As we approach the winter holiday season, there's a lot going on at the office.
First things first. I know all my loyal readers (all six of you) are dying to know how my calling is going. Well, the truth is I am, in fact, calling better. I've have been up for three of the past four weeks with last week being my best week in over two months. As I mentioned in my last blog post, I felt I wasn't that far off and this assessment ended up being spot on. With a couple of minor tweaks, I finally found my stride and now am a good (but not great) caller.
The key I found was to be engaging on the phone. This isn't easy to do but for me I've found I'm most effective the less robotic I sound. Therefore, I make a conscientious effort to engage the members on the phone and I try my best to tell a good story with the script I have to read. The second part is to listen, nay listen to the members. This is definitely something that comes with time. You have a large number of people to talk to and yet at the same time, you have to be actively listening to the members and hearing what they have to say. If you listen close enough, they can give you clues about themselves and you can use these clues to relate to them over the phone.
These past few weeks, I've had some genuinely positive calls where I have talked with members about various things. Through this experience, I've learned that as much as doing this kind of calling can be frustrating, it can also lead you to some memorable experiences. I talked to a woman in Pennsylvania who had been an environmental activist for nearly 50 years. I talked to a woman in Iowa who mentioned an interesting National Geographic documentary on icebergs. I talked to a man in Minnesota who gave a door donation because it was a pretty college student asking for money. All of these people had stories to tell, it was up to me to listen to them. And because I listened, all three contributed financially to the cause.
And so with the calling issue behind me, I've been focused on our office's next major push: Recruitment. The challenge with running a call center is that there is near constant turn over. People leave for a variety of reasons: School, better job opportunities, family issues, or they are asked to leave due to low performance. I've been at my job for three months now and there are only eight callers still in the office that were there at the start of my tenure. Currently, we have twelve callers where we need closer to seventeen to hit our target goals. Therefore, we have been busy recruiting new members these past two weeks.
The recruitment process is fairly simple. We post ads on Craigslist and then the floodgates open. Literally. Last week we posted our first ad and within five minutes we had our first job call. At the end of the week we had nearly 100 applicants for the available positions. Once we receive a job call or an online application, we then talk to the person on the phone. We ask him or her some basic questions to see if they'd be a good fit to come in for an interview. If they are, we invite them either in the morning or in the afternoon for the interview.
The first interview is in two parts: The first part is simply an overview of the organization and the job itself. After that is one-on-one interviews conducted by a director. Last week I ended up conducting roughly fifteen of these. These are short 5-8 minute interviews where the candidate gets an opportunity to discuss himself or herself and reads a short script to test their reading ability. If a candidate excels he or she is invited back. If not, the candidate is thanked for their time and wished the best in their job search.
At this point, I've come to recognize what makes a good candidate. In addition to sounding good with a script read I also look for someone who is willing to learn and also is passionate about the opportunity that is presented. This kind of work simply can't be a job. In order to excel, you need to be engaged with what you're doing. It's not simply selling credit cards or auto loans: It's selling people an idea where the result is a movement for positive social change. The best candidates discuss how they are attracted for this kind of work because they can use it to educate others and to make a positive difference in the world.
That is the kind of person we initially look for. However, even those particular traits do not ensure success at the job. Which is why we also have a training week where the candidates are calling on the floor. They have support, but also are given a large chunk of time to go out there and do the same kind of membership calling the rest of us are doing. Inevitably, some of the most passionate candidates simply can't handle the rigor of the job and unfortunately are let go. It's one thing to want to be successful and enact positive social change, it's another thing entirely to flat out be told no, that this particular person wants nothing to do with your movement.
And so, as we head toward the Thanksgiving holiday, we are looking to add a handful of new staff. In the revolving door that is our office, some will join our full-time staff while other veterans may suddenly leave us. It's the way of the world for the life of political activists. There are those that are on your side but inevitably some leave for one reason or another. If any of history's great activists such as Gandhi, MLK, or Chavez have taught us, it's simply about getting a volume of people involved so that if some flounder, more are on the way so the movement doesn't die.
That's why we are always recruiting in our office. To keep the movement alive.
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