by joel southerland

In a recent business study it was discovered that only 44% of customers questions via Twitter were answered within 24 hours.

STELLAService examined the top 25 online retailers to see how their customer service was on Twitter. They looked at their tweets over a 45 day period in order to determine how many of them actually responded to customers, and how long it took. They found that a full 56 percent of customer tweets to companies were being ignored. But despite the fact that less than half respond to customers the same day of the complaint or question, two retailers stood out as totally Twitter savvy: Zappos.com and LLBean.com. Both of these companies responded to all customer service tweets they received within 24 hours. And Zappos.com went above and beyond, answering 82 percent of tweets within one hour of receiving them.

Notice that businesses are now forced to respond to customers inquiries, complaints, and comments via social media. It adds a layer to follow-up that before didn’t exist. While some businesses see it as a burden, the ones that do it right see it as an opportunity. It is an opportunity to connect, satisfy, engage, converse, and impress someone. That’s what all businesses want to do.

How does your church compare?

[pullquote]Follow up with guests is one of the most important things a church can do.[/pullquote] Follow up with guests is one of the most important things a church can do. When an unbeliever or an unchurched person visits our church or event they are searching for something in their life – they are searching for God. The connection we make, the care we show, and the concern we display to a guest says a lot about our church and how evangelistic we really want to be.

The next time you have a guest consider these ways you can follow up. You can incorporate some or all of them. You can add your own. The important thing is tha tyou follow up.

1. Phone call – you, a staff member, or a  Sunday School teacher call them on Sunday or Monday
2. Email – send out a personalized email early in the week thanking them for their attendance and offering any support or assistance
3. Snail-mail – send out a personalized letter doing the same
4. Facebook message – see if they are on Facebook and connect with them and send them a thank you message
5. Gift – mail them a gift or drop one off. At my last pastorate we mailed a gift to our guests. It was a $15 investment that really paid off and made a great impression. If you want an idea about how to do this, email me and I’ll let you know what we did (jsoutherand @ gabaptist.org) Some churches have deacons drop a gift off on the doorstep on Sunday afternoon
6. Visit– visit them during the week on your regular outreach visits. If you don’t currently have an outreach night, visit them yourself during the week
7. Newsletter – add their email address to the church newsletter list and connect with them that way
8. Text – if they give you their cell phone number on the connection card send them a text. Very very few people have cell phones and do not text
9. Tweet – take a chance and see if they are on Twitter and if so tweet them a thank you for coming

Those are just a few ideas….. leave yours in the comments below.