Calls are at the heart of any political campaign, whether it’s for voter outreach, membership renewal, or fundraising. After reading this article, you’ll know how to create a successful call operation!
1. In "Operations", then "Call operations" and "Call operations" again, you'll see your Call Canvassing Dashboard. There, you can click "Create an operation" to star a new one.
2. You will need to choose between the original version and the specialized version.
The difference is quite simple: the original version is simpler but less powerful. Your callers will see the script and voter information in a single window with three columns.
In the specialized version, you will use questionnaires—either ones you have already created or ones you will need to create. Callers will see the questions one at a time and will be guided through different branches based on the person’s answers. This version is also more similar to door-to-door operations.
3. You must choose between your Contacts list and your Electors list as the source for the phone number list for your calling campaign. Then, you can click “Next Step.”
4. You will then need to enter the basic details of your campaign. Start by giving it a clear name and a description, if you wish.
As with every operation, select the right survey and the question your agents will ask the contacts or voters they reach.
Check the start date for calls; by default, this will be the date your campaign was created.
Next, check your campaign’s end date—the date and time after which calls can no longer be made. By default, the end date will be one month after the start date.
You can then select a start and end time for your calls; these are the times during which your operators will be able to dial numbers.
5. Then, you need to choose how the calls you make will be placed. The options are as follows:
Call via physical phone: Your operators will use their phones and phone numbers to call contacts or voters. There will be no cost associated with the calls placed. If they ise the app instead of a computer, Démocratik will dial the numbers for them.
From the software: involves a cost for the organization; calls will be made by Démocratik.
Once you have filled everything out, click “Next Step.”
6. The next step is to choose a set of questions that your call center agents will ask during their calls.
You can click “Preview Template” if you wish; click “Use Template” for the one you choose. If you want to create a new one, click "Create From Blank" at the top of the page. If you want to know how to do it, here is how to edit or create surveys!
7. Next, you will need to “Set call recycling options”.
Specifically, you need to choose how many times, and after how long, the numbers you called can be redialed.
You can choose to have calls that are "Auto detected" (Error, Invalid Number, No Answer, Call Canceled, etc.) redialed first; please note that if your agents are making physical calls (as chosen at step 5), no Auto detection will occur.
For example, if we check the “No Answer” box, we can specify that we want 3 more calls to be made if the number is recognized as “No Answer” by the system, and we set a 90-minute interval between attempts.
You should then modify statuses determined by agents (Remove from call list, No answer, Not at home, etc.). Here’s an example: if an agent marks a call as “Call back,” you can specify that you want two additional calls, spaced 120 minutes apart.
You can set up such call retries for all kinds of call statuses (Line busy, Voicemail detected...).
Once you have entered all the call retries you want, you can click “Next.” Call statuses that you have not checked will not be retried; they will be removed from the call list after a single attempt.
8. You can then choose options for blocking numbers. This step is optional; if you don’t enter anything, your list will remain unchanged. If you enter options here, your list will be updated according to your selections.
For example, if we select “Vote,” to remove people who have already voted. We will then select the status to be assigned to this contact or voter by removing them from the list: here, “Removed - Already Voted.” If desired, we could also select “Apply to household” to automatically remove members of the same household from your call list as well.
You can add other exclusions; for example below, by selecting “Question,” if “1st choice” has a value, we exclude people who have already answered this question. Next, you must choose a status to add, here: “Removed - Already answered.”
Once our filters are set, you can click “Go Next.”
9. Next, you need to determine what call center agents will be able to see on each contact record, what will be hidden, and what can be edited. You can also highlight information on the records. For example, below, we’ve chosen to allow call center agents to edit landline and cell phone numbers, email addresses, and the person’s language. However, nationality will be hidden, and the date of birth will be visible only (obviously). The arrows on the left also let you reorder the information.
You won’t be able to allow them to edit certain information, such as date of birth, donations made this year or the polling place of the voter, for rather obvious reasons.
10. Next, you’ll need to assign users to your campaign. By default, you’ll be set as the Owner of your campaign. You can add other people as owners (which will allow them to edit the campaign) by typing their names into the search bar.
You can add agents to your campaign (volunteers, for example) in three ways:
You can copy the link at the bottom of the page, and send it to them. Be sure to check that the “People with the link” field displays what you want; it’s set to “agent” by default, so people who click the link will see the campaign as an agent. If you change this option to “Owner,” people will be able to edit your campaign via the link.
You can also invite them via the search bar, of course, if they already have an account of the site.
Finally, if the “Share QR” option is enabled, volunteers can scan the code with their phone camera to join the campaign as an agent. The QR code works as the link does; the option selected under “People with the link” applies to it as well, so be careful.
This isn’t your only chance to share your campaign with volunteers; you can also do so after you're done. For now, click on "Go next" to select the contacts or electors you want your agents to call.
11. At this step, you’ll need to add a contact list to your campaign. When you click “Create a new list using your filter/query,” a new tab will open. You’ll need to apply filters, as explained in this article, if you’re searching your contacts.
12. When you've loaded the list of contacts or voters, you can close the other tab, and come back to your Operation. Finally, you can click “Finish Campaign Creation.”
13. You'll be taken back to your dashboard. When you're ready, you can add agents to your operation by clicking the three dots, then “Share,” to review the sharing options for your operation.
Your campaign is ready; your call center agents can start making calls!
