Phone Banking Isn’t Dead - You’re Measuring It Wrong

In 2024, Democrats made 300 million phone call attempts but connected with only 3% of the electorate. Some people see that as shorthand for "phone banking is dead." But it isn't. It's proof that volunteer phone banking is in trouble. Paid phone programs are a different story.

At Stones’ Phones, we routinely connect with 65% to 70% of any phone list. That isn't a small gap. That's a different kind of program entirely.

And the reason comes down to how the calls actually get made.

When paid phone operations are done well, they’re a well-oiled, professional machine. We don’t just attempt to reach someone once and move on. We make multiple attempts each day to reach a voter. And we do it at different times of day, so there’s a better chance of catching a voter when they’re available.

We also manage the caller ID that shows up on a voter's screen, rotating phone numbers so it doesn’t look like the same person is calling them over and over. We use local area codes, so calls don’t look like spam.

Paid callers do this for a living. They know how to work a script without sounding like they're reading one, and how to log responses so the data from your calls is actually useful. And you don’t need to worry about them going off-script!

Then there’s the technology. The dialer that ten volunteers are using on a Tuesday night isn't similar to the dialer we're running. Our systems are built for scale and efficiency. That’s something you just can’t replicate with a volunteer platform.

Volunteer phone banking absolutely has its place. It builds energy. It activates supporters. It gets people invested in a campaign in a way that paid calls can’t. It’s fantastic for one-on-one conversations where your volunteers and staff can persuade one or two voters. But if you're counting on volunteers to move persuasion or turnout voters on their own, you're asking them to do a job they aren't built for.

Effective campaigns use both volunteer and paid phones, and they use each one for what it actually does well. Let us find your undecided voters so your volunteers can persuade them. Let us chase vote-by-mail ballots so your volunteers can focus on talking to their communities. In other words, let us set them up so you can knock them down.

If you want to see what a paid phone program can do for your race, get in touch with Stones' Phones. We'll build you a plan that gets voters on the line and gets them to the polls.