Handling Volume

Technology and advocacy organizations have made it extremely easy for the public to communicate with their Representatives and Senators. The record-breaking rise of civic engagement has increased mail volume to unprecedented levels. In the first six months of 2017, offices saw their mail increase threefold or more over 2016 levels . . . which were already so high offices were struggling to manage it. This is not business-as-usual, and offices don't have the luxury of continuing the same practices they used even as recently as 2016.

Why You Should Do This

Kathleen Gayle is currently Legislative and Communications Assistant for Congressman Wittman's (VA-01) office. She discusses her office's participation in the Congressional Management Foundation's Congress 3.0 project, specifically the work she participated in for their mail operations. After participating in CMF's experiment, they saw faster turnaround time and better time management within the office.

What We Learned

• Answer difficult mail with a phone call. Your inbox probably contains a lot of messages that are difficult to answer for one reason or another. Offices particularly struggle with the "one-offs" – mail that isn't part of a larger campaign or tied to specific legislation. Instead of drafting a written reply, authorize and train staff to answer messages with phone calls. The office will save time in drafting and approving. It will also make constituents feel that their issue or opinion really matters since you are taking the time to call them and personally interact with them.
• Institute "Mail Zero Day." Implementing a Mail Zero Day helps to keep backlogs under control by distributing the work throughout the office. This ensures constituents are responded to, and it helps staffers with especially heavy volumes or workloads keep up. These designated days can be used either to address an existing backlog or as an ongoing practice to ensure mail is addressed in a timely fashion. On Mail Zero Day, all staff dedicate their time to drafting and approving messages. The goal is to have no pending mail at the end of the day. Depending on what works best for your office, you can implement them once a month, bi-weekly, or whenever it's needed.
• Don't answer every message from pen pals and ping-pongers. When the same constituent bombards an office with messages constantly, the office should reply to one or two inquiries, focusing on the issues that have pre-approved text ready. Similarly, constituent messages that are responding to your office's answer (ping-ponging) should be closed out unless a clarification truly needs to be made. One office reported reducing their overall mail volume 40% by limiting the number of pen pal and ping-pong messages to which they respond!