ON PC Campaign Call Centres are in full swing

Well, now that we're two weeks into the leadership campaign to replace John Tory, it looks like everyone is finally up and running full steam. All the websites are up, the social media campaigns are ramping up, the money is starting to roll in, and most importantly, the phone calls are beginning.

No matter how high tech these campaigns get, it's still the good old telephone that the vast majority of the campaign revolves around. From updating membership lists, to informing the members of who stands where on the issues, to recruitment and fundraising, the telephone is still king... and often king-maker.

I've been getting calls from two sides now, the Hudak campaign at first, and now the Elliott campaign. The Hudak guys were first out of the gate, at least on the ground level, as I received a couple of calls from local organizers that I know who were sending out the first feelers as to where I stood. I've been hearing that their call centre has ramped things up over the last couple of days, but from the sound of things, it looks like there are a couple of bugs that still need to be worked out. I haven't gotten the call from them yet, so let's see if they've got the kinks worked out when they do finally get around to me.

That being said, I got the first call from the the Team Elliott call centre the other night, so it looks like they've got their act together. Her team is using Campaign Research as opposed to RMG, the call centre that the Hudak campaign are making use of. No glitches on this call. The girl on the line caught me while I was with our church youth group at McDonald's, but I took the call anyway. I have to say, she certainly knew her stuff. After the initial short script introing the call, (short is key, if you don't nail the first 10 seconds you're done) it felt more like chatting to a friend about the campaign, rather than a cold solicitation call. We ended up talking about Christine's "Path to Victory" document they'd just released, and the caller was well versed in the document. She said she'd been reading it herself earlier in the day shortly after its launch, which was just a few hours prior to the call... it's always embarrassing when you catch the caller off guard and they don't know their own material, so these guys got points for that.

Anyway, like I said, looks like they've got their act together... asking all the right questions, not too pushy, but doing a good job on getting the commitment. She noted that my membership had lapsed, so of course she went for the membership renewal, but didn't push when I indicated I was taking care of that myself. She asked me if there was anything I'd like to know, and I just asked for updates on when Christine was going to be in town, so I could get the chance to meet her myself before making a decision. So I guess I'm now on their e-mail list!

I'll critique the other calls as I get them, but for now, the Elliott campaign put in a good show on the calling front. That's three positives for them in the last week... a good website review, the launch of a great discussion piece in the "Path to Victory" document, and now a good outreach call.

Not a bad start for Christine.