Interesting to see the phone company Talk Talk is offering free weekly chats to its customers. The 5 minute calls are to be made by staff members who have volunteered and conversation topic is to be set by the customer - but the company promises not to try and sell services or give advice or counselling. It's aimed at older people living alone - estimated to be around 6% of Talk Talk's customer base.
While it's agreed that this kind of thing is tremendously helpful to the elderly, lonely and/or bewildered, there have also been concerns raised... Is five minutes long enough, will the volunteers be properly trained, and as customers will need a password for the service (to stop fraudulent callers), might this might get confusing ? etc.
Is it purely cynical? A gimmick? Well, Talk Talk say they're launching the scheme to "give something back" so maybe they should be given the benefit of the doubt at this stage?
We like the idea of giving something back, so good on them.
