I'm doing my first phone bank tonight. What should I expect?

[redstateblues]

I'm not a real outgoing person and I'm a little nervous.

[Sanity Claws]

1. I hope you can expect at least a slice of pizza and some soda.

My guess is that whatever coffee is there is cold and left over from the morning. Don't drink it.
I hope you can expect good camaraderie from your fellow phone bankers.

[Bill USA]

2. I hate to have to tell you this, but you will find many people don't want to hear from campaign

people. Might just as well be prepared for it.

[Raven]

3. a lot of hang ups and message machines...

Canvassing is much more fun!

[trof]

10. Yep. Lots of voice mails.

[democrattotheend]

4. Expect some frustration

You will probably get the right person on the phone about 25% of the time, and most won't want to talk long, if at all. People are much more receptive to talking about their vote in person than over the phone. But don't worry, because the purpose of phonebanking is less about persuasion and more about IDing voters to figure out whom to try to persuade, whom to give up on, and whom to turn out. Also, don't get too discouraged if you get a lot of negative responses or excited if you get a lot of positive ones - usually the list you are calling is not designed to be a representative cross sample of the state.

Also, try not to get shaken up if someone says something nasty. In 2008 I was at a phone bank in Virginia when one of the other callers, a middle-aged to older white woman, spoke to someone who said he or she was voting for Obama "even though he's a n****." I tried to calm her down and tell her that we would take the vote regardless, but she was really shaken up by it. It's sad to say that by that point in the campaign I had encountered so much racism toward Obama that I was sort of numb to it.

Usually you will have a few good calls that make it worth the frustration of all the bad calls, non-answers, hangups, wrong numbers, etc. And know that even if you get all Republicans who are voting for Trump, you still helped the campaign by IDing them so they don't have to waste time with them.

Thanks a bunch for your help! I hate phone banking but you are making me think maybe I should do some anyway, since I live too far from a swing state to go canvassing.

[Wellstone ruled]

5. Be upbeat and have a bubbly tone,

try not to read from a prepared script. People will slam the phone down if you are ridged. Call your contact by their given first name and that you will get with a positive greeting,and yes you will get slammed. Note that call on your contact sheet. Those are the ones to do a call back a couple of days later. They are not going to vote for your Candidate anyway,do this,sorry you feel that way and have a great day. Killer every time.

[Madam45for2923]

13. "sorry you feel that way and have a great day. "

sorry you feel that way and have a great day. Killer every time.

Perfect!

[frazzled]

6. They'll give you a script

You can either read it, or follow it using your own word variations. But just stick to the script: you're not there to convince people of anything. Probably, at this point, you are still doing voter ID (finding out whether the respondent is a supporter, or undecided, which you will mark on a chart to be entered into their data base) or calling to get other people to volunteer (ugh!). But people upthread are right: don't expect to get many people to answer their phones.

I prefer canvassing as well. I only do phone banking now in the last weeks of the campaign, when you're calling supporters to get out and vote at the polls. Come to think of it, that may be happening now in some states where early voting starts soon. They want to bank as many votes early as possible. And checking people off the lists means you won't have to call them again!

[bettyellen]

7. Just remember it's not you they are pissed at.... And inform yourself on the most pressing local

Issues and have your browser open so you can quote articles. Or make a cheat sheet of URL addresses for good articles.
Many times I got people interested and offered to text or email them links about issues they cared about.
So if someone gets negative, give a shot at finding out what is stuck in their craw before hanging up.

[Satch59]

8. Me too, first time tonight!

Looking forward to it and will do my best!

[Hortensis]

9. As said. But enjoy the occasional chats.

I stay on chatting as long as they want about anything and everything, recharging good humor drained by others, but always finishing with why I called, and have some good memories of people I'll never "meet" again.

Also some funny ones, like the paranoid elderly couple who kept snatching the phone crankily from each other to tell me and the world (and occasionally each other) off in various ways. Took some while before they both ran down. That was 2008 and I'm still chuckling.

Btw, I agree with personalizing the script a bit depending on how it's written. I've been given a couple of astonishingly bad ones that guaranteed hang-ups before I was through the intro.

[DrDan]

11. I hope your office is better organized than ours was in 2008 and 2012

They would hand out the same list of numbers to several callers. I would get a lot of "this is the third call tonight from you guys".

I understood and empathized apologizing profusely and moving on to the next call.

If they answered, most would just say they have already decided on their candidate and not discuss issues.

[synergie]

12. You'll be fine!

They'll give you a script. Make sure you identify yourself as a volunteer, that tends to make people a little less annoyed as they would be if it was a telemarketer.

I just started phone banking a couple of weeks ago and have been really surprised at how nice people have been. Be polite and be yourself and it will go fine.

You'll mostly be calling Democrats, so it's not like you'll be talking to scary Trumpeters. They watch the news too, and they'll motivated and enthusiastic, perhaps not to volunteer, but to vote.

Don't let these guys scare you, you'll be fine!