Churches that have a clear follow up plan for first time church visitors know that their follow up all starts with inviting your first time guests to fill out a church connection card.
Without the information on that card, churches will struggle to inviting that anonymous church visitor to take next steps. [Read more…] about 8 Church Connection Card Templates
Our family was the first time church visitor as a result of moving our home office to the state of Florida.
We visited a few churches around our new little area of Port St. Lucie.
Since we have no church going friends in this city, we are dependent upon advertisements and the internet to find a church.
We share some of first time visitor experiences here, here, here, here, and here. Due to my teaching schedule this fall, I have not made another first time visit.
I have written before about different ways to follow up on church visitors, but want to share with you some current life experiences of followup letters. [Read more…] about Send Your First Time Church Visitor a Followup Letter
Last month, I posted an entry on Surveying 1st Time Church Visitors to help improve your church’s welcoming.
I contacted each church mentioned and discovered the effect of such an online first time visitor survey was a zero.
One church visitor survey was a broken link.
The second church visitor survey for first time visitors was removed since I couldn’t find it on the website.
The 3rd church visitor survey wasn’t used nor promoted by the church for a year or so, leaving only one of the four functioning.
In conversations with the webmaster, I learned that not too many people fill it out because there is no effective means of getting visitors to fill it out.
The question is:
Why would church visitors come back to fill it out?
The people who wrote
Fusion: Turning First-Time Guests into Fully-Engaged Members of Your Church
have an answer.
They actually use online visitor surveys and have been very successful in getting them completed.
Visitors who leave an email address on the visitor card get an personalized email on Monday from the pastor who taught that week, with a link directly to the first time church visitor survey webpage.
This begs the question — how do they get an email address from visitors?
That church uses a response card system, where everyone fills out a response card (sometimes called a connection card), not just the visitors. When people enter the sanctuary, they receive a program (bulletin in church speak), a pen, and a response card.
At an appropriate time in the service, everyone, including members and regular attenders are invited to fill it out and place it in the offering basket.
The hospitality team processes the cards and by Monday afternoon around 3, the first time visitors get the email from the pastor who taught that Sunday. In that email is a link to a short survey and they have found a pretty good click thru rate.
Let me ask you this:
What do you do to make contact with visitors that come to your church?
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