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Activism and community organizing often engage in phone banking for outreach, gathering feedback, and advocating for important causes. Since the calls are made on a large scale, it becomes imperative for your phonebanking software and CRM database to integrate seamlessly.
If you are on Action Network, we propose CallHub as a strong phonebanking partner.
CallHub provides sophisticated phone banking solutions to maximize outreach and impact, while Action Network offers comprehensive tools for organizing campaigns, managing supporters, and tracking engagement.
With our seamless integration, you can create targeted call lists, reach out to your supporters, manage events, track call outcomes, and synchronize crucial data between platforms.
In this guide, we’ll learn how to integrate Action Network and CallHub, two leading platforms in the field, and run a successful phone banking campaign.
Here’s a mapping of the nomenclature used in Action Network (AN) with their corresponding terms in CallHub (CH):
| Action Network (AN) | CallHub (CH) |
| Activists | Contacts |
| Reports | Contact Lists |
| Tags | Tags |
| Events | Scripts |
How to integrate Action Network and CallHub
Follow these simple steps to connect your Action Network account to CallHub:
- Login to your CallHub account and navigate to the “Integrations” section.
- Locate the Action Network option on the Integrations page.
- Click on “Connect” to initiate the integration process. You will be prompted to enter your Action Network API Key and the Group Name.
| You can obtain your API key by logging in to your Action Network account. Navigate to Start Organizing > Details, > API & Sync. Choose your group, and you should find your API Key there. Note: You can import one Group per CallHub account. |
Enter your API Key and Group Name into the respective fields. Click “Connect” to establish the connection between Action Network and CallHub. After a successful connection, all your Reports, Events, and Tags will automatically sync with CallHub.
- Access “Settings” and configure custom fields for activists as needed.
- Click “Import” to fetch all your reports from Action Network. Choose the report you want to import into CallHub and click “Import Selected.” This process may take a few minutes, and you will receive an email notification once the import is complete
6. If you add more reports to your synced Action Network group, you can import them by going to the Import section. Type in the name of the appended reports and click “Sync Now”.
How to create a report from Action Network
Let’s see the process of creating a report in Action Network and how they integrate with CallHub.
What is a report in Action Network?
A report in Action Network is a curated list of activists you have collected through various engagement activities, including forms, actions, and petitions. These reports serve as static lists that can be tailored to meet specific targeting criteria.
Whether you’re focusing on a particular petition, geographic region, or supporter segment, reports allow you to narrow down your audience for more effective outreach.
Targeting criteria and filtering options
Action Network offers many filtering options to customize your reports and target specific groups of activists.
| Filter | How to use |
| Petition or form | Target activists based on their interactions with specific petitions or forms and tailor your messaging to their interests or concerns. |
| Email interactions | Segment activists based on their engagement with email communications, such as opens, clicks, or responses. |
| Geographic location | Filter activists by their address or geographic location and run targeted outreach campaigns tailored to local issues or events. |
| Membership status | Segment activists based on their membership status within your organization or campaign and prioritize outreach to active supporters or volunteers. |
| Action history | Target activists based on their actions or engagement history, such as attending events, volunteering, or donating. |
| Custom fields | Utilize custom fields to capture additional information about activists, such as demographic data or preferences, and use these fields to refine your targeting criteria. |
| Tagging | Tag activists based on specific attributes or behaviors and target particular groups within your supporter base. |
| Existence in another report | Filter activists based on their inclusion in another report and create nested or intersecting segments for more precise targeting. |
How to phone bank with Action Network and CallHub
Here’s a step-by-step guide on setting up a call center campaign on CallHub after integrating with Action Network:
Contact list mapping
Before initiating the call center campaign, ensure your reports (termed ‘contact lists on CallHub) are properly mapped between the two platforms.
Tags
Any tags applied to your activists during the phone banking campaign can be synced back to Action Network, ensuring consistency.
