As we wrap up another year of phonathon and begin thinking about next year, I thought I’d take a minute to talk about one of least appreciated factors in creating a realistic and solid phonathon plan- record counts. Before a manager even begins to think about the calling calendar or scheduled hours for the calling shift, they should first have an understanding of how many prospects they will have to call that fiscal year. This is Step 1 in the planning process for the new fiscal year- establish a segmentation strategy and find out how many people you will be calling. Here are a couple of additional thoughts on why I believe this to be so important.
Record Counts Allow for Precise Forecasting and Scheduling
The number one mistake that most phonathons make is that they don’t call far enough into their database to realize the full productivity potential of their program. They leave money on the table because they stop calling too soon; often because they believe that contacts are too low to justify keeping callers busy. Institutions that follow industry best-practices take the overall database to 70-75% complete- budget permitting. While that is a topic for another blog, the primary lesson of this mistake is that stopping early leads directly to lower dollars and donors pledged. To achieve all that your program is capable of, you will need to complete (terminating response that does not allow you to call back…includes bad numbers, pledges, refusals, already pledges, etc.) three-fourths of your database. How can managers effectively plan to do that when they don’t know how many records they have available? Failing to schedule enough time in the calling calendar leaves you scrambling at the end of the campaign to hit the goal. That’s why knowing this number before calling even begins gives you a proper target to aim for.
Estimate when Actual Counts Aren’t Available
Good phonathon planning happens well in advance of the calling year. If your program starts in August, your plans should begin no later than June. If your phonathon starts in September, then July would be the time to start. Part of the challenge of starting so early is that actual record counts are often not yet known. You may be wrapping up one year and have yet to run the new segmentation criteria. Or, your advancement services team may not have had the opportunity to turn over their books that quickly. No worries- you can use an estimate to begin with. If your segmentation plan has changed very little from last year, then you can use last year’s counts as a guide…adding or subtracting from segments that you expect to be higher or lower based on this current year’s results. Just don’t let the fear of being off slightly stop you from beginning the process. You can always revise once actual numbers are known. Without record counts, all else is guesswork.
Record Counts are Rarely Static During Calling
Manual programs often print cards at the beginning of calling and call through them until the end of the campaign without removing or adding many prospects. Occasionally they will need to pull a major donor from calling that accidentally fell into the wrong pool, or perhaps they received a call from an angry alum asking not to be called anymore. One of the frustrations of running a manual program is that you don’t have the flexibility to locate and identify certain prospects to add or remove from calling. But if you run an automated program, you’re probably accustomed to weekly deletes or additions based on real-time feedback from prospects or prospects found through research. Whether you run a manual program or an automated phonathon, be sure to keep up with the changes in your plan. If record counts go up or down considerably, your final targeted number of completes will go up and down too. Not knowing the actual number as time progresses puts your program at a disadvantage when trying to maximize results.
The bottom line is this. Good phonathon planning has finalizing segmentation strategy and getting a preliminary analysis of record counts as a primary focus during the summer months. Knowing this number early in the process will help you plan the appropriate number of calling shifts, set the proper calling hours, hire the right number of students, forecast your results with precision, and finish your program on time. It’s the first thing I try to figure out when sitting down to map out my year and I strongly recommend that it be one of the first things you think about too.
As always, your comments are welcome.
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