If you have not already set up the NGP VAN Integration for your Scale to Win Dialer organization, please do so first, by following the steps here.
To sync call results in your dialer organization back through your linked NGP VAN integration, you must add your integration to your individual calling campaign(s).
Begin by creating a new calling campaign (see here for a guide on doing so) or opening an existing one. Then, follow the steps below during the process of creating the calling campaign.
1. Pick Your NGP VAN Integration
To read about how to pick your VAN integration, check out our guide on Step 2. Set Up an NGP VAN Integration.
2. Map Canvass Statuses in Question 1 of Your Script
Assuming you have added your NGP VAN integration to the calling campaign, the first question of your call script will map canvass statuses back to NGP VAN. In subsequent questions, you can map back survey questions and activist codes.
Note: If you do not follow the steps in order, and decide to integrate your VAN after writing your questions, the canvass results from VAN will NOT automatically map to these pre-written answers and you will have to do this manually in order for canvass results to sync.
To read more about canvass statuses, read our guide on the Standardized First Question.
The first question of your call script (“Question 1”) is your only opportunity to sync NGP VAN canvass statuses (e.g., Canvassed, Not Home, Refused, etc.) back to your NGP VAN account.
In subsequent questions, you have the option to map back survey question answers and activist codes (e.g., a question asking the voter if they’ll support your candidate or a question asking the voter to volunteer), but you will not have the option to map back canvass statuses.
If you follow the steps in order, after choosing your VAN Integration in Step 2, Step 3. Write Your Questions will automatically load Question 1 with a collection of typical canvass results all of which are laid out below:
To add any additional Canvass Results to sync back to VAN, click on the +ADD ANSWER button below the preloaded canvass answers.
From here, enter in the new answer you’d like visible to your callers and choose a canvass result from the drop down shown here.
Example of where to find the dropdown menu for choosing canvass results to sync back to VAN.
Answer: This is the text of the answer, which will appear to your callers among the answer option buttons for this question in the script.
Action: This controls the branching action of the answer and determines the next question that callers will see after selecting this response option. If you select “End Call,” callers will be taken to the wrap-up screen, to end their call.
Disposition: explain, and/or map to Number of Passes guide
NGP VAN Canvass Result: This is the canvass status that will be synced back to NGP VAN from your caller’s conversation.
Reminder: NGP VAN will only save survey response and activist code data to a called contact’s NGP VAN record if the caller selects a Question 1 response option that’s mapped to an NGP VAN canvass status of either “Canvassed” or blank. If the caller selects a Question 1 response option that is mapped to any canvass status other than “Canvassed” or blank, NGP VAN will not save the survey question answers the caller submits for any subsequent questions throughout the call script, whether or not they select a survey response answer for those subsequent questions.
3. Map Subsequent Questions in Your Script Back to NGP VAN
While creating subsequent questions in your call script, following your Question 1 canvass status question, you’ll have the option to map back survey question answers to NGP VAN, along with additional activist codes.
You may either
A) import existing survey questions directly from VAN and further edit them if desired or
B) manually create your survey question answers and map them back to VAN. Below are instructions for each option:
A) Import survey questions to automatically create script questions
To import survey questions from NGP VAN and automatically create questions in your calling campaign, click the, “Import NGP VAN canvass results” button as shown below.
Select the “Import question” button to automatically import NGP VAN questions following Question 1.
Next, search for the Survey Question in your NGP VAN committee you’d like to add to your calling campaign. If you’ve recently added a survey question to your NGP VAN committee (while creating your call campaign) and don’t see the question showing up, you can hit the “refresh” button to the right of the import page.
If you’ve recently created your survey question in NGP VAN, e.g. while creating your call campaign and don’t see that survey question listed, click the refresh button on the right side of the screen to check for newly created survey questions.
Once you’ve found the survey question you’d like to import, you’ll be prompted to select which components of the NGP VAN survey question you’d like to import.
You may choose to import:
The question name. This is the name you gave the question in NGP VAN. If this option is selected, the Scale to Win Dialer will automatically fill in the “Question Title” field on your newly created question with your question name from NGP VAN.