Dialer
CallHub offers three automated dialers: Power dialer, Auto dialer, and Predictive dialer. Assess your phone banking requirements to determine the most suitable dialer for your campaign. Each dialer has unique features designed to enhance agent productivity and operational efficiency.
| The Power Dialer allows volunteers to manually control the call rate by clicking the “Next Call” button to proceed to the next contact in the queue. This dialer is suitable for scenarios where volunteers must ensure accurate survey responses or where the cost of not connecting with a contact is high, such as in fundraising or advocacy campaigns. Building on the functionality of the Power Dialer, the Auto Dialer increases the dialing rate per volunteer, offering options like 1:1, 2:1, or even 3:1. With automatic dialing, volunteers can seamlessly move from one call to the next, skipping busy lines and unanswered calls to maximize efficiency. This makes it ideal for time-sensitive campaigns aiming to reach a large audience quickly. The Predictive Dialer optimizes volunteer engagement and outreach by dynamically adjusting the call rate based on factors like volunteer availability, call pickup rates, and call handling times. By accurately predicting when to make the next call and only connecting volunteers to live calls, it ensures volunteers’ time is efficiently utilized, making it suitable for high-volume campaigns where maximizing contact rates is crucial. |
Script
CallHub allows you to import events from Action Network, which you can use as scripts on CallHub, ensuring consistency in messaging across your outreach channels.
Phonebanking for events
Recording RSVP information
When interacting with supporters, volunteers can gather event-related information like RSVP and record the response on CallHub. This data is then synced back to Action Network, ensuring event attendance and engagement data are accurately recorded across platforms for future reference.
Creating follow-ups
Create follow-up actions based on the tags associated with event RSVPs. For example, if a supporter has RSVPd “yes” for the event, schedule a follow-up call or text message to provide event details or gather additional information.
CallHub’s workflow automation feature allows personalized follow-ups based on specific tags or call completion status associated with particular campaigns.
The data regarding follow-up actions or additional information gathered is accurately recorded within Action Network.
For example, if a supporter RSVPs “yes” for an event in CallHub, triggering a follow-up call or text message, Action Network records the RSVP status and any additional information collected during the follow-up.
Recruit volunteers for phonebanking
Recruiting volunteers on CallHub
In your CallHub account, navigate to Settings and find ‘Embeddable forms’. You’ll see the embed code to add to your webpage. The form will then appear on your website.
Assign volunteers to teams
Assign volunteers to specific teams or campaigns responsible for phone banking activities.
Syncing to CallHub
Volunteers who sign up through the forms will be added to your CallHub database. After volunteers activate their accounts, you can review their profiles in the ‘Agent’ section of your CallHub account.
Assign volunteers to phone banking campaigns
Assign these volunteers to phone or text banking campaigns based on availability, skills, and preferences, leveraging their skills across different outreach channels.
Text banking with Action Network and CallHub
With Action Network and CallHub working together, you can automate messaging and track campaign performance.
Peer-to-peer texting with Action Network and CallHub
Peer-to-peer texting is a powerful tool for engaging supporters, recruiting volunteers, and mobilizing your community.
Let’s see the campaign creation process.
- Choose Peer to Peer Texting campaign from your CallHub dashboard. Name your campaign and use your event from Action Network, which will be added as the text script on CallHub. Personalize your questions using merge tags for increased engagement, and use font styles, emojis, and MMS options to make your messages friendly. The responses from your contacts and the tags associated with each response will be synced back to Action Network.
- Choose your activist/supporter list(s) for the campaign and select a number from which your messages will be sent. You can rent a number automatically, use an existing number, or leverage adaptive texting blocks for enhanced outreach capabilities.
- Assign volunteers to your campaign and set expectations with a message detailing your campaign’s goals. With auto-assign contacts enabled, your supporters are automatically distributed to your volunteers as they join the campaign, streamlining the process for your team.
- Finally, schedule your campaign, setting start and finish dates, daily operational hours, and preferred days of the week for messaging. CallHub’s advanced features ensure compliance with best practices, filtering out landlines and VoIP numbers to optimize your outreach efforts.
