Differences


What are the key differences between paper phone banking and using VPBs?




What are the key differences between Virtual Phone Banks and Open VPBs?



Make calls/

record data from anywhere

Need ActionID to use

Need a VAN account to use

Access via

Change/ Update Contact Information

Designate specific events shown to callers (Event Scheduler)

VPB

✅

✅

✅

VAN

✅

✅

Open VPB

✅

✅

⛔

OpenVPB.com

⛔

⛔


Creating your VPB


Setting up your Open VPB

Please watch our video here, or follow these instructions.

  • Step 1 - Create your list and and run the search.
    • Just like creating a list for a block walk, you will need to create a new list under Create A List.
    • You can select your targets, any other limiting factors, and then click Run Search.
    • Notes: If you have two phone banks that have overlapping lists, then a contact could be double called.  You will want to make your phone banks have mutually exclusive lists.
  • Step 2 - Set up your phone bank using your list.
    • Once that list is cut, select the Calls button (the phone symbol) and select Set up Virtual Phone Bank List, then click Next. 
  • Step 3 - Choosing the VPB settings:
    • When Set up a Virtual Phone Bank pops up, select Save. It is important to use these saved searches rather than fixed lists to ensure no double calling and to remove people who no longer match the search criteria. 
    • If you want the saved search to update, you must Refresh & Send to Next Round. 
    • You are then prompted to create/select a Folder, a name for the VPB and  Script. The Folder feature is helpful in case you want to create multiple VPBs for the same purpose, such as wellness checks. There is also the optional Description field for you to include more details about the VPB. Click Continue when finished.
    • Scripts need to be already created before they would appear as an option in the drop down menu. 
    • If the script that you are using for your VPB does not have any boxes checked for both Phone Results and Walk Results, then you will not see the red outlined box that says “I Couldn’t Reach (Name)” while phone banking.
    • In the Virtual Phone Bank Details page, you can choose a name, script, start and end date for the phone bank. 
    • We recommend that you complete all entries with red asterisks, and, to publish your VPB to openvpb.com so your volunteers without VAN accounts can access it if needed. 
    • You should also select Attempt all alternate numbers to maximize your chance of contacting voters. 
    • Skipping options can be useful when other committees may have called a voter and eliminated all their phone numbers as bad, leaving your caller with no phone numbers to call. With the Skip button, your caller can then proceed through the VPB without recording false data.. 
    • Regarding Display Settings, you should select all boxes under Basic Demographics, except for Party, so your callers can have a sense of who they are talking to. Contact & Location Information and Additional Contact Details can be left as is unless you have a specific preference for one of the boxes. Editable Contact Details should all be selected so your callers can update information as needed while phone banking.
    • Note: In OpenVPB, only the Notes will be editable which means there are many limitations to what your callers can edit. If any of your callers participating in the VPB does have a VAN account, you should have them use VPB instead of OpenVPB, so they can edit more fields as needed. For more frequent callers, you can set up VAN accounts that are limited to using VPB and MiniVAN.
    • You should always select Show Entire Phone Bank Progress under Progress Bar so callers can see how the phone bank is progressing.
    • Note: For very large phone banks, this can be discouraging to callers as they never see it move. It may be better to set the Contact Limit to 50-60 Attempts, then also select to display the Individual Progress Bar. Then, the caller has a reachable goal for their shift and can see the progress being made
  • Step 3.5 - Sharing to OpenVPB:
    • As mentioned above, Open VPB is useful in giving your phone bank access to callers without VAN accounts -- all they need is their Action ID (instructions on how to create an Action ID can be found below).
    • This option allows you to create a code and link for Open VPB by selecting Publish to openvpb.com -- the code and link will show up on the following page once you completed your settings and click Next or Save & Preview near the top right of screen:
  • Step 4 - Publish/Confirm Settings and Sharing VPB with Others
    • Once you have finalized all settings,  you can click Next near the top right of the page.
    • You should now see the VPB Code and OpenVPB link (if you opted to publish them to OpenVPB.com) -- make sure to both write them down for record-keeping and share to others in your committee so they can start making calls. 
    • At the bottom of this page, you will see the User Access Panel that allows you to give specific VAN users, user groups and committees access to your list. Select the users you want to give access, and add them to the correct column. You can add the VPB with your committee by finding and adding your committee under Committee Access. Remember, when using an Open VPB link, callers without VAN accounts can also make calls as long as they have the correct code/link!
  • Step 5 - Preview and Save the VPB
    • Once you are happy with all your settings, click Save & Preview in the Display Settings panel to preview what the phone bank will look like to your users. You can click Save just to make sure everything are saved in VAN and you have now completed the process of creating a VPB/Open VPB!
    • You can now get back to this page to manage the VPB under the Administrative Menu -> Phone Services -> Virtual Phone Bank. To choose which VPB to make edits to, simply search and click on the specific Name of the VPB on the page.


