The dollars and the human resources required to open and operate a campaign office make it prohibitive for most local campaigns.  Many campaigns will create a website to drive potential voters to for more information. Websites are helpful but many core voters are still more comfortable picking up the phone and calling someone. Campaigns should not neglect this important method of voter contact, even in the early stages of the campaign.

The challenge then becomes whose phone number should the campaign use? The president? The candidate? The volunteer chair?

If you use a volunteer, is that person going to stay in the position? What if that volunteer has a personal crisis and calls go missed and unanswered?

The best solution is to create a virtual campaign office. One number for the entire campaign.

Imagine having the following available to your campaign:

• Toll free number for rural ridings!
• Vanity number (905-268-VOTE for example)
• Unlimited extensions for each member of the campaign team! With the option of either voicemail or automatic forwarding of the call to a designated number
• Voicemails are transcribed into text and emailed to a designated person or a whole committee – it is up to you
• A personalized auto-attendant to greet your callers
• Recorded messages that volunteers and the public can listen to 24/7 to learn about upcoming events, fundraisers, policy or the candidate’s bio.
• Forwarding of calls

Starting at $25.00 a month it is an inexpensive way to ensure that your campaign can respond to and interact with voters long before you open your office doors.

Contact us to learn more (available throughout the continental United States and Canada). You can choose to use all of the features or just one or two – the choice is yours.

Virtual Campaign Office Features

Campaign Receptionist

Main Greeting

Instantly portray a professional image to callers who call your campaign office and hear your personal greeting. You can record a single greeting, or record both a daytime and an after-hours greeting that you can schedule to start and stop at specific days and times. This is a great way to connect with voters with your customized and friendly greeting recorded by a volunteer or better yet your candidate.

Phone Menu

Easily set up your own phone menu with volunteer extensions, a dial by name directory, and a general mailbox. You can also set up info messages (up to three messages) for callers to hear at the press of a button. Like a company will offer a pre-recorded message of their store hours or location, your campaign info message can include the candidate’s biography, information about an upcoming fundraising event or what ever your campaign chooses. You can record and re-record a new message when ever you like as often as you like.

Unlimited Extensions

Create extensions for your entire team. (Example, ext. 101 reaches the Campaign Manager’s cell phone, and ext. 102, the Canvass Chair’s home phone). Your entire team is available from one campaign phone number. No need for volunteers to worry about privacy and security any more as their number will never be given out to callers. Add as many extensions as you need at no additional cost. If a volunteer is no longer able to carry on his/her duties you can be assured that the contact information for the new volunteer will not need to change. We’ll update your directory for you and calls will be re-routed to the new volunteer.

Do volunteers not want to receive phone calls? No problem! You can choose how calls are handled. If your canvass chair, for example, would rather get voicemails and call volunteers back his extension will go directly to voicemail and will send an email to your canvass chair with the message. The system is extremely flexible making it possible for you to satisfy each individual volunteer’s preferences.

After-hour times can be determined by you and all calls made during those wee-hours will automatically go to voicemail, ensuring that your volunteers are not disturbed at 3:00 a.m. by a voter looking for a lawn sign or an answer to a policy question.

Dial by Name Directory

Callers can search for individuals using the phone keypad. The Virtual Receptionist will match the name or title to the caller’s request and connect the call.

Info Messages

When callers listen to your main greeting, you can give them the option to listen to informational messages that you can record such as events, candidate information, lawn sign orders. Give your callers immediate help without you and your volunteers spending time answering routine calls. Info messages can be recorded and changed as often as you like.

General Mailbox

Create a general mailbox for your campaign; this is perfect for callers who aren’t sure who they need to speak to or for calls that come in during non-business hours.

Smart Call Handling

Enjoy the same smart call forwarding features as the world’s largest companies.

Direct incoming calls to your cell, home, office, voicemail, even numbers with extensions.

Call Forwarding

Never miss a call again! Customize your preferences to direct calls to multiple phone numbers no matter where you are – at home, the office, or your cell. You can even forward calls to an office number with an extension, or a Skype™ address. Choose to ring all phones at once or in an order you decide!

With Virtual Campaign Office call forwarding you can even re-assign calls to another volunteer when you’re unavailable which is perfect when you’re on vacation and need someone to cover for you, and forward directly to voicemail when you can’t take calls!

Call Scheduling

Schedule when calls are connected to your phones, and when they are directed to voicemail. Perfect for volunteers who don’t want their phones to ring during non-business hours or in the middle of the night.

Request Routing

Create rules to direct incoming calls with information a caller enters on their telephone keypad. This is a great way to route calls to a specific extension, mailbox, Info message or the Virtual Receptionist.

Example: A caller dials your Virtual Campaign Office and is asked to enter the first three digits of their postal code. They are then sent to Poll Captain for that geographical area. This has the dual benefit of making your callers feel they are talking to someone close to home, while at the same time projecting a professional image.

