This article offers a walkthrough of completing a phone banking action as a volunteer using the web browser. Note that volunteers will still need access to a phone (which can be a landline, smartphone, etc. - any type of phone) to participate in the phone bank, alongside their computer or tablet with the Impactive web browser page open.
Join the action. From the Impactive home feed, select the phone banking action you want to join. Then click START.
Read the instructions. Impactive provides a set of instructions about how phone banking works - namely describing that you will first receive a call (think of this as joining an empty conference room), and then contacts will be passed one-by-one into your "conference room" for you to talk to them. In addition to reading these instructions, you can preview the script you'll use to talk to contacts by clicking the SCRIPT tab.
Join the "conference room". When you feel comfortable with the phone banking instructions and script for this phone bank, you're ready to begin. Click I AM READY TO PARTICIPATE. Work through the following instruction prompts, including entering (or verifying) the phone number that Impactive should call to place you in your "conference room". After clicking CALL ME, you'll receive a phone call on the phone you're using for this phone bank. Pick up this phone call, and leave the phone call active as you turn your attention back to Impactive. In Impactive, select I'VE ANSWERED THE CALL. Once Impactive verifies that you're properly in your "conference room", you'll receive a "You're in!" confirmation message. Click CONTINUE.
Queue a call. You can re-review the script if needed. When you're ready to begin talking to contacts, click QUEUE NEXT CALL.
Wait to be connected. Your screen will say “We are connecting you with the next contact." This might take a few seconds, or up to a minute or so depending on the size of the phone bank.
Start talking. When you're connected to a contact, the screen will change to show that contact's information. On the phone, you'll hear the contact speak to you ("Hello?") right away, so be ready! Start reading the script and click the contact’s responses as you go. If you need to end the call at any point, you can click HANG UP at the top-right of the screen. Don't actually hang up the call with your phone's calling function - just press HANG UP in Impactive, to remain connected to your "conference room."
Report additional data. In addition to the questions being asked in the script, your administrators might need you to collect additional information during your phone calls. If this phone bank has any additional questions, you'll see them automatically on the right-hand side of your screen. These questions might include things like a Notes field, etc. If you answer any questions or input any information here, that information will be saved until the end of the call, where you'll get a chance to review, add anything, and formally submit this report.
End the call and report the outcome. When you're ready to end your call, click HANG UP in the top right corner. Remember - don't actually hang up the call with your phone's calling function - just press HANG UP in Impactive, to remain connected to your "conference room." You'll then see a red banner at the top of the screen that says CALL ENDED, and you'll be prompted with the question "What was the outcome of the call?” Select the response that best describes the call and then click SUBMIT. Note that a successful call where you talked to a contact and went through the script should be marked as Completed.
Edit script responses, if needed. You will now see a recap of your script responses from the call. If you made a mistake, you can edit your answers by clicking I NEED TO EDIT (but keep in mind that this option will erase all prior responses and the script will need to be filled in from scratch). Otherwise, click I’M ALL DONE.
Report additional data. In addition to the questions being asked in the script, your administrators might need you to collect additional information during your phone calls. This screen will show these additional questions, the same ones that you saw on the right-hand side of the screen during the call. If you filled in any information here during the call, it will appear here and you can edit or add - or you can add info from scratch, if you didn't fill in anything during the call. Either way, click SUBMIT REPORT when you're done.
Check your progress. Once this final report is submitted, you'll see a celebratory message that shares how many calls you've completed so far.
Do it all over again. When ready to take another call, click QUEUE NEXT CALL and repeat the above steps.
End the To exit the phone bank, click END SESSION at the top right of the screen and hang up the call on your phone that was connecting you to your "conference room."
