Are Sybunts the Canary in the Coalmine for Phonathon?

There is an unmistakable trend this year in phonathon.  It’s been seen in programs small and large; in both public and private institutions.  Sybunts, generally considered the second most profitable population in our databases, are becoming much more challenging to contact.  The number of attempts needed to reach prospects and solicit them for a contribution has gone up- significantly in some cases.  In addition to the obvious productivity concerns, I want to spend a little time talking about what it means for the future of what we do- and particularly how to mitigate the loss of dollars that result from decreasing completion percentages in these segments.

 

Over the past several years, phonathon programs have had to build more time into their calling calendar to finish their targeted number of completes.  This is due to a decreasing rate of prospects answering their phones.  Those of us who have been in the industry for a while have seen this coming.  In 1995, I took the UGA Sybunts segment past 80% complete fairly easily.  We averaged less than 50 attempts per hour and it seemed our callers always had somebody on the phone.  Over the years the sybunts segments have seen increased attempts and decreased contacts, to the point where many phonathons are having a difficult time achieving 65-70% complete by the end of the fiscal year.  I describe the “wall” as the point in calling through a segment where it seems prospects stop answering the phones.  That wall used to be around 60-65% complete.  Today it’s more like 40-45%.