THE ART OF GETTING AND UTILIZING CONTACT INFORMATION ON WORSHIP ATTENDEES

A dependable follow up system is one of the most critical elements in developing and sustaining a high retention of first time worship attendees.  Worship service content quality, onsite hospitality, quality of facility and quality of children's ministry are four other very important elements.  But nothing is more important than follow up.  And follow up is impossible without a dependable conduit of information about our visitors flowing into the hands of the leadership team.  

Many people who walk into worship services don't want to give us a lot of information the first few times they attend.  This is okay.  They will reveal themselves when they trust us.  In other cases, the ways we collect personal information is so awkward that people are not able to get their information to us.  This is not okay.  Asking people to fill out a card for the offering basket some 30 seconds before the offering almost guarantees no one can complete the card in time.  So it goes in their purse.  Passing a register down the row, so that everyone around them can read their information, creeps some people out, so they either skip it or sign only their name (without any contact info).

Here are some good practices for getting information on new attendees.

1. Take the information on the household at the children's ministry drop-off desk.  Taking such information communicates that we take our responsibility as care-takers of their kids very seriously.  This can be a golden information source.

2. Offer a gift to first time attendees - something good enough for someone to want to take home, not too expensive, and hopefully not silly.  They simply sign a welcome card to get the gift.  Easy enough.

3. Put a communication card in the worship program.  If you want to use the kind that 'tears off' then you can ask everyone to tear on the count of three.  This enables people to share more than simply personal contact data.  It also enables them to give feedback to the lead team, and to share prayer requests.

4. If you have people working the room for quality conversations with new folks, it is usually appropriate after a very warm conversation, to look someone up on Facebook and seek to friend them, but only after a really good conversation (not after a quick, nervous conversation).

5. You can (in worship) invite people to text a certain phone number as a way of sharing a prayer request, answering a question from the preacher, or sharing interest in a particular project or activity.  Always ask people to include their name on such texts, so we know who we are talking to.  And save the information!

The team that collects data on new attendees should have an established pipeline of all such information flowing to a central place.  Consider using a Google doc as the central place that multiple welcome team members can access.  Another online team project management tool is www.asana.com.  Everyone on the team can add information to the file, which will include the history of a person's attendance and of our multiple experiences contacting them. Then it is important that we respond appropriately.  This will vary somewhat according to church size and cultural context.  But I recommend that a church have a standard response to each person/household after their first recorded visit, their second, third, fourth and so on.  The response should be varied from one visit to the next.  It is wise to respond to the most direct contact information first.   For example, phone numbers are much more direct than email, which is more direct than Facebook, which is probably considered more direct than physical street address (for snail mail).  Each recorded attendance and each response on our part should be collected under a person's name.

For example you may seek to leave a phone message with anyone who gives you a phone number, or share a live call with them thanking them for attending.  Do this within 24 hours.   You may ask them to like your church on Facebook in the service, or as soon as they give you their Facebook contact, respond to them on Facebook.   After their second visit, they should receive a letter from the teaching pastor, either by email or snail mail.  After the third visit, try again for a phone call, and if it goes to voice mail, text them  Anyone who texts the church for any reason should be texted back within a few hours.  Period.  It takes a team to oversee this visitor response system.  In churches with very good small group systems, it will be important to note in these records when a person joins a small group.  When membership or Next Steps classes are offered, you have a very good data base for who you might wish to invite.

It is not Rocket Science.  But I am amazed how many churches with a high visitor volume have inadequate systems in place in order to systematically build relationships with the people God sends into their midst.