As more Americans drop landlines for mobile phones and screen calls for contacts they already know, it may be difficult to understand how phones still play a crucial role in winning elections. Much of the narrative about declining utility of political phone programs comes from the political polling industry. According to the Pew Research Center, 36% of households sampled agreed to participate in a poll in 1997, and in 2014 that number dropped to just 8%.
However, despite issues in the polling industry, Stones’ Phones is able to consistently deliver clients 70% completed call rates on live call programs.
So what accounts for the discrepancy? The answer is that Stones’ Phones strategically targets individuals that are most likely to vote in elections and participate in landline calls.
Polling firms are typically concerned with collecting responses from representative samples across various demographics, and this highly selective targeting means that many will be excluded so their demographics are not overrepresented.
However, Stones’ Phones is able to cut past that concern because we focus on calling real voters with landlines, regardless of demographics, to tell them our client’s message and activate them on Election Day.
Another important strategy we incorporate is keeping our interactive calls brief and to-the-point. Traditional polling programs often ask many questions up to a 30 minute timespan, which leads to high drop-off rates. We write our scripts to be much shorter and precise to maximize participation. By keeping ID calls to 1 or 2 important questions, we can successfully engage voters and deliver the most important information to our clients.
In addition to the length of the calls, the number of days a call is being made plays an important role in determining the success of a phone program. Conventional polls are usually in the field for 3 to 4 days, while our calls can be in the field for days or even weeks depending on client needs. By having a call spend more time in the field, while also rotating between different caller IDs and calling during different hours, we can further maximize participation and yield high completed call results.
To learn more about our live call techniques, please contact us and we’ll help you figure out the plan that’s best for you.