3 Reasons Why Visitor Follow-up is Critical

My family recently visited a nearby mega church because a family friend was speaking during a part of the church service. We have friends that attend this church, we know people in leadership there, and the church has a thriving Christian school where many youth in our area attend. That said, the way in which they followed up with us – because we registered our kids for their classes – was very nice. It caused me to ponder on visitor follow up, and why this is critical for churches:

1) Reason One: Visitors need you to start the conversation. Visitor follow up is critical because if the church is going to draw people in to meet their needs and show them who Jesus is, you have to first get the conversation started. Now I’ll admit, sometimes people visit your church, are greeted well, sit by very friendly people who immediately invite the new couple out to lunch, and the rest is history. But we all know that isn’t really what happens most of the time. Getting the conversation started usually means that the church has to have some kind of follow up procedure in place to begin the conversation in the first place.

• What does your first time visitor follow up procedure look like?

2) Reason Two: Visitors are your opportunity to grow your church. Perhaps you aren’t driven by numbers, that’s okay. There’s a natural ebb and flow of church membership; some folks join, some folks leave. Unfortunately, this is often referred to as “the revolving door” of church attendance. Without a follow-up procedure, the cycle continues and church leadership aren’t quite sure why people come and go without really knowing what’s going on. By reaching out to visitors and current attenders, you have a huge opportunity to pull people in, let them know you care, cast a vision of where the church is going, and encourage spiritual growth.

• How will you aim to stop the “revolving door” of church attendance and

3) Reason Three: People expect you (the church) to care about them. This might sound silly – of course you care about them! But imagine for a moment that you visit a new church, you even go out on a limb to fill out a visitor card or bulletin tear off to let the church know you’re new, then you receive no communication in return. In my book, that’s called rejection. If you want to show visitors that you care about their spiritual journey, then you have to set up practices that ensure they are communicated with within a week or so of their first visit.

• How quickly do you communicate with visitors and how do you reach out? (phone, email, mail, etc.)

Technology can play a huge role in alleviating the burden of follow-up. Most church management systems have follow-up protocols built in or have customizable ways to assign follow-ups with specific pastors via your communication method of choice. Here are some of the top church software companies out there that can get you started with figuring out a method to your church’s follow-up madness:

• Church Community Builder – Here’s a great success story on growth via first-time visitors.
• Fellowship One – Recently acquired Connection Power.
• Bellevue Church Management System – Church plant shares success.
• IconCMO – Just launched the first iPad Web App for churches.

Additionally, companies like ServiceU that offer online event registration, online giving, and other events management solutions offer the ability to capture first timer data – whether from events or donations – so that church staff can follow up with them in the future.

Lastly, BombBomb is a great company that offers church-focused video email marketing and integrates with man of the church software companies above to make reaching out via email more streamlined and less of a hassle.

Below is just a bulleted list of methods to use for communication. I’d love to hear what you’re already using or planning to use in your ministry!

• Personal Email
• Email newsletters
• Video email newsletters or individual communication with video email
• Phone calls
• Direct mail
• Personal letters or cards
• Personal invitations
• Visitation

Lauren Hunter is a freelance writer, church technology consultant (http://lhpr.net) and founder of the blog ChurchTechToday (http://ChurchTechToday.com), Technology for Today’s Church.