London Stop Smoking Conference
7th February 2011
Pete Thompson
Interim head of Behaviour Change, CSL
Recruitment to smokefree services
Local – the majority of recruitment occurs at the local level and relies
on effective relationships with a wide variety of stakeholders including
referrals from GPs, pharmacies, dentists, mental health providers,
secondary care, prisons, schools etc.
Regional – London regional activity has aimed to support recruitment
by running ad hoc London wide seasonal marketing campaigns that
raise awareness at regional level, recruit smokers and pass their
details to local services to follow up.
National – National activity run by the Department for Health provides
a national source of awareness and recruitment to stop smoking
services via marketing campaigns, national media coverage and a
telephone helpline
Evaluation of Spring 2010 London recruitment campaign
Each London PCT adopted one type of engagement method:
Roving
ASDA
Pharmacy Roving
Areas within the PCT with
a high penetration of
R&M workers were
targeted for field
marketing.
Identified by EMO ‘heat
maps’.
3
The roving method generated the highest volume of response
25,000
20,000
Response Volume
15,000
10,000
5,000
0
Total Contacts (Total
Response)
Leaflets Handed Out (Valid
Response)
Leads generated
(Intermediate Conv Level 1)
ASDA
13,035
1,807
1,116
PHARMACY
17,650
2,004
1,212
ROVING
22,650
2,825
1,150
 Roving activity generates the highest volume of overall contacts (total response), but this
does not translate into higher volumes of leads (Intermediate conversion L1).
4
ASDA activity was more effective at encouraging respondents to sign up
for contact from their LSSS
16%
14%
14%
12%
Response Conversion Rate
12%
11%
10%
9%
8%
7%
6%
5%
4%
2%
0%
Leaflets Handed Out (Valid Response)
Leads generated (Intermediate Conv Level 1)
ASDA
14%
9%
PHARMACY
11%
7%
ROVING
12%
5%
Pharmacy and ASDA activity were better than roving activity at converting
contacts into leads – principally driven by immediate referrals.
5
ASDA activity drove the highest number of successful smoking quitters
14,000
12,000
10,000
Response Volume
8,000
6,000
4,000
2,000
0
Total Contacts
(Total
Response)
Leaflets
Handed Out
(Valid
Response)
Leads
generated
(Intermediate
Conv Level 1)
Appointment
Set
(Intermediate
Conv Level 2)
Appointment
Attended
(Intermediate
Conv Level 3)
Quit (Full
Conversion)
ASDA
9,185
1,362
792
422
61
30
PHARMACY
8,700
1,220
709
170
32
10
12,850
1,052
514
44
8
2
ROVING
 High drop off from Intermediate Conv L2 to Full Conversion – this is due to immediate
appointments not being followed up through the PCTs.
 We may be under-reporting large number of quits generated by ASDA / Pharmacy activity!
6
Response overview – breakdown by follow-up method:
Response
Level
Description
Standard
LSSS*
SMS &
LSSS
SMS &
Telemarketer
Total Spend
Inc management fee, print,
production, uniforms, field
work, SMS, digi-pen
reporting, training &
telemarketers
£25,725
£20,968
£33,285
Intermediate
Conv L2
Appointments set
124
158
206
Intermediate
Conv L3
Appointments
attended
26
33
42
Full
Conversion
Quits smoking
7
15
20
7
ASDA engagement method is more effective across all follow-up
methods
100%
86%
Appointment Setting Conversion Rate
90%
77%
80%
70%
64%
60%
50%
40%
33%
37%
28%
30%
20%
15%
14%
17%
10%
0%
Asda
Standard LSSS
Pharmacy
SMS & LSSS
Roving
SMS & Telemarketer
 ASDA is always the most effective venue for lead conversion regardless of follow-up method.
 SMS & Telemarketer is always most effective follow-up method regardless of engagement method.
8
Key Findings
Using SMS follow-up method appears to improve conversion rates:
 Both follow-up methods using SMS mechanism have improved conversion rates.
 This is most pronounced at Full Conversion level
 Both SMS & LSSS and SMS & Telemarketer follow-up method are at least 50% more
effective at driving leads through to quitting than the standard LSSS approach.
 Using telemarketers delivers a higher conversion volume – but at a higher cost. Using
LSSS staff with the SMS follow-up is more cost effective (but will not deliver volume).
OVERALL:
 Roving is most cost effective engagement method for making initial contacts
 ASDA appears the most effective engagement method for conversion through the
response hierarchy
 The SMS & Telemarketers folllow-up method appears most effective for driving leads
through to quitting smoking.
9
Most leads claim talking to field marketers about their Local NHS Stop
Smoking Services has motivated them to stop smoking
The average lead said they were now motivated at a score of 8 on a scale of 1 -10 :

Overwhelmingly talking to field marketers appeared to provide significant
motivation to stopping smoking.