Never Miss a Call from a Voter with Enhanced Voicemail

Voicemail to Email

Have your voicemails automatically sent to your email address; very convenient when you can’t take calls.

Voicemail by Phone

One number to call to get unlimited access to messages. Listen, forward, archive, or delete messages from your phone.

Voicemail Transcription

Voicemail messages are transcribed to text and sent to you via text message (SMS), email, or both, allowing you to read messages when it’s not convenient to listen to them.

Message Notification

Lets you know you have a message waiting so you don’t have to call in to your voicemail just to check if you have messages. Choose between, email, phone and text message notifications and never check for messages again.

Protect the Privacy of Your Volunteers and Avoid Wasting the Candidates Time with Call Screening

Call Announce

This is a popular option, especially for busy candidates. When you answer a call, instead of being immediately connected to the caller you will hear a message that tells you who is calling. You then have the option to accept the call, or let it go directly to voicemail. You can also choose how the call is announced:

• By Caller ID: If you choose this option you will hear the phone number (Caller ID) of the person calling.
• By Name: This option directs the caller to say their name which is recorded and played to you.

Caller ID Screening

Very useful during the campaign. Great for large campaigns with multiple offices locations. Direct calls to an extension, mailbox or Info Message before they are answered by your Virtual Receptionist.

Example: Calls with a 705 area code are automatically directed to the Hasting volunteer chair, and calls with a 905 area code are directed to the Cobourg office.

Caller ID Tagging

Add a ‘tag’ to the caller ID to distinguish Virtual Campaign Office calls from direct calls to your phone. This lets you answer appropriately based on where the call is coming from i.e. in a business-like manner for campaign calls and a casual manner for personal calls.

Call Block/Direct to Mailbox

Unfortunately, almost every campaign gets those calls. Frequent crank callers who use up valuable time of the campaign, these calls can now be blocked or rejected automatically based on the Caller ID giving a caller the impression your number is no longer available. Alternatively you can direct calls to a mailbox before they are answered by your Virtual Receptionist based on Caller ID.     Example: Calls from an identified crank caller are sent directly to voicemail.

Phone Number

Toll Free Numbers

A toll free number makes it easy and affordable for voters to reach you by choosing a toll free number. As with a local phone number, calls from a toll free can be directed to your voicemail or be directed to any phone.

Local Numbers

Choose a local number by area code. For campaigns with a large geographical area, you may wish to have multiple local phone numbers rather than a single toll-free number. Each additional phone number is $10.00 per month.

Vanity Numbers

Vanity numbers are available for both local and toll free numbers and make it easy to get across a key message or your candidate’s name (888-658-4-KIM, 416-850-5-SAL).

More Features

Conference Calling

Add multiple people to your calls to create a conference call. During a Virtual Campaign Office call you can add additional people, turning a 2-way conversation into a conference call! Perfect if you’re in the middle of a meeting and need information from someone who is not already on the line.

Call Transfer Music

Enhance the caller experience! Callers hear music instead of a ringing phone while waiting to be connected to an extension.

Calling Card

This features lets you make calls from any phone using your Virtual Campaign Office number. This allows you to avoid long distance charges and it also means when you call someone the Caller ID shows up as Virtual Campaign Office phone number.

This is perfect for volunteers in rural areas who are willing to make phone calls but are reluctant because of long-distance charges they would incur.

Internet Fax Reception

Receive faxes in your Virtual Campaign Office! The system will recognize the call as a fax and will deliver it to your designated email address where it can be viewed, stored, or forwarded. No separate fax number required!

Web Calls

Want to get ahead of the pack? Add a “Call Me” button or link on your website or in your email signature. Your Virtual Campaign Office will connect the caller to you at a click of a mouse button.

How Much?

The cost of a Virtual Campaign Office depends on how many minutes your campaign uses. A typical campaign with an average number of volunteers and committees will use 500 minutes a month. The more active your campaign is on the ground, the more minutes you are likely to use.

We recommend starting with 150 minutes/month until your campaign team is adjusted to the new system. You can then upgrade your package at any time. (**Additional minutes cost $0.10 each)

* No matter which package you choose, all features are available to you *

Ready-Set-Win Virtual Office Set-Up

$250.00 initial set-up fee. Includes the training of a volunteer to manage the system, creating all extensions and helping set up the first pre-recorded messages. Once set up, the office can be managed by local volunteers. We have yet to have a need for technical support calls, but should that be necessary: Set-up fee includes 5 FREE technical support calls per month (10 in the first month). Additional support calls are billed at $10.00 each.

Starter Virtual Office:

150 minutes/month

$30.00 per month or $300.00 for one year.**

Active Virtual Office:

500 minutes/month

$60.00 per month or $600.00 for one year.**

Victory Virtual Office:

1,000 minutes/month

$75.00 per month or $750.00 for one year.**

* Extra charges will apply for all calls forwarded outside the US and Canada. Contact us for International Rates.

All prices are CAD.