When people get a call from your organization some will ask questions, others will check your website or Google your organization to learn more about you before making a decision to support.
Next time your organization calls and asks for a donation be prepared for what the person taking the call could ask.
Some organizations that outsource their fundraising normally approve all campaign related material, letters, email content, and telescript – if what people are hearing over the phone doesn’t match what is shown on the organizations website, in the email or letter they will question it.
Organizations should be making every effort to ensure that their telephone campaigns are up to scratch, that every person making calls knows about the organization and that what they are saying is upfront, honest and reflects the organization in a positive way.
If an organization has any doubt about how to go about running a telemarketing campaign, they should stop and get some advice from people who know how to run one, there’s nothing worse than making calls (costly calls) only to have negative gain from them.
Those making the calls, whether in-house or an external company should be able to answer the usual questions donors ask:
- How did you get my details
- What other ways can I help
- How do I know this is genuine
- Are you a registered organization
- What percentage of my donation goes on administration
If the person making the call can’t answer these, or at the very least direct them to where they can locate the information then it’s the call will be ended and any hope of support will be lost.
In this day of widespread use of social media, organizations that don’t get it right could soon find they’re part of a far reaching discussion, people will make comment and unless they’re on the ball these organizations may soon find that potential new support will quickly evaporate.
Do it once and do it right – organizations need to plan and ensure they have all bases covered.
It comes down to proper planning, look at eventualities, ticking the boxes.
What steps does your organization take when starting a campaign – do you plan out what could take place and how you will handle questions, negative feedback, if not why not?
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