TMCnews Featured Article

February 28, 2011

Auto Dialer System Enables Government Interaction with Constituents

By Jamie Epstein, TMCnet Web Editor

New telecommunications technology, such as auto dialer systems allows more people to have their opinions heard thus playing a larger role in government, Sault MP Tony Martin and MPP David Orazietti, said in a recent article.

Last week, both Martin and Orazietti hosted “virtual” town hall meetings that had thousands of area participants. Martin worked with Algoma-Manitoulin-Kapiskasing MP Carol Hughes (News - Alert), and Canadian NDP leader Jack Layton; to host a town hall from NDP campaign headquarters in Ottawa.

There were 16,000 people from regions as far apart as Kapaskasing, Sault Ste. Marie, Sudbury, Elliot Lake and Manitoulin Island who attended. This would not have been possible, without the auto dialer system, as citizens were not actually present- instead joining by telephone.

"There were a lot of people here working in the background to make it all happen," Martin told SooToday.com. "There was also a host who took questions from the queue for us."

The NDP town hall ran for over one hour, and lots of people had questions for Martin, Hughes and Layton requiring crucial answers. "I liked the format," Martin said. "Later in the day I received some e-mails from people saying they also liked it."

The best thing about the sessions, Martin commented, is that they're an excellent, easy way to get an increased amount of involvement in political dialogue and to hear more about what issues are really on people’s minds.

During the phone conversation, people listening in on the lines were asked a series of pre-determined poll questions, requiring them to press a number on their phones when they picked an answer.

Three days before the NDP telephone town hall was scheduled to take place, the auto-dialers went to work, leaving automated pre-recorded messages that let people know the details about the event, encouraging their participation. When the meeting began, the auto-dialers called back all 30,000 of the people who originally answered their phones, telling them to join the meeting.

Also last week, Sault MP David Orazietti and Ontario Finance Minister Dwight Duncan held a pre-budget discussion, again using the successful auto dialer system. "The virtual town hall augments the pre-budget consultation process," Orazietti said.

Staff that worked for Orazietti manually entered telephone numbers in the auto dialers which came from multiples sources including phone books, voter lists, supporter lists, as well as any other public place that offered this type of information. The reason for multiple sources of data was to make sure these results were a sampling of many different types of Saultites.

Both Orazietti and Martin agreed that because the virtual town hall meeting they were able to receive extremely useful and important information. Using this new form of technology allowed people to take a stand in this process, without ever leaving their houses.

Martin said he believed this newly implemented system would also encourage continued participation by more people and may even be the push needed to get them to vote in the next election.

Martin added it was a way for many who would not or could not ordinarily participate in creating a budget, to become part of the decision-making process.

Both Orazietti and Martin said they would highly consider using the system again.

CallFire, offers high-availability systems, with an ultra-high level of customer care. Using CallFire’s auto dialer system, you can easily create your voice message over the phone and upload your contact list.

In minutes, CallFire (hence the name) can rapidly call hundreds of people, playing your specific recorded message so it is heard by all the recipients on your list. CallFire can also leave live messages if an answering machine picks up the call.

The auto dialer system offers reminder calls before important events take place, provides follow-up calls & press-1 campaigns, increase contact frequency & create loyalty, and supports phone surveys and text-to-speech.

Jamie Epstein is a TMCnet Web Editor. Previously she interned at News 12 Long Island as a reporter's assistant. After working as an administrative assistant for a year, she joined TMC (News - Alert) as a Web editor for TMCnet. Jamie grew up on the North Shore of Long Island and holds a bachelor's degree in mass communication with a concentration in broadcasting from Five Towns College. To read more of her articles, please visit her columnist page.

Edited by Jamie Epstein

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