Big whooptie-stinking-doo! Your church has a rockin' website with the slickest Flash animated interpretation of Jacob wrestling with angels this side of the Jabbok River! What good does it do if it doesn’t provide the essential contact information? And what good is contact information if there’s no one to respond?
These questions of contingency are ones I've been contending with these past couple days as I prepare to head out of the country to write about the Biblical sites that abound in the Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan.
With such fresh reminders, I thought I might offer some simple steps to insure that your organization isn't accidentally ignoring inquiries from online visitors.
True Story
I recall some 15 years ago a favorite pastor of mine calling me on the phone about a printer problem. I remarked from my (then) office cubicle how impressed I was that he too was working on a Monday holiday. He quickly replied that Mondays were in fact the most important day of the week - because of the urgency to return calls and otherwise contact those who responded in one form or another to invitations, queries and questions posed during the service or during Sunday school.
He cited as his motivation the ‘Parable of the Sower’ (Matthew 13:1-8,18-23).
Thoughts of this exchange jogged my memory of a somewhat dated, but unfortunately too-true survey at Barna Research Group entitled “Most Churches Did Not Answer The Phone.”
Many churches gear up for outreach-oriented ministry during the holiday season. Thousands of churches offer seasonal musical or theatrical events, most churches have special holiday services, and a concerted effort is made to attract and welcome visitors.
But a new research study indicates that most Protestant churches have overlooked one important matter: nobody is covering the phones!
This of course leads up to the million dollar question: do you have people in place to field calls and answer questions incoming from any one of a variety of virtual inputs? If not - or even if you do but could do better - then here are some tips to remedy the situation:
Catch-all e-mail address
A catch-all email address does exactly what its name implies, catches all the email aimed at guessed and/or typo'd destinations. If you're using an email service that provides hefty spam catching, then this may be the way to go.
Otherwise, you may be better off implementing an online email form that reduces the seeker's ability to communicate - especially if one of the names/addresses on that form is identified "for everything else." Most content 'manglement' systems and/or blogging tools provide such forms, usually as plug-ins.
It also doesn't hurt to create some common aliases such as "webmaster@...", "youth@...", "pastor@..." that forwards emails to the appropriate party.
Phone Support
Likewise, you need to make sure your church website has a contacts page with the phone number. In fact, I would suggest putting the phone number on the footer of every page.
Yes, email is convenient, but if a person is surfing your site during office hours, having a phone number that is easy-to-find is not only inviting, but my make a world of difference to a member or seeker in need.
Especially if instead of offering an answering machine during off-hours, you forward that call to someone's smart phone.
Directions
I’m also a big fan of pages that offer directions to the church,
especially when they include step-by-step driving instructions, the
hours of service and are hyperlinked to online - or embedded maps. Make sure it’s easy to print on one page.
Oh yes, and include the phone number on that print-out so someone attempting to visit on a Sunday morning can cell phone your office when they get lost on the way … that is provided someone is there to take the call.
Funny Story
That last item reminds me of when I was attending Metro Baptist Church now located in beautiful Hell’s Kitchen, New York City, NY. At that time, they were still about a month or two from purchasing an old Polish Catholic Church building, so they met at the Metropolitan New York Baptist Association on 72nd Street. A large room, just adjacent to the offices.
I think I was all of 23 or 24. Sitting with some of other young singles, who were somberly sharing communion when a phone call came in. I leaned to the friend next to me and whispered “carry-out communion?” Needless to say, the repressed laughter of my friend was worth the harsh looks from some of the elderly ladies nearby.
Conclusion
Yes, I was bad. I don’t joke like that in church anymore. In fact, I’m the old geezer giving the looks these days.
That said, if you have some other steps you take to insure online inquiries don’t go ignored, please feel free to share them as a comment.
I'll try to make sure I answer each one of them as best I can even if I'll be busy half a world away adding almost-real-time content and YouTube videos over at blogJordan.com.
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