The newsletter of The Phone Room

Summer 2011

We wanted to say a big thank you to everyonethat entered our Easter Egg Hunt competition.We all had great fun painting the eggs and hopeyou all had fun finding them! The winner wasJulia Baxter from the University of Kent.

It’s been a busy spring for us and in this edition we want to sharesome of this with you. There is an amusing overview of Helen andGemma’s trip to visit our clients in the USA – in March, in the snow!There is also a piece on how important telephone numbers are infundraising. We are always looking for people to contribute to ournewsletter, so please feel free to let us know if you have anyfundraising stories or activities that you would like to share.

Name: Jonathan HornAge: 31Job: Account Manager Previous experience:I have had a number of jobsover the years from EstateAgent to PharmaceuticalSales Rep! My most recentthough has been workingfor a Direct MarketingResponse Handlingcompany as an AccountManager looking afterall aspects ofcampaigns for anumber of charityclients.

Best thing about workingfor The PhoneRoom:The fast paced andprofessionalenvironment. No two days are thesame and there is always something tochallenge the mind!!

Because of the diverse range of people that livein Oxford, Reena and Natalie, two of The PhoneRoom’s Call Centre management staff decidedthat in order to appeal to a wide range ofpeople that TPR should run an open day at ourcall centre to really show what a unique place towork it is. They spent the day in Oxford citycentre telling people about the wonderful workthat our clients do and how satisfying being afundraiser for The Phone Room is. The aim wasto encourage people to visit our open day andto give people the opportunity to experiencewhat we all do before deciding if they would beinterested in joining us as a fundraiser.

The open day was a great success. It kicked off at 11am whenGeoff, our Satellite Business Manager gave an induction of thecompany and what he does. Gemma, our Business DevelopmentManager spoke on behalf of Client Services explaining the sort ofclients we work for and some incredible statistics that we haveachieved so far. There was a great atmosphere in the room andno one was short on questions. Lucky, Operations Manager gavea talk next explaining his role and how the Call Centre runs, healso gave everyone a tour around the company and gave themthe chance to experience some calls. Two hours later wefinished with a short talk by Helen, our Client Services Director,who ended the day by talking about her role and the directionthe company is going in. This was a new experience for ThePhone Room and one that has proved to be very successful.Natalie and Reena cannot wait to go back into town and do it all again!

V D I R E C T A C

H O T H E E J I O

O T L Y O V P D F

S H C U G E H O I

P E R V N N O N M

I A E D I T N A A

C T D E C S E T I

E R I B D A D E L

N E T I I G R O R

G I F T A I D D G

Find the fundraising related words in our grid, and you will beleft with 14 unused letters that will spell out a related phrase.Email the phrase to gemmat@phoneroom.co.uk. All correctanswers received by the end of July will be entered into a prizedraw for a bottle of bubbly.

Words to find:

� Volunteer � Phone � Hospice� Donate � Mail � Theatre� Events � Giftaid � Direct/Debit� Credit / Card � Cat � Dog� Aid

Before we call any campaign, The Phone Room’sData Manager, Alistair Buckley, spends a lot oftime cleaning and tracing the data so that wehave the best chance possible of contacting thesupporter. We have asked UK Changes, who weuse for the tracing services, to talk about thevalue of a telephone number.

Think of the lifetime value of a donor to your organisation. Let's imagine they contribute £5.00 per month through directdebit: that's £60.00 per year and £300.00 over a five yearperiod – plus Gift Aid. On top of this, they might volunteertheir time, attend organised events, support specialcampaigns and emergency appeals, raise sponsorship, orsimply spread the word regarding the work that you do.

Now how much is a valid telephone number worth?

Keeping donors informed of how their money is spent and thepositive effects of their support helps to develop closerrelationships between your charity and its supporters; nurturing their personal involvement with the cause andencouraging long-term support creates the potential for evengreater commitments, such as legacy giving.

The value of that telephone number keeps increasing…

The ability to talk to your supporters in person builds bonds andallows skilled frontline staff to develop a better understanding ofyour donors and their motivations. The telephone's key strength ismaking these conversations cost-effective and accessible – and thisis why it remains a vital channel for the not-for-profit sector.

With such potential, it is always a surprise when we talk toorganisations about how they handle collecting telephone numbersand we learn that they don't have processes in place to accuratelyand consistently capture this vital piece of information.

With the huge growth in ex-directory households over recent years,the pool of numbers available through traditional data sources fortelematching services has reduced significantly and it shouldtherefore be a priority to ask donors for a telephone number andthen explicitly request their permission to call (occasionally!) withnews and information or regarding special appeals.

But what do you do with all those contact records you've alreadycollected that don't have a telephone number? Or those that were collected before you had a proper process? Or that have been sitting in a back-water on your database, unused(or useless)?

If you need to add telephone numbers there is an increasingselection of data sources, in addition to the BT OSIS database.Organisations in a variety of sectors have been collecting telephonenumbers and permissions for marketing, steadily building

worthwhile volumes of records. There are also mobile phonenumber databases available, reflecting the increasing group ofhouseholds that no longer use a land-line, or providing theopportunity for contacting people away from the home or via SMS.

