Best Practices:Phone Banking
Michelle Taube (Denmark), Rebecca Glazer (Spain), Connie Borde (France)
September 2012
Oh no, we’re supposed to phone bank!
surveymonkey opt-out
phone bank script
modified one from Munich (on leadership, now on wiki)
created phone bank member list
chose phone banking time
we called together (was it legal to use the office phones?)
several callers plus a coordinator
result is hard copy that can be referred to later
changes need to be entered into the database...
Reflections many people say “thank you” at the end of the call
some people call back right away
can get a bit confusing if you’re on to the next call
some people will need more help over the next week(s)
really rewarding when you hear that they’ve received ballots and voted
Modifications this year some on our ExCom want to make calls on their own time
experience with that during database clean-up in January not encouraging
maybe a combination of calling together and calling alone?
might set up a dropbox (instead of emailing)
some protection for the information, but we can all access it
member verification
indicate opt-outs on the call sheet -> try to get them to opt back in to our mailings (or drop their membership...?)
Creating a phone bank member list CC database coordinator downloads current member info
sort name (last name, first name)
all phone numbers
voting city, state
voting ZIP
email address, address abroad (for db verification)
sort data by voting state and ZIP
resulting list not in alphabetical order, but members who vote at the same address (families) are together
Make call sheets rows high enough for notes and new information
color-code
surveymonkey opt-outs
swing states
40 pages in all for DK
Actual call sheet
color codingsurveymonkey
opt-outswing state (call first) db phone numbers
often the same number several
times but...
DA Spain Phone Banking
Country membership is located in two large chapters (Barcelona and Madrid) and the rest of the country – identified as At Large
Approximately one third in each area (Madrid, Barcelona, At Large)
Barcelona and Madrid organize their volunteers to contact their own members and Spain helps to coordinate and cover At Large members
Since Madrid and Barcelona organize themselves separately they often do not do things the same way
Madrid has gathered volunteers at a single location
Barcelona sends lists to volunteers for them to call members on their own – this requires more follow-up but allows them to engage more volunteers
Reflections Try to follow-up each call with an email
Serves as a written reminder of deadlines, etc.
Provides member an easy point of contact for questions and future assistance
Usually ask volunteers how many calls they are willing to make – always send them more names than they as some phone numbers do not work
Try to ask more additional help if needed
Often use phone banking to recruit additional volunteers
Coordination, support and resources from DA have been extremely useful
Challenges Large student population still in database with working emails and
or phones, need to confirm if they are still in Spain
Rarely indicated that they are in Spain temporarily
Sometimes stay or return to Spain after graduation
In non-Presidential elections years, more difficult to engage volunteers
Focus on importance of swing state elections
Need to develop strategy for member verification as it may be difficult to reach all members with phone banking – need more volunteers
Can use phone banking as an opportunity to engage At Large members as volunteers