Creating a Social Media Policy for Your Church

Mar 7, 2012 by Logos Staff

Social Media is certainly NOT the end-all and be-all of your existence as a person or church. If you have the time and resources to engage on social media, then this article is for you. If you don’t, that’s okay! There is, “Now no condemnation for those who in Christ Jesus.” Many of us, though, are ready to jump in to this readily available and inexpensive tool that cultivates engagement amongst attendees and seekers. Yet our enthusiasm often precludes the daunting “how.” How do we implement it? How do we get started? How do we manage it? Doubt creeps in and we’re not so sure we have what it takes.

Start Simply but Simply Start

There is incredible pressure to be everything to everyone. As soon as you start a church blog, mini-lobbyists are angry that you aren’t on Twitter. Or you find yourself on Twitter then you hear that you’re now supposed to be on Google+. A feeling of defeat can happen when we haven’t sat down to create a plan thereby setting direction and making the word, “no,” much easier. The world of social media can be overwhelming. With Facebook, Twitter, Linked In, blogs, Pinterest, Vimeo, YouTube, and third party apps to manage the various channels, schedule tweets, etc. Where does one start? What to talk about? How to provide value? Maybe your initial aim is to find one channel to use to tell people what’s happening in your congregation so they can be involved – and that’s it. That’s okay. These things take time.

Start with God’s Word as the Cornerstone of Your Plan…

Read the rest of the LOGOS article in Christian Computing Magazine >>

4 Ways to Model Graciousness in the New Year

Jan 10, 2012 by Logos Staff

1. Start with Your End of Year Tax Statements

January is the perfect time to look at the true substance of your thank yous and evaluate what you’re really saying to your members. Your end-of-year statements are a great place (but not the only place to start). How you say thanks matters. You need to say more than, “Here’s your statement for 2011. Thanks!” And don’t just use the same standard message time after time. Instead, change it up! Here’s an example of a short way to say “thank you” directly on (or with) the contribution statements you send to your members:

Thank you for your generous support of the ministries of Our Church. Your gifts for 2011 totallying <$ amount> help ensure that our church will continue to enrich the lives of our members and serve our community as God has called us. Because of your financial sacrifice, our staff and more than 425 volunteers who are working in the many ministries here will be able to continue to affect the lives of others in meaningful ways. Learn more about what we accomplished this year on our website: Thank you for your generosity. May God abundantly reward you for your continued faithful support of His Kingdom through this church.

In Gratitude,
Pastor John

2. Learn from Santa; check your list twice

Nothing says, “we don’t really know you at all” quite like a thank you, or any type of communication, addressed to a misspelled name. If you’re sending statements by mail, why not tuck a printout of the family’s information and ask them to fix anything that needs updating? You might add: “You’re very important to us, and we want to make sure we’ve got your information correct.”

Addresses need to be accurate, too, Before you run end-of-year statements or do any large mailing, take a few minutes to view your data alpha-sorted by name, address, and zip code. If you find any blank fields- they’ll be at the top – you can either fix the data or remove those statements from your mailing and save the postage.

Of course the real judgment day for address quality happens with the United States Postal Service. Running your data through a USPS National Change of Address analyzing tool is the most reliable way to find out which members have moved and do a general cleanup and USPS-compliance update of all your family addresses. If you’re a LOGOS user, you can accept changes from the USPS directly into your database without having to enter any address changes manually. Good address management and accurate family and member names are the cornerstone not just for great thank you letters but for everything you do in your church. Take the time to do it well.

3. Send written thank you notes

Don’t wait until the end of the calendar year to say thanks for gifts given to your church. Tithing is fundamental to our Christian stewardship. The same applies to gifts of time and talent. Receiving these gratefully acknowledges the giver, the gift, the benefits… and expressing that gratitude cultivates continued stewardship.

If a member donated $350 specifically for new Christmas bicycles for an adopt-a-family program, clearly let the donor know in the thank you card that the money was used as intended and that four children experienced the joy of finding shiny new bicycles under their Christmas tree. Connecting the gift with the Christmas-morning experience captures the emotion of giving and receiving gifts born out of God’s love. Is this person likely to make another gift in the future? You bet!

