week as well. An hour later, the phone rang. "Are you OK? Is everything OK at work?" my mom asks. It seems like my mother, never known for following the financial news, has gotten a hold of the latest news regarding my employer. The events of last week, new CEO and all, have reached all the way down to my family. I tell her that things are fine and not to worry.

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However, I am glad that the weekend does not bring any more stock market changes. I have grown tired of financial news. I want to be positive regarding our future, and I want to see the light at the end of the tunnel. Instead, last week was just a perverse version of the dot-com/telecom market of the last century. While in the late '90s everyone checked their portfolio every few minutes to see the gains, now every few minutes the telecom world loses all the gains of the '90s and then some. My hope is for the market to be patient with us; the question is, is there any patience left?

This morning I'm running late already and have to forgo my usual morning routine. I grab a cup of coffee and a bagel at the cafeteria of our headquarters in Arlington, Va. I work at MCI WorldCom's consumer "long-distance" unit, which soon enough will stop being long-distance, as we become the largest (in terms of national coverage) local phone company. Welcome to "The Neighborhood," our brand-new brand for local service. (I guess it's a good thing we didn't name it "Mr. Ebbers' Neighborhood.")

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So it's now my job to promote our new service by means of telemarketing and direct mail. When people ask me what I do, all I have to mention is, "You know those telemarketing calls and mailers for long-distance offers?" and at that point, my position in the caste system goes down a couple of notches. (This happens to me at every party!) I have to further explain that I am not the one actually calling, to regain some esteem. My job entails keeping track of all our "Marketing Partners," and there are many, from respected airlines to horse breeders. (I'm not kidding!) The next inevitable question is, "Can you get me off the list?" At which point I say "Yes," and then I get a smile of relief from the person talking to me.

We are famous (or infamous, I should say) for our telemarketing efforts. We have a small army of telemarketers calling with our offerings, and we want to make those calls as appealing as possible. That's why we have marketing partners, and my job is to coordinate with them. Our partners are important to us as they convert your typical plain-vanilla telemarketing call into something with a little flavor to it. We cater to your lifestyle in the hopes of getting the all-important "yes" from our customers. You want frequent flier miles? We have frequent flier miles! You want movies, DVDs, or games? We've got them, too! Want us to waive your credit card's yearly fee? Sure! We try to make the customer special and to offer a good deal. Today I see scheduled three meetings with different partners, and all have to be kept happy with their demands.

I check the messages on my voicemail and hear the car repair bill will be $500, which will hurt my wallet and my monthly budget beyond what I would prefer. I'll ride the metro for the rest of the week and hope to get the car repaired ASAP. I'm just glad Washington, D.C., has a very competent public transportation system as I'll need it a lot this week.

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