Being employed as a full-time pastor for the past dozen years, I have always been in a multi-staff organization. There were administrative assistants, pastors, book-keepers, receptionists, and maintenance people. The office functioned basically like any small business with office hours from 9 to 5 (don’t start singing the Dolly Parton song), and a workroom with a demon possessed copier.
I am having to re-engineer my thinking on the paradigm of a church office. If non-verbal communication (web, email, text-messaging, etc) becomes our primary way to recieve first level communication, how do we build a virtual church office that is effecient for the road ahead. What do you expect from a church office? I would really like to hear from you on this one? Most church offices build from the inside out, and therefore their offices function to mainly sustain the structure (whether healthy or unhealthy)
What do you value in a church office?
- A live person to answer the phone?
- quick email response?
- information?
- ?
All of the above.
Usually, though, if I’m going to email a church I’m attending I don’t need an immediate response. If I need that I’ll just call. On the other hand, if I was looking into churches I wasn’t attending, I would be more likely to email. In that case a quick response is very valuable.
Friendly, cheery people who are interested in helping me is key. If the people representing the church don’t care about me, why would I think the church itself would be any different?
Thanks, Amanda. I think I am always impressed when people responds to email quickly. It gives me the feeling (whether right or wrong) that they are on the ball.
What is more critical, quick phone response or quick email? If you had to pick one, which would it be?
I like either, but my first choice would be to talk to a real person. It’s great to talk to someone when I call a church verus a “menu” with a million choices of what do you want. Often you have to leave a message. Even better is to hear a real voice and they give the impression of knowing who I am and call me by name.
Quick email response is very helpful too.
I would agree that a phone call is more personal. It “connects” with people better. So I would probably choose that over a quick email, though those are impressive and show some level of care as well.