Skip to main content

Prep

Establish participant communication processes with the client

It is crucial to determine how DORIS will communication with participants throughout the project. Each organization has different constraints on how to access their people, and these constraints need to be understood before a communication plan can be enacted.

  • Communication strategies should be discussed with the client liaison and/or executive contact as soon as possible after the project is sold.
  • The project lead or Operations Manager usually have these conversations.
  • Once decided, the communication channels and processes are documented in the project charter.

Even when the DORIS Mailchimp method of communication is used, clients will probably need to send some additional messages throughout the project to encourage participation. Some employees will simply not respond to an external message and may need personal contact from someone they know.

Common communication strategies

This list includes some, but not all, of the communication strategies DORIS has employed for projects. It may be necessary to create a unique workflow to meet the constraints of an organization.

    After the client sends an internal message introducing the project, DORIS sends participant updates and requests via Mailchimp. 
      This is the preferred method.  Send a message from Mailchimp to the client liaison to test how it works. Sometimes the liaison can work with their IT department to whitelist the messages if the initial test fails. All Mailchimp messages should be approved by the client liaison before sending. If the client organization has security features that block Mailchimp or otherwise hinder external messages from being delivered, DORIS can provide email content to the liaison to send via internal channels. 
        This process works well for all messages except when personal links need to be distributed for surveys. The project lead will need to know if this is the case to make a different plan for distribution. In some cases, Mailchimp emails are delivered but their images are blocked. DORIS can use plain text emails. Gmail has a mail merge function that allows emails to be sent from any DORIS email address. Sometimes this is more successful at navigating security firewalls than Mailchimp messages.