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Comprehensive Phone Guide and External Communications

Scheduling and Responsibilities

You may be asked to monitor and answer any of our main communication channels advertised to the public:

1. Business communications, Members, Media, and General Inquiries: Main Line, fax line, and snail mail (Office Manager and DevComm)
1. officemgr@votesmart.org, intern@votesmart.org, jobs@votesmart.org (Office Manager)
2. membership@votesmart.org, media@votesmart.org (DevComm)
2. Candidate/campaign communications:"Candidate Line" and politicalcourage@votesmart.org
3. Research questions from the general public: "Hotline," comments@votesmart.org, and Uservoice (Research)
4. Research requests: research@votesmart.org (Research)
5. Special Interest Group Inquiries: ratings@votesmart.org (Research)
6. Tech Support: webmaster@votesmart.org and Uservoice (IT)

For most of our phone duties, there is a phone schedule sent weekly via email. If you are scheduled for primary or lunches and are not going to be in the office, it is your responsibility to make sure someone is covering your shift. If the replacement forgets, it is the primary shift holder's responsibility. If the primary person is away from their desk - break, meeting, etc. - someone else in the office should answer the phone if it rings more than twice! Primary person should inform someone to watch phones for a few minutes if they are going to be away from their desk, but sometimes things happen and we are away for a minute or two...someone just ANSWER THE PHONE!

If you have Lunch Duty, you can take your lunch the hour prior (11-12) or the hour after lunch (1-2) as your lunch time that day.

Staff - There IS flexibility on when you can take your lunch (ex: with supervisor permission, you can take it at 2 pm), BUT if you have lunch phones, you MUST be at the office during that hour unless there are extenuating circumstances that prevent you from covering phones during that time. If such is the case, it is YOUR responsibility to have a replacement cover the phone and to let the Hotline Scheduler know about these changes.

Interns - please notify your supervisor when you have lunch phones and when you will be taking lunch.

Training

In addition to reading this manual, please complete the following exercises to familiarize yourself with our website: Navigating Our Website

Guidelines for External Communications

Operators must be ready to provide help to anyone from an average citizen to C-SPAN junkies to graduate students and professional congressional researchers to our own members. Callers' education, political awareness, knowledge of Vote Smart, and attitude may vary greatly. It is the job of every Vote Smart intern or staff member answering the phone to provide the caller with a pleasant experience. No matter what tone of voice the caller uses, remain polite and professional because as a phone operator, you are speaking on behalf of Vote Smart.

Our Top Goal is Non-partisanship

Partisan is defined as an adherent or supporter of a person, party or cause or as partial to a specific party, person or cause. Bias is defined as a particular tendency or inclination, especially one that prevents unprejudiced consideration of a question.

A caller may make biased statements, BUT you cannot respond in any way to partisan remarks.
Don't interpret any information.
This means you cannot rephrase or reword anything from the database or from our materials, nor can you agree with the caller's phrasing. Interpretation allows for bias; if the caller is confused, offer to reread something slowly but DO NOT PARAPHRASE! Always read things word for word. There are several manuals that define congressional terms and legislative procedures from which you can read if a caller needs further explanation.

Be polite, respectful, considerate, and helpful.
Some callers are angry and frustrated, but all are looking for help. Some have never heard of Vote Smart and don't know what we do or whether they can trust us. Occasionally, you might receive a rude or prank call, but do not take it personally. Be tolerant, patient and professional. If you do receive an angry caller, always give problem calls to a supervisor.

Don't use abbreviations (PVS/PCT/VSDM)
When talking to callers, it's important not to assume that they know all the services we provide by their acronyms. Assuming this might leave callers confused and potentially inhibit their ability to navigate our website accurately.

Phone Operation

The Office Manager (with the help of IT) is responsible for setting up phones and phone lines, updating the phone list, and troubleshooting problems. Please see the Office Manager if you are experiencing any difficulty or need to add a phone to any of the active communication lines (i.e. main line, candidate line, and hotline). S/he will be responsible for getting in contact with the IT department to solve these issues.

