Welcome to phone banking with OpenField!
Phone banking is a great way to reach people because it allows you to connect to your community from anywhere.
Jump to:
Getting Started
💡First, an Admin will need to create your Conversation Code. For steps to do so, please click HERE.
Once you have your Conversation Code, enter your canvasser URL (e.g., yourorganization.openfield.ai) and log in with your credentials. If you’re volunteering for the first time, please create your account now.
💡For steps on creating your account, click HERE.
Once logged in, you’ll be greeted with the following screen, which includes a space to enter your Conversation Code.
A goal for the number of people you should contact will appear. Try to aim for it or even more!
Home Screen
This is your phone banking home page. Please take a second to familiarize yourself. It will include your first phone number and contact to call, your organization’s name, and a place to indicate call dispositions if no one answers.
There is also a legend that will indicate if a contact is on your Target List, which means they’re the person your organization is specifically trying to talk to, a registered voter, an inactive voter, has an existing contact history, or is incarcerated. Finally, in the upper right corner of the screen, you’ll see your progress toward your calling goal!
If no one answers, someone answered, but it was the wrong number, or the person on your list has moved, click on the dropdown menu right below the Couldn’t connect with anyone to view your list of options.
Then click on Save + Next Call to continue phone banking or Save + Finish when you’re ready to end your session.
✏️Please Note: You cannot return to a contact record and update their canvassing disposition (Not Home, Moved, etc.) after clicking Save + Next Call or Save + Finish. You can change responses to Questions if a new response is saved within 5 minutes. Read more HERE.
Making Calls
To begin, hand-dial the number in blue on your screen on your phone.
✏️ Please Note: If you are on mobile, clicking on the highlighted phone number will let you tap to call.
If someone picks up the phone, ask them for their name. If it matches the name on your list, click on the name to move to their contact record, which contains four tabs: GOTV, Talk, About, and History.
GOTV Tab
The GOTV tab contains the contact's Absentee and Early Vote information. It includes fields for the contact’s Early Vote Location, Ballot Drop-off Location, and Polling Location, as well as noting whether or not a contact has early voted and dates for when an Absentee Ballot was requested, mailed, and returned.
Clicking the calendar icon beside Early Vote Location or Ballot Drop-Off Location will also display the dates available for Early Voting or Ballot Drop-Off.
If a contact’s Early Voting location doesn’t display or displays incorrectly, you can click Need to look up an Early Voting Location manually? Click here.
A window to iwillvote.com will open, and you can search for a contact’s Early Voting location there.
Read more about AV/EV data in our article HERE!
Talk Tab
In the Talk tab, the Questions from your Script will appear and spaces for you to record a contact’s responses.
Using Follow-Ups
You can also add a follow-up to the contact’s record from the Talk tab. This will place the contact back into the call queue to be re-attempted at the specified date and time. There is also a space to record relevant notes, such as the reason for a follow-up or additional information about the contact.
✏️ Please Note: If you do not see a follow-up option, your admin has not authorized follow-ups, and you can disregard this.
When the contact returns to the queue at the specified date and time, a message will appear at the top of the screen, prompting you to complete the follow-up. A yellow dot beside their name will also reference the contact history.
Opening the History tab will show the details of the contact history and the content of any notes added when creating the follow-up.
About Tab
The About tab is where you will view and/or update a contact’s information, such as their address, phone number, emails, etc. You can also mark an individual contact as deceased, incarcerated, sick or infirm, or indicate that they have moved.
You can open or close the Update Status, Personal, Contact, and Address sections in the About tab by clicking them. You can also make changes to these categories; tap the section that needs to be updated, then tap Edit.
Make the changes on the pop-up that opens, then tap Submit.
History Tab
The History tab contains records of previous conversations with a contact. It will show the date they were spoken to, the name of the canvasser, and the responses to any Questions they were asked.
Adding a New Person
If you call the number and someone answers, but it’s not the person on your list, you can search for them in our database by clicking the Burger Bar menu and selecting Search.
Type the person’s name in the Search bar and tap the Search icon.
If you need to search on fields besides name, click the People dropdown. You’ll be able to choose to search by names (People), phone numbers (Phones), notes on the contact’s record (Notes), or a combination of all three, plus additional fields using Advanced Search.
Advanced Search allows you to search by name and/or address, phone number, email address, and/or notes.
If you have an existing record for this person in your database, it will appear in the search results. Tap the person’s name to start a conversation with them.
If the person’s name doesn’t show up in the search results, it’s easy to add a new record for them. In the search results, tap Meet someone not on the list below? Add them here.
A screen will appear for you to add the person to the database. Under Personal Info, add information about the person, including First and Last Name, Gender Identity, Pronouns, Languages, etc.
Further down, under Talk to them, the Questions in your Script appear, allowing you to continue a conversation with them. When you’re finished with your conversation, click Create Person and Save.
Saving Your Conversation
Once finished, you can either click on Save Conversation at the bottom to sync your conversation or click Save + Next Call to sync and continue calling the next person on your list.
What if I Record the Wrong Response?
✏️ Please Note: If you accidentally record the wrong responses to questions, you can return to that person’s contact page and record the correct responses, which will update their contact history!
OpenField has a 5-minute rule for recording canvass responses or dispositions. If a second response is recorded for the same contact within a 5-minute window, only the second response will be saved.
To return to a previous conversation, click the OpenField logo in the upper left-hand corner, then Recent Calls. Find the name of the person whose responses you need to update and click on it. Record the correct responses, and click Save Conversation again. You will see the message below, confirming that the contact history has been updated.
When All Contacts Have Been Called
If your current Conversation Code has called through everyone on its list, you’ll be greeted by this screen instead. You can Enter a New Conversation Code to start a new session, View the Leaderboard to see your stats and how you compare with others, or Logout to finish your session.
Burger Bar Menu Options for Reference
Clicking on the OpenField icon in the top left-hand corner will take you to the Burger Bar menu.
Search will allow you to search your database for specific people, notes, phone numbers, and more.
Enter a New Code will allow you to choose and work in a different Conversation Code.
Next Call will take you to the next person on your call list.
Recent Calls will show your call history.
Leaderboard will show you how you’re doing amongst fellow canvassers during this phone banking session.
Finish Calling
When you’re done calling for the day, tap the OpenField logo to open the Burger Bar menu, then tap Logout.
Thank you for calling with OpenField!
Have more questions? Email us at support@openfield.ai.
If you have feature requests or suggestions for how to improve OpenField, stop by our Canny page!
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