Do you struggle to get first-time visitors to come back a second time? Do you feel like visitors walk in the front door, then right out the back door of the church? Are you trying to connect visitors with the life of your church without feeling like you’re spamming them or annoying them? You need a First-Time Visitor Follow-Up System.
What is First-Time Church Visitor Follow-up?
First-Time Church Visitor Follow-up is how you communicate with someone who visits your church for the first time. Although the concept is simple, Visitor Follow-Up looks different at every church and takes some intentional work to implement.
First-Time Visitor Follow-up can include multiple communication methods. Some common followup elements are:
- A phone call to a first-time visitor
- An email thanking a visitor for visiting the church
- A text message asking if the visitor has any questions
Some churches take visitor follow-up to the next level and include a phone call from their children’s ministry leader (to visitors who bring their kids), a selfie video or audio message thanking a visitor for attending, a gift sent in the mail, or a gift dropped off at a visitor’s house.
To put it simply, first-time visitor follow-up is whatever communication or contact you have with a visitor to your church after they visit. This communication is designed to encourage the visitor to come back to the church, connect to a church ministry, or join a small group – whatever you decide is their next step. Although follow-up can vary so much from church to church, the purpose is always the same – help visitors take their next steps with your church.
Why Does First-Time Visitor Follow-Up Matter?
Why is First-Time Visitor Followup so important? Because as church leaders, our goal is to help people grow in their faith and continue to take next steps in the church. If someone visits your church and never hears back after their first Sunday, they may choose not to come back or simply forget to visit another time. Followup reminds the visitor that you exist, shows them that you care, and helps them determine their next step to connect with your church.
However, it’s important to have more than just a follow-up plan – you need a follow-up system. If your follow-up is all manual (and not built into an automated system), visitors will likely fall through the cracks. In order to have the best follow-up results, build your visitor follow-up into an automated tool that can send emails, texts, and reminders to your team. Visitor follow-up matters, and it’s important to do it in a way that’s sustainable and scalable as your church grows.
What Kind of First-Time Visitor Follow-up Should We Send?
First-Time Visitor Followup methods vary widely from church to church. Some churches send a congregation member to the visitor’s house with a freshly baked loaf of bread or cookies, although post-COVID, home visits may not be as welcomed in every community. Other churches have a series of emails, texts, and staff reminders to call or contact the visitor in another way. Your follow-up plan should be custom to your church, your leaders, and your culture and DNA.
If you’re not sure where to start, here’s the first week of a simple First-Time Visitor Follow-Up plan:
Monday morning (the day after the visitor attends)
- Send your first-time visitors a text, asking if they have any questions. Send this from a two-way texting platform or from a staff member’s personal phone number so the visitor can text back – don’t send this from an unmonitored shortcode.
- Send your first-time visitor an email from a staff member, thanking them for attending and asking if they have any questions. It’s helpful to send a similar message using two communication channels in case the visitor doesn’t often check their texts or email.
Tuesday (2 days after the visitor attends)
- Pull up a list of first-time visitors in your church staff meeting. Ask staff members if they remember meeting any of these visitors. If you notice visitors on the list with kids, ask your children’s director or a children’s volunteer to send an email or call the family to thank them for coming.
Saturday (6 days after the visitor attends)
- Send an email thanking the visitor for attending last week and reminding them about church the next Sunday. In this email, answer the “why” question – why would the visitor want to come back? Highlight a sermon series, service element, or kids’ class feature.
Creating a First-Time Visitor Follow-Up plan is much easier if you have an automated communication tool to help. Find a tool that will allow you to build a follow-up automation so these emails, texts, and staff reminders can be automated. Your follow-up sequence can continue past the next Sunday – it’s important to find a balance of thorough follow-up without spamming or bothering guests who give you their contact information.
3 First-Time Visitor Followup Mistakes (and How to Avoid Them)
Building your First-Time Visitor Follow-Up Plan should be intentional and strategic. As you consider which communication elements would work best for your church, avoid these 3 mistakes:
1) Not Collecting Visitor Contact Information
If you don’t successfully collect visitors’ contact information, it will be impossible for you to follow up. Use a connect card (physical or digital) to collect basic information – name, phone number, email address, and kids’ names. Kids’ information can also be collected at your children’s ministry registration table.
Be sure to highlight your connect card in service (ideally, multiple times). When you do, share why a visitor would want to fill it out – so you can connect with them and so they can learn more about the church. To get a higher rate of connect card completions, offer a small gift to visitors who fill one out.
2) Trying to do Follow-Up Manually
Followup should be personal and intentional – but that doesn’t mean it all has to be manual. As your church grows and you (hopefully) start to see more guests, having a fully manual follow-up system will overwhelm your team and prevent you from being personal. In order to scale visitor follow-up, use a tool to automate the first message in a conversation (text or email). Then monitor your inbox and respond to replies.
3) Forgetting to Mention a Next Step
If you don’t tell people their next step, they won’t take it. When you build your visitor follow-up sequence, include the visitor’s next step and encourage them to take that step. This will be different at every church. Here are some possible next steps to choose from:
- Attend a Welcome Party or Next Steps Class
- Join a Small Group
- Serve on a team
- Schedule coffee with a pastor
- Attend another service
- Come to an event
And the list goes on! It’s important to include their next step – and one step only. If you give people many options, they likely won’t choose any of the options. If you tell them one next step to take, they’re more likely to take it.
I want to Follow-Up with First-Time Visitors. Where Should I Start?
If that you’ve read this far, you know what Visitor Follow-Up is, why it’s important, what it might look like, and what mistakes to avoid. So what’s next? Sit down with your staff team and discuss what a First-Time Visitor Follow-Up system might look like for your church. Answer these questions together:
- What tools will we use to follow up with visitors? (email system, text system, phone lines, etc.)
- Who do we want the follow-up messages to come from?
- What is the next step we want a first-time visitor to take?
- How will we encourage visitors to give us their contact information?
- How will we track if visitors are taking the next step? (or, how will we know if our follow-up system is working?)
Once you have a system built, First-Time Visitor Follow-Up isn’t hard or complicated. An automated system allows you to step in and do the ministry work without having to memorize or sort through which visitors are on which steps of the plan. Build a Follow-Up System so your team is freed up to show up, reach out, and care for First-Time Visitors.