CallFire

Our many users have since gotten used to the famed ‘My Campaigns’ page. The page was designed with simplicity in mind. For example, in theory there could be infinite campaigns and a finite number of actions for each, it was deemed best to have all campaigns listed and then to have all the actions for the campaign as part of a single drop down menu.

In effect, for every action, you would first have to select the campaign, and then go up to the drop down menu, and select the action. Well, it turns out some times simplicity creates complexity. We found that 80% of our customers were 20% of the functionality 80% of the time. So we figured, why not make those tasks easily accessible.

Ladies & Gentlemen! We Present the new ‘My Campaigns’ Page!

Alongside each campaign, you’ll see easy access buttons to start, stop, schedule, and delete a campaign. Sure, it will add more clutter–I mean color–to the page, but hey it’s convenient, and hence simple! We expect that this small enhancement will go a long way towards the usability of the site. As for those who just love our drop-down menu, rest assured, you can still do things the old way.

Quote of the Day:

Simplicity is the ultimate sophistication.–Leonardo Da Vinci

We just released the Click To Call functionality on CallFire.com. After scouring through the web looking at the many implementations, we decided to build it ourselves.

Our beta release is currently active. And its the cheapest available on the web. Try it out:

Features released in this version =

1. No Monthly Fees. No Startup Costs
2. Just get charged per connection ( 7cents / minute when its connected to your offices )
3. Schedule your click to call during your hours of operation
4. Manual override for starting and stopping
5. Full Call Detail records and data for each call made
6. Graphical view of all your calls on Google maps
7. Simple integration using Just HTML
8. Advanced integration using the Click To Call REST and SOAP API

I’ll post more details soon. But you can start using it right away - just click new campaign and select "Click to Call"

We are officially Web 2.0 Cool. We now have a company dog!

It is a Jack Russell Terrier (Frasier’s dog), and as both parents are Irish, we’ve decided to name it Lucky! The latest addition to the CallFire team! In this dog-eat-dog world, we can use all the help we can get!

We’ve lagged behind on our DMA coverage and as the one who championed the cause for blogging about it, I’ll take the blame for it. As the first of many DMA updates, let me first congratulate our iPod winners. Some of them could make it in time to the booth to pick up their prizes. The rest, we’ll be mailing it out to you soon!

Robocalls have had mixed results during political campaigns. Poor implementations have caused major backlash from voters. In the last few years, many states have changed laws to enforce the do-not-call registry for political organizations. So, how can political organizations successfully use robocalls to promote their campaigns? Here are the top 5 ways to keep above the competition:

1) Have a clear message and keep it short.

Within the first 7 seconds of any call, a voter is well aware that they are hearing a recording. You want them to know your stance on the issue at hand without alienating them, so use a familiar voice for the recorded call. People will tend to listen more to a famous voice or the candidate himself/herself. So get the right talent to record the message.

Don’t squeeze too much information into a 30-45 second call. There are plenty of opportunities for a voter to find additional information about you, so use a caller-id and give them a web site, but don’t speed-talk through 9 topics in 45 seconds.

An example of a successful broadcast includes a campaign in which Hilary Clinton asked voters to oppose "a proposal to require minors seeking abortions to notify their parents or get waivers from a judge." (The Raw Story, article)  It was successful because it was one clear topic, and a familiar voice spoke to them directly.

2) Don’t annoy your audience.

Don’t call after 9pm and don’t send the same message repeatedly. It’s simple to touch upon new issues for each robocall campaign that is sent out. Change the voice, use multiple topics and space out your campaigns so your voters aren’t bothered by your voice broadcast. This technology gives you a great opportunity to reach all of your voters, but it’s also easy to abuse it and annoy them, rendering your campaign ineffective.

3) Use the right technology.

Make sure that your technology can handle the capacity, time sensitivity and the statistical needs of your campaign. Many systems available today won’t fully satisfy these needs. CallFire.com provides the following necessary features for your robocall campaigns:

1. Scheduling of your campaign
2. Live statistics as your campaign occurs
3. Huge capacity to target millions
4. Fully web based and complete control of campaigns through any browser
5. Managed campaigns - If needed, CallFire takes care of all logistics
6. Message Recording
7. For the advanced: Full programming interface to work with your systems

There is a second part to the right technology: not all messages are best handled by robocalls. Sometimes, you need to leverage a phone bank effort and talk to voters directly. Using a system like the distributed GoTV agent technology, your volunteers can connect to voters from anywhere. The system is designed to allow volunteers to automatically be connected to voters and to collect full statistics of each call, including a web based form for questions and notes.

4) Contact the right audience.

