alumni telethon management

The University of Edinburgh doesn’t do things by halves. So when they decided to try out the new thankQ telethon module on 9,000 alumni for their Autumn 2011 campaign, we knew the module would really be put through its paces.

Telethons, by their nature, can be problematic. They usually involve volunteers from outside the organisation. They are time sensitive and often take place outside of normal working hours. No wonder many organisations choose to outsource the process.

But, if the University of Edinburgh can do it, with our help, then so could you. Here’s what Jenny Shaw, IT Projects Manager told us about their first thankQ telethon experience:

‘One thing we were particularly concerned about was the usability of the application for our student callers. Many callers had worked on our telethons before and were familiar with the previous third party system. They were impressed with the way the thankQ calling application looked and how easy it was to use, particularly the functionality that allowed them to see a complete history of each contact’s involvement with the university, their interests and their career history. It gave them something to talk about beyond the ask – the opportunity to build a rapport.’

The improved calling application functionality was just one of many benefits and business efficiencies brought about by the integration, as Jenny went on to explain;

‘One of the main benefits of bringing the calling in-house was that we were able to work with thankQ to integrate many of our manual update processes into the data import features on both the contact and finance side, leading to a huge increase in efficiency and no more working with spreadsheets for weeks after the campaign has finished!’

• pre-defined call scripts allowed us to offer a structured flow through the conversation for the callers
• the ability to validate and update change of address details via Postcode Anywhere directly into thankQ meant that our donors could be promptly thanked for their generosity
• links to RealEx allowed credit card transactions to be processed in real time, whereas with the previous third party application these had to be manually inputted into PDQ machines the following day
• finance batches showing details of each day’s credit card donations were automatically imported, improving business processes and leading to greater accuracy and efficiency
• integration with thankQ meant that Paperless Direct Debits were automatically created and available straight away in the back office thankQ system following import
• data from every call was recorded in thankQ enabling us to fully analyse the ongoing performance of each telethon campaign and compare results across campaigns, something which we had been previously unable to accurately do
• running our telethon campaigns in house allows us to be more flexible in the timing and duration of campaigns, as well as tailoring them to specific projects and areas. The results have been favourable compared to outsourcing a campaign of similar duration.

The thankQ telethon module is affordable and brings real benefits to organisations running in-house telethon campaigns. thankQ telethon allows for greater control of the overall telethon event through the management and administration options available in the back office thankQ application; and the options available to callers in the light, web style calling application are easy to use, whilst improving cost and process efficiencies and maintaining data quality.

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