2. Thank You from the Shiftsmart Team
We’re thrilled to be partnering with you on this new political survey calling project. It is a
significant step forward for us as we bring more shifts and particularly our first
work-from-home shifts onto the platform.
Shiftsmart was founded with the vision of bringing more flexibility & opportunity to hourly
work. Thank you for your help in turning this vision into reality! You are a critical part of
bringing work opportunities on our platform and executing them successfully.
We’re here to support you every step of the way. Our team can assist with anything from
updating your shift schedule, troubleshooting your software, or congratulating you on a job
well-done. Feel free to reach out to the Shiftsmart team at any point (through text message
at (972) 779-0666 or our app).
Thank you for being part of the Shiftsmart community. We’re excited to continue to “get
shift done” with you.
All the best,
The Shiftsmart Team
Political Survey Calls
For political survey calls, we ask people questions about various candidates & issues and
record their answers. These calls are conducted over the internet using special software.
This software provides the survey script and phone number to dial. Each survey is 5 - 15
minutes and you’ll typically be able to complete a few each shift.
These calls help campaigns get a pulse on public opinion. (They are not for or against
particular candidates.) To do this effectively, we must collect high-quality, unbiased data. It
is important to read the survey questions & answers as written, listen carefully, and clarify
responses as needed. This also requires acting with respect & courtesy and treating all
information as highly confidential (ie not appropriate to share under any circumstances).
The rest of this guide covers more details on political survey calls. See the dispositions
section to correctly classify incomplete surveys and the pat responses section to respond to
common situations.
2
3. Topics Covered in This Guide
Dispositions 3
Pat Responses 5
Glossary 8
Notes 10
Dispositions
Dispositions are how we tell the system what happened when we dialed the number and
could not start or complete a survey on the call. Below is a list of all disposition options - the
most common ones are highlighted in yellow.
Contact (A person answered the phone)
Not Available
(Very
common!)
● Listed respondent is not at home
● Respondent is temporarily not available to do the survey
● Respondent has no time to do the survey or is too busy
● Respondent hangs up during your introduction
● Anything resembling the sound of someone hanging up the phone
after you’re connected to the call
Technical
Phone
Problems
● Bad static or echo on the phone line
● Issues with your own hardware/software that cause severe
problems on a call
Soft Refusal ● Respondent firmly but politely declines to do the survey
● Do not mention the Do Not Call list
Hard Refusal ● Respondent very upset about being called and will not ever do a
survey with us
● Do not mention the Do Not Call list
Put on Do
Not Call List
● Anyone who says to put their name/number on the Do Not Call list
or says anything about putting their name on our Do Not Call list
● Do not confuse with a respondent telling you they’re already on an
existing Do Not Call list
Language
Barrier
● Respondent cannot speak or understand the survey’s language, is
hard of hearing, etc.
Deceased ● Only use if the survey is “Listed Person Only” and that person has
passed
Wrong
Number
● Only use if the survey is Listed Person Only and the listed
respondent is not available at that number
3
4. Business/Non
-Residence
● Phone number is for any business, church, police station, fire
department, hospital, school, etc.
Non-Contact (The phone was not answered, no live person was contacted)
No Answer ● Phone rings without anyone picking up. Wait for approximately 24
seconds before ending the call & marking this
Busy Signal ● Slow, long repeating beep
● This happens because the person is on another call and doesn’t
have an answering machine/voicemail/call waiting
Non-working/
Disconnected
● There is a message that explicitly says the phone number is no
longer in service, has been changed/disconnected, etc.
Telephone
Answering
Device
● Answering machine, voicemail, any kind of recording that instructs
to leave message
● Never leave a message, mark the disposition and move on
Privacy
Manager/Tec
h Barrier
● Automated response that does not accept unknown callers
● Anything else that prevents a call from getting through to a live
person
Fax/Data Line ● Fax machine/modem noise
Dead Air ● There is no beep in your headset, but a call begins on your screen
● No audio of any kind in headset speaker
● Wait 24 seconds in case there is a delayed connection
● Contact Shiftsmart if this persists for 4 or more calls in a row
During the Survey (Contacted the right person and made it past the intro & screening
questions)
Suspend ● Respondent has started the survey and is past the screening
questions but cannot finish the survey at that moment and does
want to finish it later
● Do not suspend a call without the respondent’s permission
Respondent
Terminate
● Respondent is through the screening questions
● Respondent does not want to continue with the survey now or ever
Interviewer
Terminate
● Respondent is through the screening questions
● Respondent becomes uncooperative, verbally abusive, only
supplies irrelevant or nonsensical answers to questions
4
5. Pat Responses
While the goal is to read the survey verbatim, the respondent may ask questions or make
comments that require you to make brief adjustments. Below are some common scenarios
and how to handle them - the most common scenarios are highlighted in yellow.
In any of these scenarios, if the respondent keeps pushing for information, politely say I
don’t have any additional information. If this continues further and the respondent
becomes upset, then end the call and mark it as a “Hard Refusal”
Topic
Respondent
Question /
Comment Best Practice Response
Questions & Comments about the Call
Do Not Call
List
My number is on
the National DNC /
Do Not Call List.
