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Development resources are teeming impotence pills advice on how to maximize call center productivity. Most of the time, their preferred strategy is centered on scripting or a specific call center software. While these two alternatives are certainly important weapons to have in your fundraising arsenal, by far the most important asset to your call center efforts are your students and volunteers. Without a handpicked, trained and highly motivated staff, your efforts, regardless of script or software, will flounder. A call center manned by strategically placed, focused and committed callers will always yield higher results.

If you are looking to improve your call center's effectiveness, start with your callers. Here are three tips to help you get started:

Hire/recruit callers as you would development staff.

Too often managers compromise on staffing just to have enough warm bodies in their call centers. Examples include calling that is advertised as being mandatory, open to the campus community, first-come first-hired, or available for students in leadership positions only. The end result is a call center full of people who may or may not want to be there, are there for the free food, or are present out of obligation. We don't hire development officers that way; we shouldn't fill our call centers like that either.

Engage and empower your callers.

Many institutions treat their call center employees like they are located at the bottom of the totem pole, when in reality they can be the greatest asset to its fundraising efforts. Call center students and volunteers are an institution's first line of communication, and may be the only personal contact a prospect receives all year. In terms of contacts per person, your student and volunteer callers have more opportunity to engage in quality conversations than all the members of your development staff combined. With this in mind, share with them the strategic goals of your organization and allow them to personalize each contact. If they feel more ownership in their role, they will make more of an effort to showcase your cause, and your institution, in a positive light.

Thank them.

Calling is hard work, and too often a thankless job. Productivity is a barometer for job satisfaction, and it is the manager's responsibility to make certain that callers are content and excited, not only about the institution, but also about their roles in its success. The simplest way to show appreciation to callers is a simple thank you. Communicated verbally, as a pat on the back, with free pizza or in a visit best rate loans the president of your institution, a genuine thank you will injury lawyers 4 you wonders for a caller's confidence and commitment. It will work wonders for the bottom line as well.

For more information on www.melioragroup.com/">Call Centers and Phonathons contact the Meliora Group LLC.

Carol Wittmeyer, Ed.D. Carol is principal of the Meliora Group LLC, a firm devoted to serving leaders passionate for philanthropic success. She has been active in this area for decades and has national clients including colleges and universities, foundations and non-profits.

Carol served as Interim VP for Newman University, where she led a $14.25 million campaign for a library. She served as Associate VP for mesotheleoma Relations at Alfred University where she managed the New Millennium Campaign raising $82 million, $7 million over goal. She served as VP for College Relations at Medaille College where she restructured the staff and procedures to model best practices. Annual giving, participation and trustee membership increased.

For two years she served as President of the Raymond Family Business Institute, dedicated to serving family business owners. Along with colleagues from the Kauffman Foundation, London Business School, Babson College, and Kennesaw University, she coauthored projects in the 2003 Global Entrepreneur Monitor and the 2003 American Family Business Survey.

As acting dean of Education at St. Bonaventure, she was responsible for external relations and academic programming.

As a board member of the Olean General Hospital, Montessori, YMCA and the Warner School of Education, Carol has been active in her community. She is the Resource Chair for the Genesee Valley Association of AFP.

Carol was awarded the 40 Under 40 Business Leader Award from Buffalo Business First in 2001.

Carol earned her doctorate from the University of Rochester where she has endowed a scholarship in honor of a deceased classmate. Her dissertation was: Decision-Making Processes of Private College Trustees. She has served as a visiting research fellow at Babson College, the University of Pittsburgh and the University of Rochester.

She earned her MBA specializing in Accounting and her BBA in Accounting from St. Bonaventure.

She is an assistant professor of management at St. Bonaventure University.