3 Ways to Up Your Constituent Response Game.

• Author: Kennedy, Lesley

Nov. 14, 2022

State Legislatures News

ATLANTA--Ask Alicia Henry to talk about constituents, and the Washington, D.C., Council's director of scheduling will tell you they're the heart of legislatures.

"Without constituents, our legislators wouldn't be able to do the work that we do," she said as she moderated a StaffHub ATL 2022 session titled "Constituent Response 101." "We work to serve our legislators, and I like to say that our legislators work to serve our constituents."

But responding to and tracking constituent inquiries comes with unique challenges.

1-Organize Your Email

William Brownsberger (D), who serves as president pro tempore of the Massachusetts Senate, says if you're not making full use of email communications tools, both in terms of handling what's coming in and sending out targeted responses, you're missing a huge opportunity.

He created an open-source email software to help deal with the often overwhelming volume of email legislators and staff receive from constituents.

"Email is the main way that people reach us, and it's our most powerful tool for reaching out to people," he says. "There are offices that don't actually keep up with email and it's just crazy not to."

But you also need to keep track of it. That's where a constituent relationship management system can help. He says to look for a system that can classify types of emails, weed out bulk emails sent from various groups, block emails without unsubscribing and identify emails from actual constituents.

Your email tool should be intelligent enough to screen, recognize and parse addresses, recognize out-of-district addresses and offer appropriate automated responses, Brownsberger says.

"Email is the most powerful communication tool for most legislators," he says. "Do it promptly, and use a tool that allows you to track what you've done. And then use that incredible knowledge of who cares about what in your district."

2-Connect Proactively and Authentically

Constituents often contact their legislator when they're in crisis, says Beth Livingston, deputy communications director for the Ohio Senate, where she's responsible for brand communication, strategy, creative content development and constituent outreach.

"It's when they need something, when they need help accessing state resources, when something that's important to them is being affected--whether that's their health, their safety, their family, their business, something that matters to them that you can maybe...