Robocalls for unions: Best Practices To Implement Now

Robocalls for unions, also known as voice broadcasts, are a powerful communication tool for union organizers. Keeping in touch with hundreds of members individually or running calling campaigns for personal outreach may not always be possible, but voice broadcast campaigns allow unions to do so.

Here are some reasons a voice broadcasting or robocalls for unions system is beneficial:

• Enables you to reach thousands of members quickly.
• Immediately gathers responses through Press-1 campaigns.
• It dispenses information quickly during emergencies.

But like any tool, the results you get from automated voice messages depend on how you use them. To help your union get the most from robocalls, here are the essential dos and don’ts, plus a step-by-step guide to setting up your campaign.

Robocalls for unions: What to do?

A voice broadcast software/robocalls for unions, calls every contact on your list, and plays a pre-recorded message. Since many people are used to these robocalls for unions, it’s important to make your message stand out and keep members engaged. Here are the best practices for a successful campaign.

Know the law for robocalls for unions

The Telephone Consumer Protection Act (TCPA) (47 U.S.C. § 227) sets strict rules for automated robocalls for unions. While telemarketers face heavy restrictions, unions have some exceptions:

1. When messages are purely informational: Calls that simply inform members about meetings, updates, or rights are generally allowed. Sharing purely informational messages through automated calls is absolutely safe.
2. Opt-in consent: When recipients opt in to receive robocalls for unions, the voice broadcasts you send to them are not illegal. Also, if you are reaching out to landline numbers using autodialers, you are in the clear and well within the law. The contacts you cannot reach are those on the National Do Not Call registry.
3. Emergency purpose: If a voice broadcast is used to disseminate important, urgent information in times of an emergency, it does not violate TCPA regulations. 

Before launching your campaign, check both federal and state laws, including legal call times, and CallHub will help you stay compliant with regulations.

Read also: TCPA Compliance Checklist: The Do’s, Don’ts and Tools That Help You With Compliance 

Create a contact list

Your contact list can consist of all union members, or you could run some campaigns only for specific segments. Depending on the type of campaign you want to run or its target audience, you can segment and create contact lists.

For example, if you only want to reach out to younger factory workers for a particular cause, you can use segmentation features on your calling software to reach out only to them. Prepare your list segments and reach out accordingly.

Another good practice is to maintain clean contact lists. What do we mean by that? We mean contact lists that do not have:

1. Numbers on the DNC list.
2. Numbers of members who have left the union.
3. Invalid numbers.

Read our article Marie Kondo-ing Your Contact List: How to Clean an Existing Contact List to learn more about maintaining clean lists for union organizing.

Segment based on communication preferences

If you have conducted campaigns before, you have insights into union members’ communication preferences. There might be some who prefer robocalls for unions over texts, while others might prefer texts and emails. 

An excellent way to tackle this is to segment your audience by communication preferences and spend your money where it will have the most impact. For example, if you want to reach out to factory workers who work from 5 am to 3 pm only, CallHub helps you segment your contact list to reach only them.

Read also: List segmentation in 2020 – a practical guide for your organization 

Decide on the agenda

Before beginning an automated calling campaign, it is good to decide on its agenda. Here are a few questions to ask yourself before you start:

• What does this message intend to communicate?
• What should the recipient do after listening to this message?
• Why is the message relevant at this point in time?
• Who needs to hear this message?

Once you have the answers to these questions, it will automatically enhance how you design your voice broadcast message.

Pick the right time

Timing matters. There is a suitable time to send out a voice broadcast. And yes, it is not Monday morning at 9 am – unless it is an emergency. 

Scheduling your voice broadcast campaign revolves around identifying the timings that guarantee:

1. High answer and response rate
2. Low opt-out rates
3. Increased chances of engagement.

If you are not in a hurry to send out your calling campaign, it is worth noting that Wednesdays and Thursdays between 4 pm and 5 pm are the best times to send it for the best results.

