Hello! I wanted to share with you my experiences of Visitor Cards. Visitor Cards or First Time Guest Cards or Connection Cards or… whatever you choose to call them play a very strong part in connecting a person into your church. However, some churches seem to miss the point of the Connection Card. The Connection Card is about the individual and not about finding what marketing efforts are working for your church. As well, it’s not solely about “How did we do?”
Here are some questions from some Connection Cards that I’ve seen over the last couple of years that lean to “It’s all about the church”:
The following are from one Connection Card:
· How did you hear about the church?
· Rate your experience.
· What part of today’s service did you enjoy most? Why?
· What part of today’s service did you enjoy least? Why?
· Will you visit us again?
From one church, they simply only have one question:
· How You Heard About Us? The possible choices are then listed on the card.
These are actual examples of questions on visitor cards. It’s OK to ask 1-2 questions about how they heard about the church or their worship service experience. However, it has to be secondary to the needs of the visitor and not a primary focus. Honestly, a Comment section usually takes care of the worship service experience question as most people will definitely let you know what they thought. Too hot, too cold, too loud, I didn’t like Pastor’s suit, shirt, jeans, etc.
Having run a small business myself for 4 years I know how important it is to know where my marketing dollars were being spent and how effective they were. I also wanted feedback on how well my company performed. However, the customer’s needs or in this case, the visitor’s needs, must come above your business needs. We must learn what their needs are quickly and to the point.
The church may only get this one chance to find out the needs of this person.
Please check out my next blog entry where I’ll discuss how much information that we can ask on the Connection Card.
Mark Lindsley
Delivery Manager