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Making political calls is an important component of any well-run election campaign. These calls are used to gather data as to how many voters in various demographics are going to vote for you. You can also use the calls as an opportunity to "advertise" your campaign. However, political phone banking must be done properly if it's going to be successful. Here are five tips to ensure your political call banking efforts are worthwhile.

Gather Volunteers

You should not be wasting time making phone calls yourself as a candidate, and your most important campaigners have better things to do, too. The best way to get all of the necessary calls made in a timely manner is to look for volunteers. There are plenty of politically minded people in every community. If you post on social media that you are looking for volunteers, people who feel passionate about your campaign principles will be happy to help. You can thank them with a small gesture such as free lunches while they're working for you.

Design a Happy Greeting

The greeting sets the stage for the entire call. If your greeting is not friendly and enticing, people will hang up before you get any information from them. Research shows that you have about 15 seconds to engage someone on a phone call. So, spend the time to come up with a friendly, cheerful greeting, and make sure all of your volunteers start every call this way. The greeting should start with an introduction of who the caller is and who they represent and should request, not demand, the recipient's input.

Keep it Short

You've probably gone through a phone survey that the surveyor promised was short... only to find that it was actually 20 minutes long. People are going to hang up on you if your call takes too much of their time, so keep it short. Cover the most important points first so that if they do hang up, you still got some vital information across. No call should last more than 3 - 5 minutes. Time your calls to ensure they stay within this length. Include the length of the call in the greeting, too. For instance, your callers could say "Hello, this is Stacy representing the political campaign for Joe Smith. Would you mind engaging in our 3 1/2 minute survey and information session?" If your recipients know how long your call will take, they're more likely to engage.

Hone Your Message Over Time

The most important aspects of your platform may change throughout your campaign. For instance, when you begin campaigning, you may do so on the platform of increasing school funding. Then, you may find that your constituents really want changes to the tax bill, so you may make that more central to your campaign. Make sure you update your phone calls to match these changes in campaign. Review your phone procedure weekly to ensure it's still in line with your current needs.

Audit Your Callers

Even if you provide your volunteers with extensive training, some will do better than others when it comes to following the script and interacting with callers. To ensure your volunteers are making the best calls possible, audit some calls from each volunteer every week. Even if you just listen to two or three calls a week from each volunteer, you'll get an idea of who is doing a great job and who needs a bit more help. You can have the best callers help the less-skilled callers hone their technique.

With the tips above, you'll have more success with your phone campaign and survey efforts.