Using the Phone System

One or several of our phone lines should be set to ring on your phone.
Verify that you have a transfer button and you know where it is.
Also, make sure you know how to use the "hold" button.

To make outgoing calls:
Internally: dial the 3-digit extension listed on the PhoneList and press "Send"
Externally: dial the 10-digit number as usual

Phone Answering Procedure

Answering the Phone

Beginning of call:
The phone rings twice and you answer it:

If you are answering hotline, please say "Thank you for calling Vote Smart's Research Hotline" instead of simply "Vote Smart." After introducing yourself and asking how you can help the caller, it is likely that he or she will ask a question. LISTEN to the question...don't rush to transfer the call or jump to a conclusion and answer a question they didn't ask. Have patience; figure out what the question actually is.

Somewhere in the conversation get their name and state from where they are calling. This allows you to remain professional by using their name in conversation and when transferring a call.

Determine Next Steps

At this point, you will determine if a call needs to be transferred (see Screening and Routing Calls for making that determination) or if it's a question you can address. If it's a question you can address, you will need to decide if you can determine an answer within a short time frame (hotline calls have a 3-minute time limit). If it is a more involved question, get an email address or make a phone appointment for them to call Vote Smart back (note: For questions received by hotline, we do NOT call people back).

Never respond to a caller with: "I don't know."
If you can't or it doesn't make sense to transfer or consult someone else, say:

OR

These are classier ways of saying "I don't know" - and we are a classy organization.

Keep calls brief

The time limit for a hotline call is 3 minutes.
The time limit for a mainline call is 10 minutes.

If you can tell a call is going to go over the allotted time, tell the caller that you can take a special request. To take a special request: make detailed notes of the caller's questions and get an email address to send a response. If the caller does not have an email address ask him or her to call us back. he reason for these time limits is that if all of the lines are busy, a caller will get the Hotline message asking them to call back. This is undesirable. Further, many of those who have come before you have found that it is faster and easier to solve problems when not on the phone.

If the caller starts to ramble, ask if he or she has a specific question you can help with. If not, politely say:

Or

Or

Transferring Calls

Before transferring a call, make sure you ask the person their first and last name, what organization they are from (if any), and what the call is in reference to. If it is a member calling, it is important to ask what city and state they live in. If it is a campaign or candidate, ask what state, office, and district the candidate is running for. Consult the PhoneList to find the proper extension.

Using the Phone System
To Transfer Calls Within the Office: press the Transfer key on your phone > dial the 3 digit extension of the person you wish to reach > Press send > inform them what the call is about, wait for their "ok" > hang up.

If the person does not answer their phone within 2 rings = the person is not at their desk. The digital screen on your phone will also tell you if that person is "On Another Call." If the person you are trying to transfer to isn't available, simply press the "Cancel" key and inform them that the primary person was not at his or her desk. Inform the caller that you will either a) take a message (to be communicated by email) or b) transfer him or her to another person. > press Transfer key again > dial another 3 digits for someone else who could take the call > wait for them to say they will take the call > hang up.

Conference Calls

Taking a Message

If the Vote Smart employee you are attempting to reach is unavailable, take a message being sure to get the following information (doublecheck the spelling with the caller for accuracy):

1. name
2. email address
3. reason for calling
4. phone number
5. relationship to VS
6. affiliated organization (if applicable)

Email this message to the appropriate party immediately, so that they may deal with the issue.

Calls for the President or National Director, if they are unreachable or not willing to take a call: response " [Insert name/title] is unavailable at this time, but I can take down your contact information and the reason for calling and can give this information to them when they return." Be proactive about getting them the message ASAP. Never give out personal email addresses, home phone numbers, or office phone numbers without permission. When in doubt as to what to do, ask someone.

