Leaders have limited time. We survive by giving little attention to things that are not urgent. We find ways to solve problems quickly and efficiently. There is a word for this. It is called “heuristic.” It is a mental shortcut that allows leaders to solve the issues and make judgements quickly and efficiently. It is a survival technique. We operate on little information all the time.
Important areas need a significant amount of time. Church Relationship Management (CRM) is one such areas that needs you attention. I suggest that Senior Pastors should not compromise on the choice of CRM platform they use. Your CRM is the most effective way to bridge between all incoming requests and timely follow-up. You cannot afford to lose the trust of your constituents simply because connections keep slipping through the cracks. The best CRM should create a case, automate task, offer case escalation, and provide live reports and dashboards to you.
CRM business is expected to generate more that $80 billion in revenue by 2025. Marc Benhoff, founder and first CEO of Salesforce realized the potential for cloud computing. Salesforce CR uses the cloud to help organizations manage their customer relationships. CRM and data will be critical as you respond appropriately to your visitor’s journey. Online and onsite experience needs to coexist.
A platform that covers only your marketing needs is not going be enough. Among CRM platforms, Salesforce is a leader in the field. As an Executive Pastor, I have been working with Salesforce CRM since 2016. Here are four ways in which Salesforce CRM can help your church:
Aleph: Salesforce CRM offers 10 free licences to churches and charities. It can help you track your relationships and interactions with your contacts, prospects, automate workflow and tasks.
Beth: Instead of using a more expensive full license, Ask Amitabh can show you how to utilize 10 free license and Salesforce Partner Portal ($72 per user per year) for churches that have more than 10 employees.
Gimel: In August 2019, Salesforce CRM acquired Tableau for$15.7 billion. A year before that Salesforce bough Mulesoft for its integration and API Expertise. Ask Amitabh can help you build Live Reports and Dashboards so that you can make data driven decisions with Salesforce CRM and Tableau CRM that can help church leaders make data-based decisions.
Daleth: Do you need a document retention platform with OCR scanning that is integrated with Salesforce CRM? As a former CEO of a hospital, I have utilized my hospital administration background to create a strong document retention and governance structure for churches. When you are ready to move out from storing things in a bankers box, this is an option available to you. You don’t need to spend hours finding documents when OCR scanning is one click away.
The church was and always will be about people. The innovation challenge we face is about integrating both online and offline points of engagement to offer total frictionless church experience. Innovation will require the confluence of a leader’s mindset, team’s skillset, and the right toolset that covers technology, data, marketing, operational, and church relationship management (CRM). Church leaders needs to focus on return on relationship (ROR). We need to build trust and loyalty.