4. Make gratitude a characteristic in your church

Building an attitude of gratitude requires humility, communication,and presence in all the places members interact with your church.

Every gift matters. No gift is too small. In a recent workshop, we heard of one offering counter who referred to processing the children’s envelopes as, “counting the ‘kiddy’ litter.” Sure, it’s a tad funny as far as poor jokes go. But where’s the humility? Where’s the gratitude? And more importantly, how can we expect children to grow into engaged, involved, supportive members of tomorrow’s church if we laugh at their gifts today? As church staff and volunteers, we need to accept the child’s 25-cent contribution as graciously as we accept the adult’s $2,500 pledge to our building fund.

In 2012, look for more places where you can say tell your members and attendees thank you!

Merry Christmas!

Dec 25, 2011 by Logos Staff

From all of us at LOGOS, to all of you – we wish you the Merriest Christmas and blessings in the new year!

Fresh and New Online Giving!

Dec 5, 2011 by April

Our new Online Giving product is here!

Highlights

• Attractive and polished new interface built on a new platform
• Syncs to our Church Management Software, LOGOS II, eliminating double data entry
• Intuitive Online Giving process, which will increase giving
• The ability for a donor to choose one-time or recurring gifts
• Guest donations give without setting up a user account
• Family / Person headshots sync from to LOGOS II
• Automatic “Update Payment Method” reminders are sent prior to payment method expiration.
• Church attendees can easily print and email giving statements

An Emerging Best Practice

Online Giving has quickly proven itself a best practice for stewardship within the church. Recurring Online Giving is one of the best ways to help your congregation with planned, proportionate giving over time. Many of your donors are already using online bill pay – make it easy on them to give to your church!

Like what you see so far? Email us at info@logoscms.com or call 1.800.266.3311 for a free demo!

Life with Logos. Simply better.

End-of-Year Helps

Nov 19, 2011 by Logos Staff

We’ve set up a page for our customers with a plethora of end-of-year resources. There are tips and how-to videos to streamline processes.

Demo videos available are:

• Customize and print contribution statements
• Create and post next year’s budget
• Close current year chart of accounts and verify balances
• Create next year’s chart of accounts
• Generate W2 forms

Make sure you have your customer number available and log-in here! And as always, feel free to contact us if you have any questions!

Behind the Scenes: Director of Customer Service

Aug 25, 2011 by April

In an ongoing effort to show you the people behind the efforts at LOGOS, here’s a peek into the brain of our Director of Customer Service, Mark Matthews…

At LOGOS we want to make your experience the best it possibly can be. We know that supporting our product is equal to if not a greater need for our company.

OUR PHILOSOPHY

The philosophy is simple. When you contact customer service, you will receive the absolute best service in the industry. We will not settle for anything less. This is accomplished by believing three things.

First, a belief that we have the best product in the industry. My staff has to be committed to believing that. How can we give the best service if we don’t believe we have the best product? Suffice it to say, one of the ways we achieve that is by listening to you, the customer. Thanks so much for all your feedback earlier this month!

Second, a belief that we have the best customers using our product. You made a decision to use us. In our mind, that makes you the best and you deserve to be treated that way. From the simplest request to the most complex, we will strive to exceed your expectations. If we fail, we want to know about it. And we will work hard to correct that.

And third, a belief that we are your customer service team. It’s your customer service team. Not our customer service team. That small change is not just semantics; it’s a critical perspective shift and keeps our focus on helping others.

OUR GOALS AND STRATEGY

Our customer service goals will meet your needs more efficiently and effectively.

Goal #1 – We will handle your call immediately.
Goal #2 – Our support staff are equally trained on all products.
Goal #3 – Our top rated Customer Service is defined by professionalism and compassion.

Here is how we’re going to accomplish that:

1.    Implementing a Call Center environment which has support representatives answering your call live and working on your issue real-time. No more waiting for a support rep to call you back within your contractually allotted time. In the event there is a hold time, you will have the option of staying on hold or leaving a message. We will then call you back ASAP.

