'Alexa, Contact My Legislator'

Large swaths of Americans have been compelled to become more involved in civic life since the election of Donald Trump. The well-attended and engaging town halls across the country are proof of their discontent.

“We will keep you accountable,” elected officials are being told.

But if you can’t make a town hall, phone calls or social media messages are the next best option. We can now contact our local officials without even knowing who they are or what number to reach them. Just use Phone2Action — and particularly their integration with Amazon’s Alexa.

“Alexa, use Phone2Action to contact my legislator,” any Alexa user can say once they have downloaded the Phone2Action custom skill on their Alexa app.

Alexa then calls your phone and patches you in with a call to your legislator. From there, you can ask someone on the legislator’s staff about any issue that is on your mind, or simply offer praise.

“People are contacting lawmakers for all kinds of issues. An issue we see lots of interest in is ride-sharing for people attending SXSW since ride-sharing is no longer allowed in Austin,” Gerardo Gomez, product engineer at Phone2Action told Marketing Politics Daily.

Phone2Action expects to expand with Google Home capabilities as well.

“Voice is the interface of the future,” he added. “Voice-activated, hands-free devices are a key part of the IoT movement. Voice, decoupled from your phone, is becoming a key way to interact with all the technology in your home, your automobile, and your office.”

The goal is making advocacy increasingly available to anyone who feels the need to take action.

“People want to act, and act now based on all kinds of triggers. You may be making dinner and see an article on the news that makes you want to take action. Or driving in your car having a conversation with your friend,” Gomez noted.

“This is where the power of voice comes in. We like to build tools that ‘meet advocates where they are’ by finding new ways to make advocacy easy and accessible.”

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