Pastors and church staff know that developing a system to follow up and engage people from outreach to connection is important. But, their hodge-podge system of spreadsheets, sticky-notes, calendar entries, and other softweware feels scattered and clunky.
We get it, we felt the same way about our follow-up of churches interested in our software. Many years ago we invested in learning from best-in-business professionals how to make sure we care for people well. What we learned informed the development of our software and training for churches.
In most churches, the process starts by identifying the three primary signs that indicate someone is ready to take a next step toward connection. For outreach that sign is first time attendance. For guests it is enrollment in a new members class. For members it is serving and/or joining a small group. There are other questions and interests people have, but clarifying the importance of these three is really important.
Once the signs are clearly identified, a communication strategy has to be developed to respond to the person's interest and to help them move toward the next step. We call this relationship building process a workflow--a series of emails, texts, personal contacts, and database actions--that address questions people may have and relationships they want to build with the church.
The church Connection Card is the primary vehicle for initiating these follow up workflows. Through it contact information, questions, prayer requests, and other interests are captured. It has been around for decades and has become a vital part of church communication.
Connection cards are usually cardstock flyers placed in seat back pockets or handed out by greeters. However, more and more churches are turning to digital connection cards like the ones we help our clients put together.
Here are 5 reasons digital connection cards are a sound strategy for initiating connection.
Many people use their phone for their Bible, sermon notes, registrations, and giving. It is always within reach if not in their hands, so why not use it for connection?
If you are using paper cards you probably have to provide pens as well. Why do you do that? Because people don't carry pens anymore. But, they always have their phone.
For most people a digital version is more familiar and more convenient. But, keep the cards handy for those who prefer them. We make it easy to manually enter their information and responses from the cards. How to enter data manually .
The challenge with paper connection cards has always been reading people's handwriting. When guests enter their information directly into the database from their phone it is likely to be more accurate. Auto-fill features on phones can even speed up the process.
If members use Text-to-Church to get their connection card, the system recognizes them by their phone number and prepopulates all the fields that it has information for them. This is not only more accurate, but way more convenient.
A digital connection card also gives you the option to make certain information required.
In today's world people attend worship services both live and by streaming online. In addition they listen to archived sermons from your website or Youtube.
Digital connection cards make it possible for people to respond the exact same way no matter when they're listening or from which channel they are invited to respond. No more worrying about remembering an email address or phone number to make their requests known.
Let them use their phone.
One of the things we built into Churchteams that we learned from using professional sales software like Hubspot and Salesforce is the ability for churches to create a follow-up "pipeline." This is a series of emails, texts, personal contacts (reminders), and database actions that the software itself schedules and initiates.
Most churches already have some sort of process in place. Setting up a workflow in Churchteams just helps them put all the pieces together intentionally and in one place instead of them being spread out on calendars, cards, spreadsheets, and sticky notes.
Once you have it set up, link it to the appropriate response on the Connection card, and as soon as that response is saved, the system executes the workflow. How to setup a workflow.
In our weekly Meet The Software webinar we talk about how staff are using so many different tools to track and follow up process. Then we show attendees how Churchteams empowers them by bringing all of these together in one place.
I often use the navy seal mantra, "Slow is smooth. Smooth is fast." to emphasize the importance of thoughtfully creating communication pieces and personal assignments. Once the slow part is done, staff will be able to thrive.
Everyone will know and see their part. Reports and intentional conversations will lead to confidence and continual improvement.
If you would like to learn more join us for Meet the Software and/or start a 30-day trial. Both are free and give us the chance to meet you, hear your story, and learn how we might be able to help you