3.4 Opportunities for improvement

Big-picture ideas for congressional teams to evolve their understanding of engagement with constituent needs and views.

1. Test and adopt more proactive approaches to gauging constituent sentiment, using strategic and modern data analysis tools.

The current approach for making sense of constituent sentiment and tracking engagement is unscientific and sometimes misleading. Developing tools to better track how constituents engage with an office and respond to legislative action will help legislative and communications teams make more informed, data-driven decisions that are in tune with their district needs and opinions. By partnering with industry data scientists and vendors, these tools can be built into existing systems, with which staffers are familiar.

• Work with data scientists to develop a more scientific approach to gauging constituent sentiment.
• Work with vendors to build reporting and tracking functions for correspondence by volume, issue area, etc., into existing CRMs.
• Map correspondence data by issue and volume to particular geographical regions of the district.
• Gather data on how constituents engage with proactive correspondence, such as newsletters and social media posts, which will help inform future strategies.

2. Train staff on customer service best practices.

Some congressional teams take constituent correspondence very seriously and approach it with heart; others do only what is necessary. Training staff who would not traditionally engage with constituents on the process will help them empathize not only with their peers, but also with the people they serve.

• Conduct field trips for staff involved in constituent engagement operations to world-class organizations with renowned customer service, with the aim of modeling what’s possible and teaching best practices.
• Test a rotation model so that more senior staffers have opportunities for front-facing engagement with constituents on a regular basis.
• Expand training to better equip staff in all roles to understand fundamentals of customer service.

3. Rethink the division of labor.

Offices currently focus the majority of their staff resources on legislative issues and media-facing communication, leaving constituent engagement to more junior staffers. Prioritizing this work would give staffers developing policy and drafting legislation greater insight into their constituents’ views, who would, in turn, be more likely to feel heard by their representatives.

• Set up “model” offices responding to real constituent input to test new staffing models and division of labor.
• Investigate hiring trained customer service professionals onto correspondence teams to train and lead frontline service.
• Rethink the division of labor between communications teams and legislative correspondence teams and test how responsibilities might evolve to meet the rise of social media engagement.
• Budget the ideal salary commensurate with the level of experience teams need to provide top-of-the-line constituent services and engagement.

NEXT
Section 4: Capacity for change

This article is part of From Voicemails to Votes (PDF), a report conducted by The OpenGov Foundation on the mindsets, capacities, tools, and operations of Congressional offices with regard to constituent engagement. More about the project here.