When to re-knock a territory
Re-work a territory sooner than instinct suggests, because most doors ended with nobody home rather than with a no. A second pass at a different hour reaches a substantially different set of households at the same addresses, with no new travel and no new ground. Repeating the same hour reaches the same people and wastes the pass.
The first pass mostly sampled one hour
This is the core of it. If the majority of outcomes were not-home, the first pass met a minority of households, selected by who happens to be in at that time. The area is nowhere near exhausted.
Change the hour, not the area
A second pass at the same time of day re-meets the same population and confirms what you already knew. Shifting by a few hours changes who is behind the doors more than moving to a new neighbourhood does.
What not to re-knock
Houses that gave a firm no, and anything marked do not contact. Re-knocking those is how a worked area turns into a complaint, and it is the reason the disposition you tapped at the door matters.
Common questions
- How soon should I re-knock an area?
- Sooner than feels right. The constraint is changing the hour, not letting time pass.
- Should I re-knock houses that said no?
- Not in the same season. Not-homes are the ones worth returning to, and they are usually the majority.
- How many passes is too many?
- When a pass at a genuinely new hour stops producing conversations. Until then the area still has households you have not met.
More on territory
Turf: how areas get cut, assigned and worked without two reps hitting the same street.