{"id":2414,"date":"2017-02-22T20:08:37","date_gmt":"2017-02-22T20:08:37","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/web.sweeppea.com\/blog\/?p=2414"},"modified":"2021-08-08T22:22:56","modified_gmt":"2021-08-08T22:22:56","slug":"happens-cant-reach-sweepstakes-winner","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/web.sweeppea.com\/blog\/happens-cant-reach-sweepstakes-winner\/","title":{"rendered":"What Happens When You Can&#8217;t Reach Your Sweepstakes Winner?"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">You\u2019ve selected a winner for your sweepstakes and now they aren\u2019t responding to any of your attempts to get them to come forward and claim the prize. So what happens when you can\u2019t reach the winner?<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Believe it or not, this is a common problem with sweepstakes. Either the company can\u2019t reach the winner or they leave messages and the winner doesn\u2019t get back to them in time. <\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Here\u2019s what to do to ensure that your sweepstakes isn\u2019t derailed by a winner who has gone missing in action.<\/span><\/p>\n<h3><strong>Include Guidelines for Official Winners<\/strong><\/h3>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Your official rules should state how many days winners have to respond and what will happen if a winner doesn\u2019t respond. At Sweeppea, we help clients build rules that say that the potential winner has a number of days\u00a0to respond.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The amount of time you give winners to respond can vary, but it shouldn\u2019t be too long. Also, the Official Rules will usually have a date by when you will\u00a0publicly announce a winner, so you need to keep this in mind, as well.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">If no response is received, then the rules should state that the company will select another winner. This helps companies avoid any legal problems and helps to keep things moving along for the sweepstakes so you\u00a0can publicly announce a winner in time.<\/span><\/p>\n<h3><strong>Steps to Follow When Winners Don\u2019t Respond<\/strong><\/h3>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">In some cases, not all is lost when a winner doesn\u2019t respond. In fact, steps you can take include:<\/span><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Wording the language of your campaign so that any person who is chosen is only a \u201cpotential winner\u201d until they are confirmed as the winner.<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Giving winners notice by phone message or email that they have &#8220;X&#8221; number of hours to respond (whatever time frame you decide to give them per your Official Rules) from when they are first contacted or the company will have to choose another winner.<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Once that time is up, randomly select another winner and inform them they also have &#8220;X&#8221; hours to respond.<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>When\u00a0the potential winner responds, <a href=\"https:\/\/web.sweeppea.com\/blog\/automatic-winner-drawing-make-sense-manual-winner-drawing-make-sense\/\">verify the winner<\/a> to ensure they meet the Official Rules or criteria (over 18, US resident, etc.).<\/p>\n<h3><strong>Add a Pre-Sweep Step<\/strong><\/h3>\n<p>Adding a pre-sweep step ensures that your rules have a provision for this response period\u00a0to protect your company. \u00a0Our Official Rules Wizard includes this provision to protect our customers.<\/p>\n<p>Asking for your participants\u2019 email addresses is another pre-sweep step is to consider. Our t<span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">ext-to-wins automatically collect mobile numbers, but your online form could also collect emails as well. <\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Mobile phone is the best method of contact, but it doesn\u2019t hurt to have\u00a0another option.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><em>Reserve Your Sweepkey<\/em> now to get started in 10 minutes or less.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>You\u2019ve selected a winner for your sweepstakes and now they aren\u2019t responding to any of your attempts to get them &#8230; <a title=\"What Happens When You Can&#8217;t Reach Your Sweepstakes Winner?\" class=\"read-more\" href=\"https:\/\/web.sweeppea.com\/blog\/happens-cant-reach-sweepstakes-winner\/\" aria-label=\"More on What Happens When You Can&#8217;t Reach Your Sweepstakes Winner?\">Read more &#8594;<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":5256,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[7,10],"tags":[229,232,231,228,230],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO Premium plugin v17.0 (Yoast SEO v21.3) - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>What Happens When You Can&#039;t Reach Your Sweepstakes Winner? 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