In the Admin | Surveys & Data Configuration section of the PDI Admin menu, you will need to take two steps to prepare your account to use the dialer. If you do not have access to the Admin Settings | Admin Settings | Flags & Surveys section of your account, you will need to ask a user with that access to do this.
Acquisition type – the PDI system uses the acquisition type to help you track how you contacted voters, whether it was in a door-to-door canvass, by email, or on the phones. If you do not already have an acquisition type set up for your phonebank contacts, you should create one in Admin Settings | Admin Settings | Flags & Surveys | Acquisition Type. Make sure that you associate it with PHONE.
Non-contact question – the PDI system uses non-contact questions to set up codes to indicate what happened in conversations that did not result in a contact with the voter you were looking for. This can include wrong numbers, language barriers, voters who have moved, etc.
The calling system requires that your non-contact question have at least 4 specific responses:
- NH – Not home
- AMM – Answering machine
- BNH – Bad number, home
- BNM – Bad number, mobile
You can add any other codes you choose. Some common options are Moved, Deceased, Language barrier, and Refused to participate. The responses available in your PDI account can be seen on the Flags tab.
Once you have verified that your account has all of the response codes that you need, you are ready to create the non-contact question. In the Questions section, create a question as shown here.
Give the question a clear name and description – like “Non-contact – dialer”. Set the Question Type to Non-Contact – Click to Dial and check the “Show” box. Choose from the default responses and/or add your own options and then click on Save – remember, at a minimum your question must include the NH, AMM, BNH, and BNM options.