The question script. This is the script displayed to your callers while they answer the question. If this option is selected, the Scale to Win Dialer will automatically import your question script to display to callers. Note that, even if this option is selected, you will still have the option to edit the question script before launching your campaign.
Import question responses. If this option is selected, the Scale to Win Dialer will automatically import your NGP VAN survey question’s associated answers and create corresponding single-choice question answers in your current dialer question. To import all answers/responses, check the box next to “Question Response.”
The “Import NGP VAN Survey Question” menu.
When you have finished making your selections, click the “Import” button to finish importing the question.
Note: If you decide to import a survey question after editing your question title, script or answers, the import will overwrite your progress. Make sure to import your answers, and then edit.
Note: you will only be able to add answers that sync back to a single NGP VAN survey question per Scale to Win Dialer script question, regardless of whether your question is manually mapped or automatically imported. If you’d like to sync back answers to multiple NGP VAN Survey Questions, you will need to create multiple subsequent questions in your call script.
B) Manually map survey question answers back
You may also manually add NGP VAN Survey Question answers if you’d prefer.
To manually map survey question answers back to NGP VAN, simply search for your desired NGP VAN Survey Question in the “Survey Question” field and fill out the four corresponding survey question answer inputs:
The NGP VAN Survey Question selection dropdown.
Answer: This is the text of the answer, which will appear to your callers among the answer option buttons for this question in the script.
Action: This controls the branching action of the answer and determines the next question that callers will see after selecting this response option. If you select “End Call,” callers will be taken to the wrap-up screen, to end their call.
NGP VAN Survey Response: This field determines the survey question answer applied to an NGP VAN record when a caller selects this survey answer.
NGP VAN Activist Code: This optional field can be used to apply an activist code to the called contact’s NGP VAN record when a caller selects this survey answer. You can attach activist codes to the question types Single Choice, Checkboxes, and Patch Through Call.
Above, an example survey question answer block.
At this time, it is not possible to map survey responses, activist codes, or canvass status to “Short Answer”-type script questions in the STW Dialer to NGP VAN. If you need to sync information back from a Short Answer-type script question, Scale to Win recommends branching your Text Field question to a followup “Single Choice”-type question, to allow you to map back additional information via your subsequent Single Choice script question.
4. Add Your Contacts
During the “Step 4: Add Contacts” step of the campaign creation process, you add the list of contacts that you’d like for your call campaign to dial.
While using the NGP VAN integration, there are two options for adding contacts to your call campaign: A) you can import a contact list directly from NGP VAN into the dialer or B) you can upload a CSV that contains a column with each contact’s “VanID.”
At this time, you cannot import both an NGP VAN list and a CSV into a single calling campaign. You must choose between importing a single NGP VAN list or uploading a CSV.
Below are instructions for each option:
A) Import a contact list from NGP VAN
The first option for adding the list of contacts you wish for your call campaign to dial is to directly import a saved list from your NGP VAN account. Below are the steps for doing so:
i. Give the Scale to Win API user access to your VAN folders
Before attempting to import a list from VAN, make sure you’ve given the Scale to Win API user access to the folder(s) containing your saved lists, as outlined in Step 2 of the “Set Up Your NGP VAN Integration” guide.
ii. Select which VAN list to import
Then, in Step 4 of the campaign creation process, select the “Import from NGP VAN” option towards the top of your screen, to the right of the “Upload a CSV” option (as shown in the image below). Then select or search for the name of your saved calling list in the “Pick a saved list” dropdown menu.
The “Import from NGP VAN” list import menu.
If you’ve recently created your list in NGP VAN and don’t see it in this dropdown menu, be sure to hit the ‘refresh’ button on the right side of the search field.
When importing a list from NGP VAN, you’ll be limited by NGP VAN to lists of approximately 75,000 contacts.
iii. Know what will be included in your import
Contacts will be loaded into the dialer with their associated “Preferred Phone” from VAN as their phone number.
The dialer will automatically remove any contacts without associated phone numbers from your NGP VAN import list.
