“Mr. Ramsay, this is American Express. Did you just spend $600 at the Levi’s outlet store in King of Prussia, Pennsylvania?”
In case you are wondering, that was NOT what I wanted to hear while standing in a client’s conference room getting ready to start a meeting.
Here is how it happened:
The night before, I arrived at a hotel I had frequented for years. I said hello to the young woman who had checked me in countless times before.
“Oh!” she said. “Do you have time to do a survey? Holiday Inn Corporate wants to talk to some of our regulars for a research project. They’ll give you a bunch of points on your account, too.”
I work in customer experience and employee engagement, so the offer piqued my professional curiosity. Besides, the young woman had been so good at taking care of me in the past that I had filled out a survey on her. I was happy to help.
She said she’d give me time to get settled, then transfer “Corporate” to my room.
Everything that followed was so plausible. The “interviewer” I spoke with explained that she was an intern doing a special project for the CEO, learning about the business. She came across as both informal and respectful. After probably 20 minutes, she offered the points and just needed my credit card number to process it.
And that was that. King of Prussia outlet mall, here they come.
So here’s how the scam worked: The “interviewer” had spoofed her phone so that it showed up to my hotel’s front desk just like it did when “Corporate” actually called.
In other words, once they tricked her, asking her to identify marks was easy. “We’d like to talk to your regular customers,” they said. They essentially asked, “Tell us who trusts you, so they’ll trust us.”
Some people get upset when you say, “It’s all about who you know.” That phrase doesn’t automatically mean some sort of evil good ol’ boys system. It means that trust is how relationships work!
Before you apply for that job …
Before you call that prospect …
Before you present numbers …
… make sure you have done your part to build some sort of trust with the other party. Everything after that is easier. Including, I guess, the drive to King of Prussia.