Quick-Tip #3: Automate Your Connection Card
Connection Cards.
Every church calls them something different but in one form or another, every church has them. And for good reason.
When someone visits your church for the first time, you want to collect their information so you can invite them back, answer their questions, pray for them, or get them connected with a particular ministry.
The problem is, the journey from a visitor filling out one of these infamous cards to it actually doing what it’s supposed to do can be a long and often treacherous one.
Maybe the card gets lost, accidentally taken home by a volunteer, buried on someone’s desk, or more likely forgotten or deferred through the busyness of the week.
Wouldn’t it be great if someone were to fill out that card and everything just worked automatically?
People who needed to see it got a notification in their email, the visitor's information was automatically entered into the church database and their profile was put into a connection process workflow?
So why not automate your connection card? If you use Planning Center People or another quality Church Management System, this is actually pretty easy.
Here’s what you do:
STEP 1 - DITCH THE PHYSICAL CARDS
First, ditch the physical cards. This is probably the hardest step. It may take a while and you may get a fight, but it’s totally doable.
STEP 2 - CREATE A FORM
Second, create a Form in Planning Center People with the information you want to collect from your first-time visitors. Make sure to program it to enter into a first-time visitor Workflow (also in Planning Center People).
STEP 3 - CREATE A DEDICATED PAGE
Third, create a page on your website with an obvious and simple domain slug (eg: mychurch.com/connect) and embed or link your new digital form in an obvious button.
STEP 4 - REDIRECT YOUR ANNOUNCEMENTS
Fourth, start directing all of your announcements, verbal or otherwise, to this page on your website. People who fill out the embedded form will automatically be entered into your church management system, leaders will be notified and the person will begin your connection process via planning center workflow.