Scheduling Events


Using the Event Scheduler

  • If you are an organizer or an admin, you may want to call and recruit volunteers for your event/campaign (like when your VPB is in My Campaign and you are inviting people to an event using a texting app such as Hustle). By using the Event Scheduler, you can ensure that both you and the person you are contacting know when they are supposed to come to your event, and also schedule them directly into a volunteer shift while phone banking with them. 
    • If you are instead a volunteer who is phone banking, you may want to recruit other volunteers or to get people to come to your campaign’s event. By using the Event Scheduler, you will help your campaign keep track of rosters and follow up with people you have contacted. 
  • Adding event scheduler to my phone bank:
    • The event you are scheduling should already be created in My Campaign before you set up the VPB (or before you add Event Scheduler to the VPB).
    • Check the Include Event Scheduler box and select the date range and event types that will be shown to callers. 
    • Some filters of events available are fundraiser, phone bank, training, voter registration, etc. 
    • Some filters of roles available are attendee, data entry, canvasser, organizer, etc. 
    • Remember that the more event filters you select the narrower the list of events shown to your callers..  
    • You can create multiple filters of events and roles all on the same page. Simply click next to the entry you just created and the drop down menu will appear again for you to select. This is useful for when you know precisely the type of event you will use to schedule events. 

Using MobilizeAmerica

  • One alternative (especially in OpenVPB where event scheduler is not available) is using MobilizeAmerica to schedule people. Mobilize will automatically add the person to the event in My Campaign, and it will automatically send out reminders before the event. Manually added people will also require manual reminders.
  • We recommend that callers have the event open in a separate browser tab in Mobilize, and then they can input the person’s data there. This will generate an immediate confirmation to the volunteer with all the event details as well.
  • This is also a great way to record contact info (especially emails) when using OpenVPB, which otherwise would not allow emails to be recorded except in Notes.
  • If your VPB is in My Voters, the system will create a record for them in My Campaign if there isn’t one already. However, when using Hustle, the people without an existing My Campaign record will not have one created and they will not be attached to the event.


Additional Info


What does Refresh and Send to Next Round mean/How do I update my VPBs?

  • Refresh & Send to Next Round will replace the existing phone bank list with the voters currently in that search. If you want your phone bank to update with the latest set of targets you will need to refresh every morning.
  • To get to Refresh & Send to Next Round, go to Home/Main Menu, find Administrative Menu and click Phone Services and then Virtual Phone Bank. When you are in the Virtual Phone Bank Lists page, find your VPB, then scroll all the way to the right side of your screen and find the dropdown arrow that will allow you to select Refresh & Send to Next Round.

What are some other best practices for managing a phone bank?

  • Make it fun!
    • Provide food and drinks.
    • Play a game -- like Phone Bank BINGO!
    • Have a raffle for all participants (prizes could be a bottle of wine, free movie tickets, etc).
  • Make it competitive!
    • Set up a leaderboard tracking number of calls.
    • Prize for top callers.
  • Put the game on (mute)!
    • If there is a big event such as a football game -- play and mute it on TV with closed captions.