In some cases, NGP VAN will exclude invalid numbers from your import. If NGP VAN excludes any numbers from your STW Dialer import, you’ll be notified upon completion of your import.
An example message notifying an admin that VAN has excluded invalid numbers from their import.
iv. Check the mapping of your “Contact Fields”
Once your list is imported, scroll down to view the “Contact Fields” portion of the page. You’ll notice that our system will have automatically “mapped” most or all of the contact fields (e.g., First Name, Last Name, Email) contained in your list for you, unlike when you upload a CSV and have to “map your CSV columns” manually. Just be sure to check over these automatically-mapped fields and edit them if needed.
B) Upload a CSV with VAN IDs
Alternatively, the other option for adding your contact list to your call campaign when using the NGP VAN integration is to upload a CSV.
When doing so, be sure to include in your CSV a column that contains the “VAN ID” of each of the contacts on your list. (Each contact in your NGP VAN account has a unique identifier associated with them, which is their “VAN ID.”) It’s required to include this column in your CSV so that the system knows which call results to save to which contacts’ VAN records in your VAN account.
After uploading your CSV, you will “map” your CSV columns. (You can read the instructions for doing so in the “‘Map’ Your Columns” section of the "Step 4: Add Contacts" guide.) When doing so, note that you do not need to map your “VanID” column. (This is because our system automatically detects this column in your CSV, just like it automatically detects the “phone_number” column.)
You may upload CSV files up to 100 MB in size by default. If you expect to need to upload CSVs larger than 100 MB, reach out to our support team.
6. Scale to Win Dialer NGP VAN Integration Behavior
For your awareness, the Scale to Win Dialer syncs information back to NGP VAN in two cases: when a called contact answers the phone or when a called contact does not answer the phone.
If a contact answers the phone:
The Scale to Win Dialer syncs back to NGP VAN any survey question answers, canvass statuses, and activist codes that have been mapped to answers the caller selects while speaking with the called contact. However, again, NGP VAN will only save survey response and activist code data if the caller selects a Question 1 response option that’s mapped to an NGP VAN canvass status of either “Canvassed” or blank. If the caller selects a Question 1 response option that is mapped to any canvass status other than “Canvassed” or blank, NGP VAN will not save the survey question answers the caller submits for any subsequent questions throughout the call script, whether or not they select a survey response answer for those subsequent questions.
Call results are synced back to NGP VAN following the conclusion of each call, after the caller either finishes answering the associated survey questions and reenters the calling queue or ends their calling session — whether they do so by clicking the “End Calling Session” button on the call wrap-up screen, hanging up the phone in “Phone Only” calling mode, or exiting their browser window when on the call wrap-up screen.
Note, if a caller closes out of their browser window before they enter the call wrap-up step — regardless of whether they’re using the “Call with computer” or the “Call with computer & phone” call-in method — the Scale to Win Dialer will not save results or send results back to NGP VAN.
If a contact does not answer the phone:
The Scale to Win Dialer will apply one of four canvass results to the called contact’s NGP VAN record:
Not Home: The Scale to Win Dialer will apply this canvass status automatically when an answering machine is detected and no voicemail is automatically played. Note that in cases where the dialer fails to detect an answering machine and a caller is connected to an answering machine, the synced-back canvass status will be determined by the answers selected by the caller, and no status will be synced back automatically without caller input.
Busy: The Scale to Win Dialer will apply this canvass status automatically when a busy signal is detected.
Left Voicemail: The Scale to Win Dialer will apply this canvass status automatically when an answering machine is detected and a voicemail is automatically left by the dialer. Note that voicemails will only be left on landlines and only when you’ve selected the voicemail setting during your call campaign creation process.
Other: The Scale to Win Dialer will apply this canvass status automatically in every other case where a called contact is not connected to a caller. This includes cases like a dropped call, a failed call, and a disconnected number.
The Scale to Win Dialer does not automatically apply a “Disconnected” canvass status.
Note: all contacts will be listed in your NGP VAN committee as contacted by your Scale to Win API user with a contact type of “Phone” and an input type of “API.”