In the last post we surveyed the history of business (A2P) texting. We learned that initially A2P texting was available either for thousands of dollars per month using short codes or free using email.  That left a wide gap for the innovation that rolled out in 2021 called 10 digit long code (10DLC) texting. 

Churchteams provides both free (through email) and paid (through 10DLC) texting that we branded Text-to-Church (T2C).  But, when should you use free texting and when should you use T2C?  Here are some things to consider. 

 As common as it is now, it wasn't until 2014 that texting surpassed calling as the go to method for Person to Person (P2P) tele-communication in the United States. 

But there is another type of texting called Application to Person (A2P) texting. This is commonly thought of as Business Texting.  There are companies that provide this service as a stand alone for businesses or churches.   As technology continues to aggregate, many relational databases like Churchteams have implemented the same A2P functionality in their product.  This is a big win for the end user.

Over time data has a tendency to drift off the road and even crash.  The application itself might be fine, but the data is a wreck. When this happens, those depending on it no longer trust it, and start looking for something new.  

One popular solution is to put a sentry at the gate of the database.  This person is responsible for all data entry, reports, and maintenance.  This solution helps keep data safe, but it also creates a bottleneck on use of the data.  Like an accident on a 4 lane highway narrowing traffic down to one lane, church staff end up looking for detours to get their work done.  Pretty soon the staff has data in so many locations they find themselves once again lacking trust in the core data.

We've felt for a long time that the database itself could become a decentralized sentry.  We built reminder emails (groups, volunteers, payments) to make sure data is consistently collected.  We built scheduled reports to automate communication of information.  

We've also started building guardrails designed to keep data from getting wrecked.  In fact, we've released seven of these in the past couple of months.  Here they are along with a few other new releases.

The other day I did a podcast on using ChMS for discipleship with my friends at Missional Marketing.  I have loved learning from them and thought you might as well.  So, I asked them to write a guest blog post for me. 

This morning we released an upgrade to automate important database changes that need to happen when someone is marked as deceased.  Usually this comes up because a surviving family member has received a letter, an email, a giving statement or some other communication that includes their deceased loved one's name or other information. 

While shopping online I recently found a table that I thought might look nice in our breakfast nook.  It was well after office hours, but there was a number to text.  I sent the text and got an automated message saying they would get back with me the following morning.  They did, and apologized about not responding more quickly.  It was 51 minutes after they opened!  I was impressed.

Last week I introduced the process one of our raving fan churches is going through as their team seriously evaluates our texting capabilities.  I shared three of their key questions and my responses to each one. 

Here are their final three questions and my responses.  They may be your questions too.  

I reached out to one of our top customers who had been on our beta version of Mass Texting (free) through Text-to-Church.  They know the potential of the service from the beta, and are currently doing a cost / benefit analysis of the service now that it is fully operational.

They sent me six insightful questions that everyone looking at the potential for texting in their church should ask.  Here are the first three.

Note: Churchteams partners with CLI to help church leaders develop effective systems for ministry.   

Happy week after Easter.  You likely spent a lot of time preparing for last Sunday and now it's over.  Hopefully, you had a lot of guests and collected their information. 

I know you're exhausted, but you really need to follow up with these people. You'll be tempted to do something simple like a single "thank you" letter or email to invite them back.  But, you worked so hard!  Why not take follow up to a new level by setting up a drip campaign to continue to serve them?  The difference is bigger than you think and it's easier to do than you think.

The development team has been busy responding to requests and upgrading the system.  This first one has been requested a lot and will speed up check-in for events where pre-registration was required and you want to have everything ready as soon as people arrive.  No electronic check-in required.

1. Pre-print check-in name tags and security labels.
2. Disable Text-to-Chat.
3. Two word keywords for Text-to-Church.
4. New email editor options.
5. Report filters by next month dates for workflows.
6. Include "Fees Covered" on financial reports.

Text-to-Chat is the new environment for exploring creative church communication possibilities.  Last time we we looked at the top three ways roundtable participants thought they would use it.

This week, we'll look at four other ideas we came up with.  These are not as tried and true, but they are a bit more creative and have pretty significant potential.