My job as an operator for TTHM has changed over the years. It ranges from collecting contact information from audience members, summarizing and sometimes answering their questions, to now include reading the live operator introduction for Mobile Direct Dialing.
Limited outreach to cell phones due to legal restrictions meant that only users who have opted in through our Branded Text Alert or Web Registration services could receive our calls for Teletownhall forums and Voice Broadcasts. The Telephone Consumer Protection Act (TCPA) forbids calling mobile phones with a recorded message unless the recipient has opted-in for contact from the calling entity.
With Mobile Direct Dialing, I, or a fellow operator, reads a script co-created with the client and our TTHM team to quickly transfer mobile phone users from a virtual hold room into the live Telephone Town Hall. This allows the event audience to grow substantially and legally, including many more people as the world shifts from using landlines to mobile phones.
Our virtual hold room allows a TTHM Operator, like me, to read a brief 10-15 second script as mobile users answer our outbound Telephone Town Hall call. Once a group of inbound mobile phones have heard the live message from our Operator, they are moved automatically to the live Telephone Town Hall event.
It’s fun to watch the numbers in the Mobile Direct Dialing waiting room go up and down as the callers come in from the dial and move to the live forum through the automated system. I’ve found that muting myself for 3-4 seconds in between each read of the script ensures the transfers happen smoothly and consistently.
After about 5-20 minutes, depending on the speed of the network we’re using (based on the location the dials are happening in), all the mobile users are able to be a part of the Telephone Town Hall Meeting and can engage in asking questions, provide their personal contact information, and participate in polls and patchthrough transfers.
Sometimes, after all the mobile phone users have been transferred into the forum, if participation is high, I will move over to collection or screening and help out my fellow operators. It feels like cradle to grave reading the script at the beginning to ensure mobile users get in the forum, to helping them ask their questions live and processing their personal contact information.
As landline phones are phased out, ensuring critical messaging reaches mobile users is increasingly important. Contact us to discuss your options for compliant mobile phone outreach.
About Becca:
As a TTHM Operator since 2020, Becca has collected thousands of e-newsletter opt-ins and processed even more live questions for a myriad of telephone town hall events. Producing forums for school districts, political campaigns, medical insurance providers, labor unions, and cities around the country has helped Becca to gain a wealth of knowledge from client speakers and event participants. Becca works from her home office on Florida’s Gulf Coast, but she has produced live forums while working remotely from Colorado, Montana, Iowa and lots of other places in between!