These best practices will help you achieve the results your union expects from the voice broadcast campaign. There are also certain things to avoid doing while setting up such a campaign that are equally essential to know. Let’s explore.

Read also: Voice Broadcasting Campaigns Analytics and Reporting: How to Measure the Performance of Campaigns on CallHub

Robocalls for unions: What not to do

Wisdom lies in knowing what to do and what not to do. You could implement all your best practices, but go terribly wrong if you are still doing some of what we’re about to list below. Pay attention and avoid these common mistakes during an automated voice message campaign.

Robocalls for unions without permission

It is wrong and against the law to call people without their prior consent. Therefore, you need to implement an opt-in system that allows union members to receive communications from the union.

Here are ways in which you can encourage members to opt in:

1. Add a communication consent form along with their membership application form. The earlier they opt in, the better. What better time than when you are onboarding members?
2. Use CallHub’s text messaging opt-in service to save contacts directly to your CRM system. You can use a shared short code or purchase a new one if you want it to be unique to your union, or create unlimited shortcodes. Write and schedule automated messages for each shortcode, and you are ready to share the shortcodes with union members.

Sharing a really long message

When listening to a pre-recorded message, the first instinct is to hang up. Imagine making it worse by adding a really lengthy message to it? 

Your message needs to be short, crisp, and put the best points forward as soon as possible. The optimal duration for a voice broadcast message is around 30 seconds. Sticking to this duration will help you keep only the relevant points and increase the likelihood that members will listen to your whole message.

Not designing your robocalls for unions message effectively

A few essential pointers to keep in mind while crafting a voice broadcast message are:

1. The timing and length of the introduction: A brief, clear introduction so members know it’s from the union.
2. The key points to cover and the core message: Key points will ensure you do not miss crucial information while staying relevant to the call’s intention.
3. The call-to-action: The most important takeaway from the message needs careful placement to ensure people hear it, even if they do not hear your entire message. A call-to-action is the intended result of the call. How you want to organize and mobilize the union depends on the effectiveness of your call-to-action message.

Working on these factors will ensure you have a well-crafted message that brings you results.

Not paying attention to the pace

Yes, we did recommend that the ideal length for a voice broadcast message is 30 seconds. But if you have more points to cover, that does not mean you should increase the pace of your speech until it becomes incoherent, nor will speaking too slowly keep your audience engaged.

Maintaining a regular, steady, easily understandable pace is the key to a successful pre-recorded message. We want union members to understand what we have to say, don’t we?

Launching a campaign without testing

Ever carefully write an important email only to find out a glaring typo after you hit the send button? Yes, that, but for voice broadcast campaigns.

It is especially critical to test your automated robocalls for unions campaign because it reaches hundreds of people immediately, with a single click. There is no going back once you launch the campaign. 

Test your campaign with a small group to ensure you’ve got all the details right, pronounced everything perfectly, and not missed out on any information. 

An unclear call to action

If robocalling is a race, your call to action is the finish line. We cannot arbitrarily mark where a finish line in a race will be – it is measured, marked, and made abundantly clear. 

That is precisely what needs to happen with your call to action.

Are you organizing a strike? Do you want members to attend a meeting? Are memberships declining, and do you want each member to invite one person to the next meeting? Whatever you may want as the result of a voice broadcast campaign – make it crystal clear!

Your time, investment, and labor spent on a calling campaign would be worth it only if you achieve the desired results.

Not checking time differences during robocalls for unions campaign

This point applies to unions conducting a calling campaign from a location different from the target recipient’s.

If you’re creating a union automated call campaign for members in a different state or country, double-check the time difference. Another thing to keep in mind is to check local compliance laws regarding legal voice broadcast timings.

Use CallHub’s Timezone calling feature to help your calls be dialed as per your recipient’s time zone.

Avoid these common oversights, and you’re all set to run a successful voice broadcast campaign! After you know these basics, setting up a campaign is not difficult. Let’s look at how you can set up a voice broadcast campaign for your union.

