Added on: 23-Jun-10
By Edd Pickering
Having just finished their fourth campaign with us St Hugh's are Buffalo's oldest Oxbridge client. I am in the interesting position of having worked on all four of these campaigns; the first two as a caller, the third as a Telethon Assistant and the fourth and most recent as Campaign Manager in my own right. Expectations were high thanks to three successful and one record-breaking campaign in the past three years. However, having recruited a motivated and enthusiastic team of students and having the full support of the Development Office I was confident we could build on past successes, rather than feel daunted by them.
This confidence was not misplaced. The callers excelled and soon we were thinking less about reaching the target and more by how much we could beat it. This is testament to not only the hard work put in by the whole Development Office over the years but also the benefit of running multiple telephone campaigns. Many of the people we talked to had been called in previous campaigns and not only knew what was happening but had been actively looking forward to their calls. It was heartening to hear how many people we called remembered the conversation they'd had with a student up to three years ago and demonstrates the level of rapport that can be built in a comparatively brief phone call.