What is it volunteer political calling (working a phone bank) like?
October 16, 2014 2:32 PM Subscribe
A political organization wants volunteers to make get-out-the-vote calls to supporters in swing states. This seems like a good thing to do for some reasons (support a cause, get more phone confidence, try something new) and a possibly bad thing for others (possibly annoy a lot of people). Can you describe what this work is like (or point me to others' descriptions) and give feedback on the pros/cons of spending a few hours calling strangers to read a script and suggest that they vote?
You are only calling people who are already considered supporters so they tend to be nice because they appreciate that you are helping their side win. Also, you are just reminding them to vote, you are not trying to convince them how to vote so it tends to be fairly short calls.
posted by metahawk at 2:46 PM on October 16, 2014 [3 favorites]
posted by metahawk at 2:46 PM on October 16, 2014 [3 favorites]
I did this in 2004 and it was a great experience. They were cold calls, yes, but we were calling registered party voters asking them to come out and vote for the party they were registered for. There was a script but we could veer from it, within reason.
It was fun and I met lots of new people.
posted by cooker girl at 2:49 PM on October 16, 2014
It was fun and I met lots of new people.
posted by cooker girl at 2:49 PM on October 16, 2014
I hate talking on the phone more than any of the people.
Nonetheless, I'm okay with phone banking and find it interesting. I just refuse to do more than a two-hour shift.
If you've ever been a server or worked retail, then you can see how phone banking is similar in being anonymous and on script with room for adding personality when you want.
As others have said, you're not calling Sneeches without stars and asking them to be pro stars upon thars.
posted by Lesser Shrew at 2:57 PM on October 16, 2014 [2 favorites]
Nonetheless, I'm okay with phone banking and find it interesting. I just refuse to do more than a two-hour shift.
If you've ever been a server or worked retail, then you can see how phone banking is similar in being anonymous and on script with room for adding personality when you want.
As others have said, you're not calling Sneeches without stars and asking them to be pro stars upon thars.
posted by Lesser Shrew at 2:57 PM on October 16, 2014 [2 favorites]
I used to do it when I was a young thing. It was fun. People are mostly quite friendly and you can help them do important things like get to the polls.
posted by bearwife at 3:00 PM on October 16, 2014 [1 favorite]
posted by bearwife at 3:00 PM on October 16, 2014 [1 favorite]
I've done this '06-'12; like others already said, you're calling people who're predisposed to like you (and, often, who've been volunteers before and get what you're doing). Usually there's a script for information & time management purposes (come to [X EVENT] it will be [NEAT FOR THESE REASONS] it happens [SOON] will you help [Y/N]). I also hate talking on the phone, but I think it's given me more phone confidence, and, yeah, it's a similar part of the brain to basic retail skills.
posted by The Bridge on the River Kai Ryssdal at 3:03 PM on October 16, 2014
posted by The Bridge on the River Kai Ryssdal at 3:03 PM on October 16, 2014
Some people are really rude, some people make you feel awesome for supporting your cause. Most people don't pick up, or listen to your spiel and then say okay, thanks and that's it.
posted by i_am_a_fiesta at 3:30 PM on October 16, 2014
posted by i_am_a_fiesta at 3:30 PM on October 16, 2014
I call people for a living and I am phone-adverse to an alarming degree. People love talking to me for whatever reason. I'm told I regulate the speed and tone of my speech to make myself more comfortably understandable, am upbeat and concise. In my mind, I am just checking in with some information they might find helpful. This seems to translate well to the callee.
If you are calling voters in a particular jurisdiction it may be helpful to have some additional resources prepared (if not provided by the Party) so you aren't caught off guard, such as absentee/early voting locations and hours, or links to where they can find sample ballots and any changes in ID laws.
posted by ezust at 3:30 PM on October 16, 2014 [1 favorite]
If you are calling voters in a particular jurisdiction it may be helpful to have some additional resources prepared (if not provided by the Party) so you aren't caught off guard, such as absentee/early voting locations and hours, or links to where they can find sample ballots and any changes in ID laws.
