A $140K Telethon Success Story
In May 2016, one of our clients formed a coalition of 14 non-profit organizations and launched a telethon using ChaseData's call center software as the linchpin for all voice and mobile communications. Over the course of 2 months ChaseData provide consulting, planning and training for the May 2016 telethon.
The coalition was able to raise $140,000 in a little over three hours. Below is an overview of how they utilized our call center software during and after the telethon to achieve this monumental goal.
Deploy a temporary call center at the television station.
One of their greatest challenges was setting up an in-studio, remote call center. This call center would allow volunteers to participate in on-air interview while fielding donations and pledges "live." Our solution was to extended the client's existing seat license to include an additional 24 seats. They were able to secure laptop computers from a non-profit whose mission is to supply "loaner/temporary" computers to non-profit organizations.
Rapid Agent and Supervisor Training
Two "operational" training sessions were held, the first with volunteer supervisors and a second with volunteer agents. Each session was roughly 45 minutes including 30 minutes of Q&A. This is a testament to the ease of use engineered into ChaseData's system.
Handle overflow calls using remote agents.
The volunteer roster for the telethon outpaced the size of the call center. The coalition made a decision to have each volunteer man the donation line for one hour. After the one hour shift they were replaced by another volunteer with a one-hour shift. The three-hour telephone cycled through 72 volunteers.
The call volume as predicted far exceeded the in-studio call center capacity of 24 seats. An additional 50 volunteers were deployed as "at home agents" using ChaseData's remote agent capabilities. Volunteer who had (a) a broadband cable connection and (b) a compatible PC were assigned overflow calls each time the call volume spiked beyond the in-studio call center's capacity. At one point simultaneous inbound calls crested 900 with a corresponding increase in hold time.
Telethon Call Volume
Proactive text to donate.
ChaseData's software automatically detected inbound calls made via mobile phones and using the IVR system, prompted the caller to make a smaller $5 donation using their (non-prepaid) mobile phone and a short code. Roughly 2,600 callers opted to make their donations via short code, raising almost $13,000. With call volumes peaking at almost 900 calls inbound, the ability to manage the coalition's meager 74 agent inbound combined call center was instrumental in the telethon's success.
“The ability to reduce call volume to our volunteers by automatically offering short code based donation literally saved the day during the telethon. This is one of many impressive features standard in ChaseData’s call centersoftware.”
Post telethon follow up with pledged donations.
Despite our best efforts, and the due to the nature of television advertising, hundreds of calls were dropped. In periods when the call volume dropped, the system automatically shifted into an outbound predictive dialing campaign - contacting donors whose calls were dropped. Also, dropped calls made from mobile phones were first called, when the donor was not available (i.e. answering machine, etc.), an SMS message was sent (a) thanking the caller for their attempt to donate (b) provided instructions on making a $5 donation by replying to the text message using the short code.