The polls are closed and the results are in: Telemarketing automation is winning by a landslide for the Republican Party of Minnesota.
The predictive dialing system at the party’s 20-station call center in its St. Paul headquarters has become the communications hub for all campaigns targeting Republican voters in the state, says Dwight Tostenson, state party finance director.
Initially, the dialer – purchased from Herndon, VA-based EIS International – was intended only to reduce fundraising costs. But the GOP quickly realized it could also be used year-round, for voter identification research, poll ing, promotion of grassroots rallies and official party events, as well as traditional “get-out-the-vote” campaigns a few days prior to an election. Besides generating live contacts for phone reps, the dialer software is also used for creating scripts and managing data profiles of supporters.
Thanks to the system, the number of phone contacts distributed among phone reps increased from roughly 12 per hour to about 20 to 22.
“We started by trying to decrease our fundraising costs and then we decided to do political work,” says Tostenson. “Now 80% of our calling is for political work. We store, build and maintain databases used by candidates.”
The database includes public information obtained from the Minnesota Secretary of State’s office. Since only limited information such as the voter’s name, address, voting district and voting frequency is available through public records, the party relies more on phone surveys and analysis of election results to profile individual voters.
Regardless of the campaign, the underlying objective is to develop a relationship with voters individually by customizing phone calls and direct mail to match a particular voter’s interests.
The party estimates it raised $1 million by phone and mail in 1999, with the total number of contacts made by phone expected to reach 500,000. About 60% of individuals contacted typically participate in surveys. The best response rate ever achieved for fundraising is about 28%, says Tostenson.
Individual voters are profiled using “unique interest codes” that identify responses to surveys and track opinions about public policies and level of interest in party issues, such as local control of education, guns and taxes. The state party maintains database records on voters going back 12 to 14 years.
“A voter may have dozens of interest codes. I suppose it’s not inconceivable someone might have hundreds of codes indicating every election in which they voted and responses to surveys,” says Joel Cary, information technologies director of the party.
Members surveyed are typically asked to rank their top five issues by importance. Their responses are used to customize direct mail appeals and phone fundraising scripts.
“Dynamic scripting based on their response takes them down the path of least resistance,” Tostenson says. Depending on the responses given, the fundraisers have about 20 scripted comebacks to overcome objections to renewing membership or giving a donation. As many as seven or eight issue variables are used to develop scripts using the software, although some calls are made using generic scripts merely asking for continued financial support.
