(P-BC-57) Texting volunteer blood donors ages 17-65 improved appointments to donate per hour and donor show rate.  

Blood centers employ telerecruiters (TR) who are accountable for telephone recruitment activities by communicating blood program needs to potential blood donors and booking them for their next blood donations.

Telephone connect rates in 2020 were 10.5% while end of year 2023 dropped to 6.8%. If the TR make 100 outbound calls, they are connecting with only six to seven donors. This challenge was addressed with a new strategy to send a text message instead of calling to book an appointment. Number of connects, appointments per hour and show rate for their scheduled appointment were determined.

Study

Design/Methods:

A personalized text message included the donor’s name (who was enrolled in text messaging), their last donation site, and an ask to book their next appointment was created and sent to individuals ages 17-65 via CRM(ConnecText) from 06/01/2023 to 03/31/2024.  If the donor responded to book an appointment, it was coded as CTAP (ConnecText Appointment). The CTAP code was used to track appointments and overall appointments per hour (APH). The impact was evaluated by responsiveness to the personalized text and scheduling their next donation via text. The donor connect rate (Right Party Connect RPC), APH, and show rate for their appointment were collected and compared to previous year’s results using traditional phone calls.

Results/Findings:

 Personalized text messages sent to 1164 volunteer whole blood donors instead of a phone call resulted in nearly 61% (708/1164) of donors scheduling appointments. The appointments booked via text had a 79.62% show rate as compared to 74% via outbound calling over the same period. Donor age impacted results with 0 appointments from the age group 17-24. For the 3 TR texting donors their overall APH increased to 1.88% on average 38% greater than phone calls.

Conclusions:

Personalized text messages increased blood donation appointments booked, overall APH by TRs and show rates as compared to outbound phone calls.