Ending the Phone Call (If you Haven't Transferred It)

Once you've dealt with their initial inquiry, ask them if there is anything else you may help them with. If the answer is 'no,' continue as follows:

Ask if the caller is a member or is signed up for the e-newsletter. If not:

Always, at the very end:

Email Coverage

• One staff member should be in charge of each email account. They are welcome to reroute questions and requests to interns and other staff - within reason; otherwise email should be responded to within 3 business days or sooner
• ALWAYS include the Boiler Plate
• It is best to set a specific time every day for checking and responding to these emails - consistency will remind you to complete this task.
• Develop and use canned/template responses to streamline communications
• Keep your email organized and save records as necessary
• For more specific instructions on the comments@ email see: CommentsEmail

Screening and Routing Communications

Sales calls

The best way to screen sales calls is to ask them who they are, what organization they represent, and to what they are calling in reference to. Please be very cautious when answering calls from businesses, as they are sometimes not legitimate and oftentimes don't have a previous relationship with our organization. If they are representing a company we do not do business with, take a message and pass it on to the Office Manager. They will often try to con you into revealing some information about our organization - sometimes it's as innocent as the name of our business, the national director's name, or our address. Other times they will try to con you into accepting a free, no-strings-attached trial offer. Remember TINSTAAFL: There Is No Such Thing As A Free Lunch. Eventually that information gets used to send us products that we don't need and didn't order, followed by a hefty invoice, or else is fed to other companies that do so. Unfortunately there are many businesses out there who's entire model is to take advantage of nice, unsuspecting, inexperienced people. Keep an eye out for Progressive Business Publications in particular, as staff have been duped by them at least twice. Thankfully we were able to get out of $400 worth of bills. If it's clearly a cold call or a scammer, you should ask them to remove us from their call list and feel free to threaten legal action if necessary to stop the harassment.

General Routing

In general, communications should be directed to the following staffers (We generally do not transfer calls to department directors):

• Candidates/Campaigns: PCT Department (candidate attacks go to PCT Director); these contacts are recorded in Contact Logs
• Media: Communications Director, Adelaide, and finally the National Director, unless it's a major national media outlet (CBS, ABC. FOX, 60 Minutes, Boston Globe, Washington Post, etc.), in which case the Comm Director should be bypassed in favor of Adelaide, Richard, or the National Director. Please try to get the person's name, state, whatever media organization they are with, and the subject of their call before transferring. If you must take a message, make sure to ask what their deadline is.
• API and "technical" questions *Please try to get some information about what specifically they would like to talk about and then direct their calls/emails in the following manner:
• questions about registration, their API key, our terms of service, payment, subscription, or any other administrative question about their account can go to the Office Manager
• questions about or issues with our data, including questions about frequency of updates, go to whatever department's data they are asking about
• Technical questions, problems with the API service itself, or feature requests for the API should go to IT - Get specifics of IT question... and suggest that the best way to get in touch with our IT department is by sending a detailed description of the problem to webmaster@votesmart.org
• Internships: Intern Coordinator
• Voter's Self-Defense Manuals: DevComm staff
• All other Members or People that Want to Donate: DevComm staff
• Foundations: DevComm
• People asking for Richard Kimball or Adelaide- STAFF: If you are uncertain about whether or not a particular call should be so transferred, transfer it instead to a staff member or your supervisor. INTERNS: Please transfer all such requests to your staff supervisor.
• Members of the public asking questions about our content: Hotline Operators on duty

Do not give out personal phone numbers or e-mails
Take a message or provide the proper department's email address:

• General Email and Site Content: comments@votesmart.org
• Membership Inquiries: membership@votesmart.org
• Political Courage Test: politicalcourage@votesmart.org
• Internship Inquiries: intern@votesmart.org
• Employment Inquiries: jobs@votesmart.org
• Technical Questions and Problems: webmaster@votesmart.org

Answers to Some Basic Questions

"What is Project Vote Smart?"
When you answer a call, this is one of the first questions you may be asked.

