Brandon Kelley
This post on building a church guest follow-up system is written by MJ from Text in Church.
Having a church guest follow-up strategy is as crucial as water for survival. It helps the churches to maintain the visitors and welcomes more guests if you’re using the right follow-up strategy. Without a proper follow-up plan, you’re in a boat in an ocean with no rows!
Why do you need a church guest follow-up system?
With the help of a church guest follow-up system, a church is able to make the guest feel at home. It nourishes the concept that the guest’s visit was worthy and the church is grateful to have the guest. A strong follow-up strategy encourages revisits from a guest. In some cases, these revisits open doors to the family or friends of the guest as well. Tell me why you don’t need to follow-up your guest now?
5 Steps to Build A Great Church Guest Follow-up System
Step # 1 Collect your visitor’s data
How do you know you have to follow-up a visitor if you haven’t done your homework at his visit? When a new visitor comes to church, the most important thing is to collect data from the guest. The process should be friendly and polite and should not make the guest uncomfortable at all.
The basic information can be collected via connection cards at the kiosks or he can subscribe to your church text messaging service. Once you have their data, you can move forward towards your church visitor follow-up strategy.
Step # 2 Know about your guests
You can know about your guest by personal conversations. Know about his visit. Keep these questions in mind to collect the basic information:
- Why is he here?
- Has he lost someone special?
- Is he going through a trauma?
- Has he moved into this area?
- Does he have the hobby to visit churches in the past?
- Has he experienced a life-changing event?
The information helps to curate a personally follow-up welcome letter for your visitor keeping in mind the background history you took in a friendly manner.
Step # 3 Devise follow-up channels
Now that you have necessary information, it’s time to devise your guest follow-up channels. There are four basic follow-up channels you can use to connect with your visitors:
- Letters
Hand written letters are always a good way to make a first-time visitor feel important. A Pastor can write a letter to the guest. The channel is an amazing way to connect with all generations as it is personally curated. - Emails
If you prefer sending detailed information about your church, emails are a great option for that. Luckily, technology has made it possible to have email access to all generations. - Text Messaging
Text messages are always a win-win whether your visitor is old or young and might initiate a response. You can make your guests subscribe to your text system as well. - Phone Calls
For a meaningful touch, phone calls can be a great option. It is very important to take care of the timings of the calls as you don’t want to disturb your visitor at work hours. It’s one of the best ways to initiate a detailed response.
The guest follow-up channels differ as per the guests’ demographics, data and personal information so you have to be smart here before choosing the channel.
Step # 4 Make them feel at home
Once you’re successful in making your guest revisit, it’s your duty to make them feel at home. Introduce them to others. Make them come to your luncheons and church gatherings. It’s a great way to build connections among the new visitors and old ones.
You can also arrange a separate luncheon for new comers so that they get a chance to know each other. The healthier relationships among the visitors, the more friendships are nourished.
Step # 5 Trust Technology
Last but not least, trust technology. You don’t and you can’t do everything at your own. You need to adopt technological advancements in your guest follow-up system. There are a lot of softwares that can help you do your work in minutes.
A great church guest follow-up strategy can benefit your church in amazing ways. Not only it is an amazing way to make your guests feel special but promises permanent church visitors. A win-win for all!
MJ is an SEO expert working at Text In Church, a great church communication tool, and loves to write occasionally. He loves mountains and believes in the power of kindness, empathy and honesty.
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