This is simple. Get the right list for your campaign. There are many technologies available that will filter your audience to the exact demographic you need. Things to look for in your list:

1. Geographically filtered to include areas that you want to target ( zip codes, city, longitude and latitude )
2. Filter by demographic - find lists with single family homes or children - find the right audience
3. Data that is new - old data has high amounts of disconnected and bad numbers

5) Follow the regulations.

Many states have added new regulations for political calls, often including a stipulation that each message immediately inform the listener of who is paying for the robocall.

In recent years, there have been drastic abuses in telecom for political advantages. For example, "Republican officials were convicted of campaign violations stemming from an effort in 2002 to jam phone lines used by the Democratic Party to get out the vote." (New York Times, article).

In May 2007, the New York Times also reported that candidates repeatedly sent calls for the opposing running mates in the middle of the night, in order to agitate voters.

Be careful not to abuse the technology. There can be great rewards in using robocalls effectively for a campaign.

References

1. New York Times, "Repeat calls spur a debate". link
2. The Agonist, "Why robocalls are here to stay". link
3. Stones’ Phones ‘Robocall’ Mania. link
4. New York Times, "Dirty Tricks by Phone". link
5. Political ‘robocalls’ generating controversy. link

DMA starts at 4:00 PM CST today! Drop by our desk to enter the contest. We’re giving away an Ipod Shuffle every three hours and a grand prize of an Apple TV at the end of it all!

Cheers!

For an ever growing, rapidly evolving platform like that of CallFire, stability is a perennial exercise. Stability is a cross architectural concern and cannot be slapped on at the last minute like tomato ketchup on spaghetti. Stability is fundamentally hard whose benefits are accrued over time. Nevertheless, you need to plan for it in advance and make it a top priority during system and application development. This is hard because any IT organization, let alone a speedboat startup, is judged by the features it can implement.

Architecting stability is fundamentally tough, but as Grady Booch puts it, you can master complexity, even if you can never make it go away. One way to master complexity is to realize that good design will lead to stable applications. Good design ensures crisp abstractions, clear separation of concerns, and loose coupling. Following these tenets then allow for a degree of componetization that lends itself to a stable, scalable system.

We at CallFire are going through software migration pains for a planned major feature-set rolled out (tentatively 4Q ‘07). As we grapple with the minutiae it helps to pull back and understand why we’re spending so much time on something seemingly mundane.

Quote of the Day:

Ancora Imparo –Michelangelo

The Problem: Lack of tools to mobilize a distributed workforce.

The Description: It is common for organizations to have volunteers or workers at varying locations - especially for political groups with people nationwide. Traditionally each group of people were given a list of phone numbers to call and a web site to input their results from each call. This works, but there are many problems in this scenario:

1. No guarantee that each number is being called
2. No ability to update the list once its out
3. No instant data collection methods
4. No administrative control and monitoring
5. Volunteers have to pay for telecom costs

In the end, the best way to avoid all these problems was to create an expensive call center or phone bank effort in each of the distributed locations.

A Solution: One of the primary technologies that CallFire.com offers is a solution to the distributed agent problem. The system allows a workforce to connect to the target list from any location, all they need is a phone line and a computer. Here is how it works:

1. User logs into a secure web site and receives a call on their phone so they can talk to people on the target list.
2. The system connects them to the people on the target list using a predictive algorithm to maximize efficiency and reduces fatigue.
3. When they connect, the user sees full details on their browser, including a form to collect data for each connection they make.

This solution is one of the best ways to mobilize a workforce that isn’t centrally located.

Example: A political organization had 800 volunteers nationwide that were helping from their homes to collect statistics for the upcoming senate elections. Using the CallFire.com distributed call center application, the organization was able to setup a campaign within 1 hour and email their volunteers with login credentials.

In a 3 day span, the volunteers logged in when they had time and connected to potential voters and asked them what concerns they had for the upcoming senate elections. Full statistics were collected after each call. In addition, the administrators were able to coach volunteers, see individual volunteer statistics and collect valuable data from each call that was connected.

Not only was this easy to setup, the organization increased their contact rate by 40%. Volunteers left amazing feedback, claiming it was the easiest system they ever used and the loved the fact that they could do it on their own time instead of gathering at phone bank parties. In addition to the amazing call results, the organization was now able to identify their star volunteers (ones that took the most calls and collected the most data), and gave them the recognition they deserved!

 The office is getting hectic in preparation for DMA 07. It’s going to be a coming out party of sort for us here at CallFire. The conference setup from start to finish has been Paul Singh’s baby and since he’s doing all the grunt work, I’ll do all the blogging. So for those folks headed to DMA in in the windy city, do look us up for some pretty cool stuff. And for those who mention this blog post, coffee is on me.