Short Answer:
Vote Smart is a nonpartisan, non-profit, political research organization. We provide the nation's first Voter's Self-Defense System. This system allows ordinary citizens to access biographical information, issue positions, voting records, public statements, performance evaluations from special interest groups, campaign contributions for current elected officials and candidates seeking to replace them, and information on voter registration. We were established by national leaders from both sides of the aisle including Jimmy Carter, Gerald Ford, Michael Dukakis and Barry Goldwater. Vote Smart has been supported by the Ford and Carnegie Foundations, and has received praise from the New York Times, CNN, and PBS.

If the caller would like more information about who we are and what we do, you can use the Long Answer.

What information do we have?
If the caller is looking for information we collect, it is available on our web page. Many people who call Hotline will have access to the Internet and you can help to guide callers to the helpful resources on our site. These are some of the features of our website that will help them:

• Legislation, which monitors the status of major federal legislation
• State Key Votes, which monitors the status of major state legislation
• Voter registration forms for each state
• Candidate filing deadlines
• Local Election Offices and absentee ballot information
• Ballot measure descriptions for each state, where applicable
• Links to federal and state government agencies, political parties and issue organizations.
• Outreach programs for News Media Partnerships and Vote Smart Classroom.
• VS membership and internship opportunities

If a caller wants to know about VoteEasy

• Winner of the best there is at the 2011 Webvisionary Awards
• Available during major election years (ex: 2016, 2018, 2020...)
• An interactive tool for voters to instantly see which presidential/congressional candidate they are most compatible with. To use VoteEasy now visit www.votesmart.org/voteeasy the VoteEasy page.
• Using innovative technology to simplify voters' pre-election research, this web-based tool allows voters to answer the same key issue questions Vote Smart asked the candidates to address on the Political Courage Test, and watch as the tool matches them with the candidate who best aligns with their views.
• Questions span 11 major issues, including the budget, economy, health care, and immigration.
• The Sacramento Bee has called VoteEasy "the eHarmony of political web sites," and according to GovTrack it is "the most compelling voter info resource ever seen."

If a caller wants to know about OnPoint

• Direct them to votesmart.org/onpoint

About Becoming a Member: ($45 is the suggested donation amount, but we will take any amount of money (i.e. $5 etc.). Note that if someone is looking to make a donation, the call should be rerouted to the Development Department)
Because we are funded exclusively by small individual contributions, as a donor, you are considered a member of Vote Smart which includes benefits such as:

• Receiving free copies of our annual publications such as the Voter's Self Defense Manual, which takes a candidates' public record and puts it in a pocket-sized, hand-held format.
• As a member you will be the first to receive updates and new info on all of our programs and services.

If a caller has other questions, being familiar with these pages may help: HotlineResources and Navigating Our Website.

Handling Basic Requests

If a caller wants the Voter's Self-Defense Manual:

• collect their name, mailing address, number of copies (see below)
• number of copies - members (up to 25; more than 25, ask DevComm/Natl Director); non-members ("a few" - no more than 3; but ask membership first - may be able to accommodate for students/education purposes)
• Give the information to Membership
• If they ask "when will I receive this information?" - We send these manuals out in bulk, so it should be between 2-4 weeks. If they have a serious problem with this, put them on hold and ask DevComm exactly when the next mailing is - unlikely we can make exceptions.

If a caller wants to be taken off of the mailing list
1.ask why they would like to be taken off of the mailing list.
2.if the recipient has died, DevComm handles the issue
3.if the recipient is alive, ask if they have ever donated to Vote Smart (Note: Often members will call in with a response to a mailing they received from us and the Dev/Comm department will be best equipped to handle those calls, and record them properly in the database. If membership requires the assistance of another department, say it turns out the member really want to figure out how they can donate time doing some IT for us, membership will handle that with the necessary departments. To the extent we can, we want to give the members a single point of contact. Also, any changes to membership, e.g. removing from the mailing list should also go to Dev/Comm, and if unavailable take a detailed message noting full name (watch spelling) and state.)

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• 2019-04-03 12:24:45
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