Why are you
calling me?
Clarify that the DNC list doesn’t apply and try to
move forward with survey questions
“The national DNC list only applies to telemarketers.
Since the only thing we are calling you for is
opinions, the list does not apply. Why don’t we get
started and see what some of the questions are
like? We can stop at any time”
Phone
Number
Source
How did you get
this number?
Inform the respondent that phone numbers are
from publically available lists
“All numbers are obtained from publicly available
lists”
Can’t finish
the survey
“I must go now”
OR “How much
longer is this?”
Encourage them to finish the survey, if necessary
gather info for another call
First: “We only have a few minutes/questions left, I
appreciate your time and will go as quickly as I can.”
Then: If the respondent continues to press, “I
understand, and just to ensure I speak with the
correct person again for this survey, could I have
your first and last name? Thank you very much.
We’ll call again soon.”
No Listed
Person
Listed person isn’t
available, but they
want to leave a
message
Repeat the introduction, then add “but we’ll call
back another time. Thank you!”
Questions & Comments about the Survey
National Where are you Repeat your introduction, if necessary mention
5
6. Polling
Organization
calling from? Dynata
First: Repeat your survey introduction
Then: If the respondent continues to ask, respond
with “I am calling from Dynata, headquartered in
Plano, Texas”
Survey
Length
How long is the
survey?
Provide the estimated time and try to move forward
with survey questions. The estimated time should be
in the survey intro
“The survey should take about [X] to [Y] minutes
depending on your responses. We could always start
now and finish at a later point if that is more
convenient for you.”
Survey Topic What is the survey
about?
Do not answer the questions politely
“I cannot disclose specifics until you qualify to
participate in the survey; however, you should be
able to determine the topic within the first few
questions.”
Survey
Sponsor
Who is sponsoring
the survey?
If you are not told, mention that you don’t have that
info
“I am not provided any information on who sponsors
the survey.”
If you are told because the survey has a disclosure
statement at the end, say that this info will be
provided later
“If I were to disclose the sponsor at this point, it
would invalidate the survey. However, I’d be more
than happy to let you know the sponsor once we’ve
reached the end.”
Questions & Comments about Survey Questions
Interrupts
the question
Respondent
makes a comment
while you are
reading the
question or
answer. Also,
could ask you to
stop reading the
questions/stateme
nts
Acknowledge the comment, explain that you need
to read the full question & answer
“I understand; however, I am required to read the
survey verbatim to you”
6
7. Answers too
soon
Respondent
provides an
answer before all
selections are read
Acknowledge the answer, finish reading the answer
options
“I can mark that for you, however, I need to finish
reading the choices.”
Refuses to
answer
“I don’t want to
give you that
information”
Acknowledge that answer, choose the refused
answer option, and move on
“I understand”
Unclear
questions or
answer
options
“I don’t
understand what
that means, can
you explain the
question?”
Do not clarify, offer to re-read the question
“It means whatever it means to you. I can re-read
the question if you like.”
Asks you to
answer
“Put whatever you
want” OR “What
do you think
about it?”
Politely refuse to answer the question
“I can only accept your responses. If I answered the
question, it would invalidate the survey”
7
8. Glossary
Bias Prejudice in favor of or against one thing, person, or group compared with
another, usually in a way considered to be unfair. We cannot “lead the
respondent” in one direction or another. Anything off-script can be
considered biasing.
CATI Computer Assisted Telephone Interviewing. This is the technical name for
this type of survey data collection.
Disposition Description of what happened on the call (e.g. no answer, not available).
When survey isn’t completed, you’ll select one of the disposition options at
the end of the call.
DNC “Do not contact” known as “Internal List.” Never offer to put respondent on
list.
DNR “Do Not Read”
Falsification Recording an answer for a question that was not asked or recording an
answer that the respondent did not say.
Fix-its Open-end questions that are not typed with correct grammar or not
readable that need to be manually fixed by a supervisor.
PAT
Responses
Best approach to questions the respondent may ask about the call, survey,
or particular questions & answer options
Production
Rate (PR)
The average number of surveys you are competing in an hour. The goal is
to be at 100% or higher.
Project All of the surveys requested by a particular client. Each project has a
different survey script.
Respondent The person called to complete a survey
Listed Person Only: We can only speak with the respondent named in the
intro.
Listed Person First: We can speak with the listed person or, if they aren’t
available, someone else
Any Registered Voter/Any Household Member: We can speak with who
answers (must be 18+)
Qualified Respondent meets the criteria for completing the survey. If the
respondent does not qualify / is unqualified, the survey will automatically
end.
Quality
Score
How well you delivered the survey. At least 1 call will be monitored per
shift. The quality report includes a percentage score and feedback
comments. 100% is a perfect score. Above 93% is considered great.
Quota Each project requires completed surveys from different types of
8
9. respondents. The number of completed surveys required for a particular
respondent type (e.g. Hispanic women over 65) is called the quota block
Sample A segment of the population. Also used to denote the list of telephone
numbers which we dial.
Verbatim In exactly the same words as were used originally. Word for word, letter for
letter, line for line. To the letter, exactly, precisely. All scripts are to be read
verbatim.
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