Interacting with Contacts is the primary and most-used feature in Cause+Connect. An advocate selects either the Walk [link], Call [link], or Email [link] activity and engages contacts in-person at their home, by calling them, or by sending them a personal email.
Note that not all contacts will appear in the Call or Email activity lists; only the contacts which have phone numbers will show up in the Call Activity contact list and only those with email addresses will appear in the Email activity contact list. If no contacts are present when the Call or Email activity buttons are clicked, that means no contacts are available to interact with that have phone numbers or email addresses, respectively. Contacts will almost certainly have an address and be visible in the Walk activity contact list.
Example (above) of no email contacts because no contacts have email addresses.
After a contact has been attempted (either by a door knock, phone call, or personal email), the advocate should record the interaction by clicking the Interaction button. Recording the interaction—even if no conversation took place—is crucial because it helps the Organization track who has been approached and who has not. The interaction button looks like a handshake:
The Interaction button allows the advocate to track:
- When the interaction took place
- The Interaction Response (Result Type) – a general response that summarizes the interaction. Did the contact say “Yes” or “No”? Were they undecided, or was a message left?
- Any notes left behind by the advocate about the interaction
- If the contact did not wish to be contacted in the future
.
There are many interaction responses (Result Types), and your Organizer can also setup custom interaction responses depending on the Organization’s needs. Default interaction responses (Result Types) include:
- Supporter – When a contact says “Yes” or a similar response
- Advocate – When a contact says “I want to help” or a similar response
- Undecided – When a contact is noncommittal or undecided
- No – When a contact says “No” or a similar response
- Email Sent – When the contact has been emailed and the advocate is waiting for a response
- Bad Address / Moved – When the contact listed no longer lives at the address or the address is inaccessible, etc.
- Call Again – When the contact is busy and requests being contacted at a different time
- Bad Number – When the phone number is bad or not for the contact on file
- Left Message – When a message is left on a phone call or door knock
After an interaction has been recorded, the prior interaction button [image] will turn green and the interaction will be listed if the prior interaction button is clicked. Additionally, in the future that contact will by listed under the “My Interactions” section, which is for contacts that the advocate has previously reached out to.
The first contact in the above list has been contacted; the prior interaction button is green, and the Daily Goal star is no longer beside the contact's name, since the contact is already counting towards the goal.
Some features may help improve the success rate of interactions:
- Viewing any available training videos [Link] in the Training section
- Becoming familiar with and/or customizing the script [Script] to reflect the advocate’s “voice”
- Clicking the information button
[link] to view additional details about the contact