Set up a voice broadcast/robocalls for union campaign on CallHub

Setting up a voice broadcast campaign on CallHub is super easy. Follow these steps to set up a voice broadcast campaign in no time.

1. Set up your account

Sign up using your registered email address, and you’ve taken the first step to set up your campaign. Next, log in and click on the voice broadcast option from the blocks.

2. Upload the pre-recorded robocall for unions message

There are two ways in which you could do this. You could upload a pre-recorded audio under the ‘Play Audio’ section. Alternatively, you could also add a text under the text-to-speech box that will automatically convert your text to audio.

3. Add a transfer

The transfer button lets you record members’ responses. They can indicate their attendance for an event, vote, etc., using the transfer or press-1 functionality feature. Members can also connect with agents through the same feature if you would like to enable it. You can then either add an audio, text-to-speech option, or simply hang up the phone once they have clicked the button. You can even trigger emails using the press-1 functionality if needed. Learn more about using voice broadcast with email here.

4. Enable answering machine and do not call detection

Enabling answering machine detection and Do Not Call helps you recognize and shift out contacts you are unable to reach. You can reschedule the call for contacts who had an answering machine at a later time, play a pre-recorded message, or eliminate DND contacts from your contact book if you cannot reach them.

5. Upload your contact list

This is the list to which your union automated call campaign will go out. Select the contacts from your CRM or .csv contact list and upload them to the campaign.

6. Choose your caller ID and speed

You can choose to display your registered mobile number as your caller ID. You could also select to purchase the ‘Dynamic ID’ feature, which displays a local number when you begin your campaign. For example, if your voice broadcast targets people living in Texas, your caller ID will display a Texas caller id.

You can also select the call frequency and the interval between retries. Depending on how you want your follow-up to look, you can schedule a retry a few hours from now or a couple of days later.

7. Schedule your robocalls for unions campaign

Here’s the last step! Schedule your campaign according to the date and time you want it to go out, and et voilà! You’re all done 

Compliance and legal considerations on robocalls for unions campaign

Are robocalls legal for unions? Yes, but only if you follow the rules. The TCPA allows unions to send informational and emergency robocalls to members who have opted in. Always avoid calling numbers on the National Do Not Call Registry and respect local call time restrictions.

For extra protection:

• Keep records of member consent.
• Regularly update your contact lists.
• Use software with built-in compliance features.

Conclusion

A carefully designed voice broadcast campaign can help your union engage members, alert them in emergencies, and serve as an important tool in union organizing. CallHub’s tools help you schedule campaigns compliant with TCPA guidelines, maintain up-to-date lists, and more.

Get started with CallHub’s robodialer today. Talk to an expert who will give you a personalized demo now.

Feature Image Credit: RODNAE Productions

FAQs: Robocalls for unions

1. Are robocalls legal for union communications?

Yes, robocalls are legal for union communications when used appropriately. Unions must comply with the Telephone Consumer Protection Act (TCPA), which allows informational calls to members who have given consent. Always ensure members have opted in and follow state and federal regulations regarding call times and content.

2. How can unions ensure their robocalls are effective?

To maximize effectiveness, keep messages short (around 30 seconds), clear, and relevant. Personalize the introduction, state the purpose, and include a clear call to action. Segment your contact list to target the right audience and schedule calls at optimal times for a higher response rate

3. What should unions look for in a robocall service provider?

Look for a provider that offers compliance tools (like Do Not Call list management), easy contact list uploads, message personalization, scheduling options, and analytics. Features like local caller ID and press-1 functionality can further enhance campaign effectiveness.

4. How can unions measure the success of their robocall campaigns?

Success can be measured by tracking answer rates, response rates to calls to action, opt-out rates, and member feedback. Many robocall platforms provide analytics dashboards to help unions assess campaign performance and make improvements

Shiksha Sharma

Shiksha Sharma is a Content Marketer with over 5 years of experience in the B2B SaaS industry. She has extensively written about software that helps organizations work easily. Her areas of research include politics, nonprofits, advocacy, and business.