posted by ezust at 3:30 PM on October 16, 2014 [1 favorite]
I did it for the 2012 elections; they gave us a training session where we practiced running through a script; we used that script when they had us call a list of known campaign supporters (NOT just stray phone numbers). We didn't have to stick word-for-word to the script: just basically get *this* list of ideas across, although I'll certainly agree the script was a VERY big assist for an introvert like myself. We worked in shortish shifts, never more than about four hours: they know you're a volunteer, they don't want to burn you out and they DO want you to come back again.
posted by easily confused at 3:53 PM on October 16, 2014
posted by easily confused at 3:53 PM on October 16, 2014
I've done it, and I found it neither fun nor especially useful. I imagine this depends on a variety of factors including your location, how the operation is organized, and what kind of person you are. I haven't done it again because I feel (and know, based on some experience) there are more effective ways for me to help the candidates and causes I support.
I don't have any pros or cons to add to your list, except that it felt like a boring and unproductive way to have spent several hours. Particularly if your goal is to meet people...I don't know, maybe some call centers are organized very differently than the ones I've been in, but it's not exactly a social environment. To meet people you'll have to actually become a volunteer who happens to spend some time on the phones, rather than a volunteer who shows up to work the phones. In which case, why not just do that other stuff (envelopes, doors, etc).
posted by cribcage at 3:55 PM on October 16, 2014 [2 favorites]
I don't have any pros or cons to add to your list, except that it felt like a boring and unproductive way to have spent several hours. Particularly if your goal is to meet people...I don't know, maybe some call centers are organized very differently than the ones I've been in, but it's not exactly a social environment. To meet people you'll have to actually become a volunteer who happens to spend some time on the phones, rather than a volunteer who shows up to work the phones. In which case, why not just do that other stuff (envelopes, doors, etc).
posted by cribcage at 3:55 PM on October 16, 2014 [2 favorites]
I just did some phone banking earlier this week. I personally find it incredibly challenging to cold call strangers, and have to really steel myself to do it. It's a testament to how strongly I feel about the candidate I'm supporting that I'm willing to do it. AND it's really not so bad once you get in to it. The phone banking I've been doing is to likely voters of specified demographic or district as targeted by the campaign, there's a script, and the staff and fellow volunteers are supportive and fun. Staff bring food (pizza, bagels, etc.) and help answer questions. They will be appreciative that you want to help out. If they're not nice to their volunteers, find a different campaign -- that's a sign of bad campaign management.
Phone banking and precinct walking (door knocking) continue to be some of the most effective ways to connect with voters, and are essential, especially in potentially low turn out elections. The campaign I'm supporting is funneling most of the volunteers into those 2 activities.
Phone banking is kind of a different thing in the era of cell phones and call screening. When I was calling this week, I only got one live person on the phone. Still worth doing, but gets lower response rates that it used to.
posted by gingerbeer at 4:11 PM on October 16, 2014 [2 favorites]
Phone banking and precinct walking (door knocking) continue to be some of the most effective ways to connect with voters, and are essential, especially in potentially low turn out elections. The campaign I'm supporting is funneling most of the volunteers into those 2 activities.
Phone banking is kind of a different thing in the era of cell phones and call screening. When I was calling this week, I only got one live person on the phone. Still worth doing, but gets lower response rates that it used to.
posted by gingerbeer at 4:11 PM on October 16, 2014 [2 favorites]
I did this for the Obama campaign in 2008.
Basically here's how it worked:
You gather at a central place (in my case, a cafe in my neighborhood) and are given a printed "script" for calls as well as a list of numbers. (In my experience it was a list of registered Democrats, so people already likely to vote for Obama. YMMV here.)
You call the numbers and sort of go by the script (trying to sound as natural and personable as you can, of course -- it's pretty easy, the scripts are very conversational). I thought it was going to be really difficult with probably a lot of convincing people who didn't want to vote for Obama, but that didn't actually happen at all. Basically 90% of people were like, "I definitely plan to vote, thanks!" and the remaining 10% were like "Oh, um OK" or "I already sent in my absentee ballot" or other similarly non-negative things.
Nobody really seemed to be annoyed or anything, though I was calling on a weekend afternoon and not at dinnertime. I also don't remember it being a crazy number of calls or otherwise arduous.
