Keeping people warm

We normally expect some confirmed participants to drop out from a process, i.e. some participants may not turn up to the first meeting or participate through to the last meeting of the process.

There are steps that you can take to try and keep this number as low as possible.

What you should do

Once we hand over the names of the confirmed participants, it is the responsibility of the delivery organisation to make contact with people and ensure they get to the event, and to identify anyone who is potentially dropping out. To do this:

• Do the promised follow-up contact in a timely fashion – we recommend that they are contacted within 48 hours of you receiving the names from us. It is vital that you keep the agreement we have made with participants during the confirmation call, so that they retain trust in the process.
• We strongly recommend that you follow up multiple times with all participants but particularly those with additional needs. This recruitment process is designed to include voices that are less often heard - so people may need more support than you are used to.
• We know from experience that the people who are most likely to drop out are young people and people with lower educational qualifications. You should prioritise these people in your communications. Email is not likely to be enough to keep people on board – they need a phone call, ideally within 48 hours of the first contact you make with them, probably more than one.
• Clients who have offered a more personal form of contact – the same, named person getting in touch over a period of time – have reported the best response rate here.
• If someone is not responding to you, try another form of communication e.g. text, phone. If someone is still not responding, you can talk to us about replacing them.
• Ask participants to respond actively so you know whether or not they are still in contact with the process.
• Sort out practical support needs quickly! If people are unsure whether they will have the correct tech support/ travel funds/ accessible access etc etc, then they are likely to start thinking twice.
• How can you build a sense of warm anticipation amongst your confirmed participants? The more personal and human the better! People are likely to be a bit anxious and unsure, so how can you reassure them? One successful method we’ve heard about is to send out personal welcome videos from the facilitators that they will be meeting on the day.
• Some organisations have reported positive results from sending physical materials to selected participants addresses, to make it concretely real that they are part of an event.
• Some processes have used pre-event informal meetings of participants e.g. in a cafe or bar, or have had a video call, or set up WhatsApp groups, so that people feel connected to the event in advance."
• Do not leave it too late to get in touch, and do not assume participants you haven’t heard from will turn up.