constituents

Members of Congress and their staff are eager to communicate more effectively with constituents. They come to the Congressional Management Foundation and the Partnership for a More Perfect Union with questions about everything from how to best improve their constituent mail operations, to how to best use social media tools like Twitter or Facebook. Through our new 'Ask Us' series, we will attempt to answer those questions for the benefit of not only the asker (whose identity we will carefully guard) but also for anyone else who might have the same question.

For congressional offices looking to improve their online communications, one of the biggest challenges can be deciding what information to put on your website, or what's most important. We find that it can be helpful to think of the website as another district or state office which serves constituents 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. What services do your physical offices provide to constituents? What questions and concerns do they hear? Let the answers to those questions be your guide.

When I talk to citizens and grassroots advocates, one of the biggest complaints they have is that they feel like they have few avenues to participate in committee processes on the Hill. Congressman John Shimkus (R-IL), however, recently gave his constituents a unique opportunity to participate in a House Energy and Environment Subcommittee hearing.

Our friends over at the American Psychological Association recently brought to our attention a publication created by their affiliate, the California Psychological Association, entitled ''A Legislator's Guide: Communicating with Distressed Constituents.' (PDF-418 KB) The document was authored by clinical psychologist Sandra R. Harris, Ph.D. and was originally created and distributed to members of the California State Legislature. The information that it provides, however, translates well to the challenges Members of Congress and congressional staff face at the federal level when assisting constituents with casework requests, taking constituent comments over the phone, or answering constituent letters or emails.

Managing Constituent Communications

DO's...

• Do be proactive to reduce the volume of incoming constituent mail. Keep constituents informed through a comprehensive and user-friendly website and regular email and social media updates.

• Do assess the priority of mail in your office. It is counterproductive to assign mail a high priority and then fail to devote the resources to answer it appropriately.

• Do adopt the CMF Mail System, which enables an office to answer 85% of mail with pre-approved form letters in about one week.

• Do recognize that timeliness is of the utmost importance to constituents. A prompt one-page response is more desirable than a longer, more detailed response received several weeks later.

• Do treat mail backlogs as an office problem, not an individual staffer’s problem. It is the Member’s reputation at stake, not the staff’s.

• Do adhere to a consistent and timely process for the logging and coding of constituent interactions. Such a scheme will enable you to better track and respond to the needs of constituents.

• Do respond via email. More and more offices are replying to any constituent message (regardless of incoming method) with email if they have an email address on file.

DON'Ts...

• Don't ignore the expectations of constituents. Email has made people expect a faster reply and shorter responses.

• Don't discount the concerns of emailers. Most of them are just as committed to their issues as traditional postal writers.

• Don't view mail as simply something to react to. If you do, you will become a content provider instead of legislating, conducting outreach and district/state projects, and meeting the larger needs of constituents.

• Don't fail to establish clear mail policies. Consider: the purpose of responding; the quality of replies; desired turnaround; which mail to answer; Member involvement; the involvement of communications staff; and standard formats.

• Don't allow the Member to slow the mail approval process. When the Member regularly functions as a mail logjam, they must rethink the priority of speedy mail turnaround, or come up with a strategy to approve mail more quickly.

• Don't violate House and Senate rules governing mass communications and email — both solicited and unsolicited — which can result in Ethics Committee investigations, financial penalties, and harmful press coverage.

Details

Copyright 2020, Congressional Management Foundation
Paperback/Softcover: 312 pages
Publisher: Congressional Management Foundation; 17^th edition (November 3, 2020)
ISBN: 978-1-930473-24-9
Dimensions: 7.5 x 9.25 inches

• Download the entire book in PDF: Setting Course: A Congressional Management Guide - 117th Congress Edition(2.6 MB)

Pricing for Hardcopies

Bulk Price (10+ copies): $25.00 $22.50 (10% off)

*No charge for congressional offices. Please contact us at 202-546-0100 or This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it  if you don't have a complimentary copy in your office.