A solid political campaign is one of the most critical factors in determining who wins an election. What is political campaigning?
1. Reach out to your voters
2. Let them know who and what you are.
3. Tell them what you stand up for.
4. Educate them on why they should vote for your candidate.
There are many ways campaigns can attract your attention in today’s digital world. Broadcast media, such as radio, television, and newspapers, are the traditional ways to draw your attention. Social media, email, and online advertising are the modern ways to get your message out.
Campaigning is most effective when it has a personal touch. A volunteer might influence a voter to support a campaign more than a sign outside a store. Door-to-door canvassing can be the best way to get heard and learn more about your voter. It is impossible to reach every voter in every campaign if there are multiple campaigns or the time limit is too strict. Door-to-door canvassing without a large volunteer pool is nearly impossible.
Phone banking is a great option. Phone banking is used in political campaigns to reach voters by phone to canvass and get the vote. This is usually done using call center software, commercially available telephone banks, or volunteer phone banks.
You can reach thousands of voters quickly and efficiently through phone banking. What is the average time it takes to call a voter? It takes just 3 minutes sometimes, and sometimes even less.
Imagine a group of four to five volunteers calling voters. You can reach large numbers of voters quickly. Combining canvassing with phone banking can make it very effective in increasing voter turnout and supporters. Talk about killing two birds! Learn more about how to connect phone banking and canvassing.
What is phonebanking?
We now know what phone banking is. The next question is, how does it work?
Phone banking is the act of volunteers calling voters to talk about their campaign. There are many types of campaigns: some to get out the vote (GOTV), others to recruit volunteers, and some to raise funds or identify voters.
Campaigns may use traditional telephone lines to contact voters. Each volunteer must dial a number manually, wait for the caller, then speak to them. The volunteers must record the details of the call on paper. Once the call is over, the manager must manually enter the survey information into the CRM. Tedious? You bet! You bet!
Software-based advanced phone banking tools are available. Volunteers can log in to the system from their computers and make calls using a browser if necessary. The system assigns voters to agents and displays accurate information about each voter. It also stores all feedback received from calls.
How does it save you time? It is as simple as calling the number you want and avoiding answering machines, busy numbers, and wrong numbers.
Volunteers now take 50% less time to make calls than traditional methods.
How to create a phone bank
If you use a CallHub phone banking tool, setting up phone banking is very easy. There are some things that you should plan for when planning your campaign.
To be called: List of voters.
This is the script volunteers should follow when speaking to voters
Make a list to recruit volunteers to phone bank with you
If there are any survey questions, please answer them.
Volunteers need to be taught what to discuss and how to give feedback.
Phone Bank Party
With the repetitive tasks involved in phone banking, it can become very dull. It can be delightful if done with a group. A party or get-together can help improve moods. Volunteers aren’t used to calling strangers and conversing with them. Volunteers need to be motivated. In a group setting, volunteers can work together to achieve the same goal. They also can get to know each other and become closer to the campaign. A party allows all participants to mix, mingle, interact, and call voters. This improves the quality and number of calls.
There are many types of phone banking.
You can use two types of phone banking: automated and manual. Let’s look at how they work.
1. Automated
Automated dialers dial through a contact list and connect the call to a live agent when it is answered. This system is known as a virtual outbound phone center.
It’s not as tough as you might think! Click here to learn more and discover how easy it is.
The next question is: How do agents connect with this software provided by CallHub? There are two options for getting this done:
Use a browser
All that the agent requires is a computer and headset. It’s that simple! The agent must use CallHub’s browser interface to read the script and complete surveys.
A browser has many advantages: it is easy to use, costs less, requires only one device, and is hands-free.
Use a smartphone
The agent connects to the campaign using a phone. The CallHub application can be accessed on a browser using another device, such as a computer. It allows the agent to view the script and answer surveys.
Two options are available: The agent can either dial into the campaign or receive a call to connect. What are the modes? These are based on your country’s phone plans and their respective pricing.
A phone has the advantage that you can use it to call older people and does not require high-speed internet access. It is also a bit more costly, and you will need more than one phone.
There are three types to choose from when it comes to automated phone banking:
1. Predictive dialer
A predictive dialer can be extremely helpful if you need to reach as many people as possible. This is especially important for large campaigns like voter identification. The dialer connects only those calls that agents answer.
This saves a lot of time since unanswered calls, dial tones, answering machines, and so on are weeded out. Agents can now focus on supporting their supporters and not listening to endless dial tones or automated answering machines.
2. Power Dialer
The power dialer automatically dials the numbers while the caller concentrates on the live call. This is a slower form of calling, where the agent can complete the survey and take notes before moving on to the next call.
A dial rate can be set to speed up the campaign and allow volunteers enough time to complete survey questions.
3. Preview Dialer
Preview dialers are flexible dialer that allows agents to spend time researching the contact. These conversations are more in-depth and may include follow-ups from previous discussions.
Managers still have control over who is called, and they receive detailed recordings of every call.
2. Manual
Manual calling is also known collectively as calling. It uses the same interface and dialer as an automated calling. What’s the difference? The calls, in this instance, are not made through CallHub. Instead, the agent would need to dial the number manually on a telephone and then use CallHub for the script and survey questions.
Why not use collective calling instead of dialing a number alone or with a group volunteer?
It might work if all agents are located in the same area, but it will not work if they are spread out geographically. Coordinating with each other is a huge hassle.
Collective calling makes the calling process fluid and dynamic. Contacts are assigned based on how many agents are active at any given time.
This ensures all contacts are reached, and no one is left out. It is also possible to delete agents who aren’t performing well using CallHub’s software.
What should you choose? An automated dialer or a manual dialer?
Automated calling is possible if
Are you a political campaign trying to reach voters?
An advocacy group
You are not subject to any TCPA regulations
You can also use Collective Calling if you have the right equipment.
Although TCPA regulations limit you, you still want to optimize your campaign.
Most of your contacts (not landlines) are mobile. You’d instead dial them than use an automated dialer. This is due to TCPA regulations.