In general it was a positive experience, and I'm glad I did it.
posted by Sara C. at 4:39 PM on October 16, 2014
Basically here's how it worked:
You gather at a central place (in my case, a cafe in my neighborhood) and are given a printed "script" for calls as well as a list of numbers. (In my experience it was a list of registered Democrats, so people already likely to vote for Obama. YMMV here.)
You call the numbers and sort of go by the script (trying to sound as natural and personable as you can, of course -- it's pretty easy, the scripts are very conversational). I thought it was going to be really difficult with probably a lot of convincing people who didn't want to vote for Obama, but that didn't actually happen at all. Basically 90% of people were like, "I definitely plan to vote, thanks!" and the remaining 10% were like "Oh, um OK" or "I already sent in my absentee ballot" or other similarly non-negative things.
Nobody really seemed to be annoyed or anything, though I was calling on a weekend afternoon and not at dinnertime. I also don't remember it being a crazy number of calls or otherwise arduous.
In general it was a positive experience, and I'm glad I did it.
posted by Sara C. at 4:39 PM on October 16, 2014
Speaking as someone who has done all sorts of political calling as well as commercial telemarketing, GOTV is probably the easiest and most fun phone campaign there is. Most of the people you reach will be enthused, not annoyed. Go for it.
posted by Jacqueline at 6:45 PM on October 16, 2014
posted by Jacqueline at 6:45 PM on October 16, 2014
I've worked multiple Congressional and Senate races, and phone banking has come up multiple times.
I personally hate it. Not everyone is a supporter: yes, you often get a list of people who are *more* likely to support your candidate, but this does not mean that they want a random phone call. I got quite few negative people.
You get a list of names, and get stationed in a corner/at a table, which usually has some phone scripts scattered around. You call, and fill in your list with their responses (usually some 1-7 rankings).
Its good practice in many ways, but is not everyone's cup of tea. Usually, its the team experience which is more fun that the actual calling.
posted by troytroy at 7:50 PM on October 16, 2014
I personally hate it. Not everyone is a supporter: yes, you often get a list of people who are *more* likely to support your candidate, but this does not mean that they want a random phone call. I got quite few negative people.
You get a list of names, and get stationed in a corner/at a table, which usually has some phone scripts scattered around. You call, and fill in your list with their responses (usually some 1-7 rankings).
Its good practice in many ways, but is not everyone's cup of tea. Usually, its the team experience which is more fun that the actual calling.
posted by troytroy at 7:50 PM on October 16, 2014
I've done it before. We had a script and a list of phone numbers of people already supporting the party. Even so, people yelled at me a lot and when they didn't yell, they hung up on me. It wasn't fun at all, but it's fun to be in the campaign office to get a feel of how campaigns run.
posted by cyml at 8:17 PM on October 16, 2014
posted by cyml at 8:17 PM on October 16, 2014
I've done this and hated it. I'm not a phone person and it did nothing for my confidence. The situations I participated in were not remotely social. It didn't help that my side was losing (and eventually lost). I liked door knocking a lot more, and I think it was actually helped improve my "talk to strangers" stat.
posted by the christopher hundreds at 5:57 AM on October 17, 2014
posted by the christopher hundreds at 5:57 AM on October 17, 2014
I did this in 2012 election also. I made calls trying to raise money for a senator in my state. Lots of calls (maybe most) roll over to voice mail. The remainder are divided between probably 3 categories: 1) she / he is not here at the moment but I'll let them know you called 2) I won't be making a contribution at this time but will get back to you, or 3) please don't call my anymore! Some people are very nice and fun to talk to. Nobody was extremely rude that I recall; they just firmly stated that weren't interested in contributing.
Getting out the vote calls would be different and probably a lot more pleasant as some other folks here have noted!
Good luck!
posted by gilast at 2:41 PM on October 17, 2014
Getting out the vote calls would be different and probably a lot more pleasant as some other folks here have noted!
Good luck!
posted by gilast at 2:41 PM on October 17, 2014
« Older How can I achieve the most comfortable bed for the... | What can I expect from an online competency... Newer »
This thread is closed to new comments.
posted by Jahaza at 2:46 PM on October 16, 2014 [1 favorite]