Equally, there are a variety of services that will help to repair andcomplete old and inaccurate telephone numbers by matchingaddress information against network data to add STD codes.Existing numbers can be checked and verified with tools such asSureCall, to minimise the effort, cost and resource wasted onoutdated information.

It is also important to review the way that you capture donor data- when signing up new supporters or contacting existing onesthrough other channels. Ask for their full telephone number, checkother details, such as their name, postcode, etc – and then ask forpermission to use the data. If you're collecting this informationthrough web forms or via a calling team, consider building-in real-time checks through integrated data management APIs, to makesure the data that goes in to your system is correct at the outset.

For what is generally only a cost of a few pence – whether that'scapturing, verifying or updating – a telephone number is a pricelessasset in your efforts to build a long-term, valuable relationshipswith your donors. Invest in thedata, invest in the team that usethe data and then reap therewards of engaged supporters.

Article by Hayley Twigger, Key Account Manager

Sunday It’s Carling cup final day and the M40 is full of football fans; howeverwe make good time to Heathrow until we discover how far fromthe airport Purple Parking is! All goes smoothly in the lovelyterminal five. Long eight hour flight with no entertainment. Lots offresh snow on arrival in Boston. Check the view of the airportrunway and general plane parking from our corner hotel windows.

Monday Down to the hotel lobby for 7:30am hotel courtesy bus and travelround a circuitous route under and over flyovers to go over whatappeared to be a short distance to the terminal. Breakfast in thediner, the only girls up at the counter. Maple syrup pancakes andbacon, fresh orange juice. It had to be done!

Security check: boots, belts, jewellery, laptop and so on, but awaywe go. Waiting at the gate for the Cessna to take us on a short flightto Hyannis. Gemma remarks that there are no announcements butthe board states delayed. Get in line. Yes, delayed. Maybe they willfly maybe they won’t. We wait. We wait some more. We call theclient and confirm delay. Told best to wait or maybe take the busleaving downstairs in ten minutes. We run for it. Confirm atenquiries desk downstairs which bus stop. Excellent. We wait andwait and do a little more (you will see a pattern emerging). We goback to enquiries and it appears we have missed the bus (whatbus?), but the flight is leaving. Run for it (again). Security check(again). Get in line. Flight delayed (again). Maybe they will fly maybethey won’t. Yes, they will. Excellent. We wait. Now he won’t fly,told best to wait or maybe take the bus leaving downstairs intwenty minutes (again). Give up – Taxi! We have never been drivenin such a determined manner, in such dreadful weather by such anunwavering driver. He would get us to our client within an hour ona drive that took longer. We arrived in an hour in torrential rain.Three hours late, but triumphant. Of course there was the smalldetail of returning...

We returned to Boston Logan airport in the dark and the city lightswere on the horizon. It was as close as we were to get during thevisit. A very long thirteen hours.

Tuesday Hotel shuttle to Logan which was very busy and no internetconnection. Security check (again – getting used to this now). At thegate ready for boarding a 07:59. Waiting. Check the boards, thegate has changed. No announcement. Run for it (again). Flight due08:29 no boarding till 10am. Late again.

Arrived in Washington Dulles airport – lovely clean and light. Foundshuttle service. Arranged drop off and pick up from client to catchreturn flight. Get to client. Meeting goes well. Wait outside forshuttle. Shuttle service pick up can’t find client office and is drivingaround the site. So we dodge from front of office block to back ofbuilding and into car park so we don’t miss it. Run for it (again).Helen was sure the shuttle driver is half asleep and happy to weave

Unit 1 Watlington House, Watlington Road, Oxford OX4 6NF

Tel 01865 713600info@phoneroom.co.ukwww.phoneroom.co.uk

Follow us on Facebook and Twitter

across lanes. Helen keeps talking about anything to keep him alertand looking out at the windscreen and not his mobile phone. Nearmiss with the car on the left. Keep talking. Make it back to Dulles.

Security check (again – we are getting it down to a fine art). At gateprinted on boarding pass. Hungry. No good have to have a burger.Check the boards, the gate has changed. No announcement. Runfor it. Boarded plane. Didn’t go anywhere. “Lavatory pressurebalance issues” announced from front cabin. Waiting for paperworkfrom New York.

Pilot made up some time. Land in Boston Logan 18:30. Shuttle tohotel in the dark and the city lights on the horizon. Find officeservice in lobby and check emails then to the hotel restaurant. Allwe could manage was a cocktail and Boston Cream Pie.

Wednesday Bags packed. 5:30am shuttle to Logan Airport. Security check (onlytwo more to go). For the first time since Heathrow our flight left ontime. Arrived in Charlotte North Carolina to beautiful sunshine anda fantastic display of Bradford Pear trees in blossom. Meeting goeswell, then its back for the flight to Chicago. Security check (again)Flight on time. Great shopping at Chicago O’Hare airport terminalthat we arrive into. We decide to get the shuttle to the terminal thatour flight departs from. Its deserted. No shops just a kiosk withwilting sandwiches. Sit getting concerned – its ten minutes tillboarding time and the place is deserted. Realise that Chicago is in adifferent time zone to the rest of the trip, so we have an extra hourto wait! Finally into the office...

Total time spent waiting in airports: 18 hoursNumber of times security checked: 8Total time spent flying: 24 hoursTime spent in meetings: 4 hours

All in three and a half days!