Less than 5% of leads said they did not feel motivation to quit smoking after
talking with field marketers (rating lower than 5 out of 10).

There were no differences between men and women and their motivation levels.

Only those leads that went on to quit smoking rated their motivation to quit higher
than the average score of 8 out of 10.

Leads acquired through ASDA activity claimed slightly higher motivation levels
than those during Roving or Pharmacies – this is borne out in the conversion
rates for ASDA leads.
We should however, consider whether leads answer questions put to them by field
marketers honestly.
10
Feedback from PCTs - A summary of recommendations
….
Planning
Briefing
Implementation
Consult LSSS earlier in
the process and use their
knowledge of local area to
optimise timing and
location of activity
Run face to face briefings
with LSSS
Encourage involvement at
F2F activity – face to face
teams should contact
LSSS before activity to
talk through the day
Set up a panel of LSSS to
engage in planning
Understand what PCTs
want - do they want F2F
activity? what type of
activity do they want?
Give LSSS the option of
what acquisition and
follow up method they use
Map local, regional and
national activity and share
with LSSS to avoid
clashes in activity
Issue briefing pack to
support face to face brief
Sell in the benefits of the
campaign
Include a description of
the activity/follow up/ data
capture - clearly outline
roles and responsibilities
Have a single point of
contact for pushing out
information
Provide data capture
sheets and a description
of data required at initial
briefing and emphasis
importance
Provide mechanism for
LSSS to feedback on F2F
activity to drive
engagement
Provide additional
resource for follow up
Evaluation
Make business case for all
LSSS to have electronic
databases
Provide additional resource
for lead tracking
Standardise data tracking
sheets
Deliver leads to LSSS
electronically where possible
Schedule data requests so
they do not coincide
Investigate potential of
populating tracking sheets
with unique number
Regional recruitment in London summary
Street roving very good at engaging with large numbers of smokers,
but conversion to quit is relatively poor. Room for improved contact
management to encourage access to service at later date when
smoker ready.
Engaging clearly good but justification of spend v impact on actual
quits?
Static stands in areas with high prevalence of routine and manual
smokers deliver lower volume than roving but more effective in
conversion to quit.
Because individual smokers are on a journey, there are times when
they are more motivated to quit than others.
Vary from smoker to smoker, when recruiting smokers to services they
may not be sufficiently motivated immediately, so services would
benefit from effective contact management strategy
Mystery shopping of Stop Smoking Services in London
In spring 2010, ten mystery shop calls were made to each
of the 29 stop smoking services in London
At the first attempt, six in ten (63%) were able to speak to
a call handler. For the 102 calls which were answered by
a machine, 100 were able to leave a message.
53% of those leaving a message on the machine were not
called back within a seven day cut-off period
Only 28% were called back within 24 hours.
Mystery shopping of Stop Smoking Services in London
Feedback about the call handlers themselves is quite positive – they
are considered to be friendly and succeed in making the callers feel
comfortable. However, helpfulness. Knowledge and enthusiasm could
be improved
Four in ten callers were given the opportunity by the call handler to
book an appointment with an advisor or group while three in ten were
provided with a number or encouraged to call the service back.
Of those who were given the option of postal information, four in ten
had still not received anything after the 7 day cut-off point. SSS must
ensure that any information requested gets to the callers efficiently.
Potential quitters may lose determination if requested help is not forth
coming
Recommendations from London regional campaigns
Business case for regional level recruitment campaigns not
clear
Costs v number of quits not compelling, but data issues…
Paper based contact management system needs to be
replaced by electronic if ever to be properly effective
£ value of engagement?
If planning on street or location based recruitment activity use
geo demographic tools such as ACORN to help target the
correct locations for recruiting routine and manual workers if
don’t know local area well
Understand the costs at a local level of different methods of
recruitment of smokers to services, bearing in mind health
inequalities
Recommendations from London regional campaigns
Costs of retention vs acquisition – is the balance of
resources correct?
How cost effective methods of recruitment can be
expanded to provide more leads
Database ability to accurately record details of ‘prospects’
from recruitment to outcome and seamlessly allow transfer
of data
At times when have more potential recruits to stop
smoking services than resource to deal with immediately
have a contact strategy in place to keep prospects warm,
for example, text a confirmation acknowledging contact
and follow up phone calls.