2.    We have already begun the preparation for going live by training our team across product lines and having them take all types of calls. We are continually training with the goal of always learning and always growing to be the best so that we can be prepared for each and every call.

3.    We can take calls live, and know all the products but if we don’t take care of you in a professional caring way, we have failed. We will be implementing Quality Assurance Guidelines with call monitoring and call coaching to make sure we always meet that goal.

There you have it: the best product, the best customers and the best customer service team in the Industry. No wonder we say “Life with LOGOS. Simply Better”. Until next time…Mark

Online Giving

Aug 11, 2011 by Logos Staff

In the next couple months of 2011, Logos will be releasing a completely new Online Giving solution that has been redeveloped and re-conceptualized from the “ground up”. In this blog post, our Director of Product Management, Jonathan Prisant, who came on board in 2011, will profile upcoming changes to our Online Giving process AND explain the reasons for and logic behind the changes.

We are expecting to release this update in the next couple months!

The New Online Giving Process

The screenshots below depict the direction we are going with online giving. The final product may not be EXACTLY as you see it, but it will be very close. In addition to showing you screenshots, I have included SOME of background information on our decision making process. -Jonathan Prisant

Step 1 – Fund(s) & Frequency

1. Church Name or Logos – This allows the user to always feel 100% certainty they are giving to the intended organization.
2. “Breadcrumb Trail” / Checkout Process Bar – There are a few important elements for this:
   1. There are minimal steps.
   2. Each step is clearly defined, so the user knows exactly what to expect
3. Security & Compliance – In addition to the encryption and PCI compliance being required for online transaction processing, these seals increase user confidence in the security of the transaction.
4. Add Fund(s) & Amounts – This is a simple and direct interface. It solves our problem of accommodating 5 or 50 funds. It is also easy to add and remove funds and amounts and makes the “Total Amount” obvious.
5. Fund Selection – Dropdowns can be a bit difficult sometimes, so instead of being presented as a dropdown, it converts to a selection form field. Also, we enable the ability to categorize funds, which makes finding the desired fund easier.
6. Select Frequency – The user is only presented with options relevant to the selection. Radio buttons indicate you can only. Also, the “Help” icon helps the user in case anything needs explanation.

Step 2 – Payment Method

1. Select Payment Method – There are a few important notes about this:
   1. The card icon facilitates instant recognition of the available methods
   2. Clicking on any part of the row for a payment method will select the payment method.
   3. The “current selection” is extremely obvious by the radio button select AND the highlighting of the row and text.
2. New Payment Method – The button action is obvious. Also, the icon is intuitive.
3. If No Payment Methods – This is an important user experience element. If there are no available methods and a payment method is required, then we should present the user with the payment method form be default.
4. Card Type – Many people do not know this, but each type of credit card (Visa, Amex, Discover, etc) has a unique set of digits. This allows us to remove the option to “select card type”, and automatically associate the card type with the number suffix.
5. Save Payment Method – Since we are dealing with credit cards and bank accounts, we need to make sure users explicitly approve storing the payment method information. In order to increase user confidence, we reiterate the security and compliance protocols we use.
6. Previous / Next Step –
   1. Instead of “Previous” or “Next”, the buttons are labeled with “Step X – Description”, so the user knows what to expect.
   2. The previous step is a link and the next step is a bolder graphic button and link. This communicates the “forward progress” associated with going through the process. Also, the eye is immediately drown to the “next step”
   3. The small circular “progress indicator” graphic creates instant feedback when the clicked. This minimizes confusion when progressing through the process.

Step 3 – Review Contribution Before Processing

1. Authorize & Process Contribution – One important element of checkout processes is disallowing “accidentally” clicking the “submit button” multiple times, potentially causing the transaction to be processed multiple times.  There are many important notes about this:
   1. The text of the button “Authorize & Process Contribution” does not leave for any question about what happens when the button is clicked.
   2. The button slightly changes from blue to green and the button is now located in two locations, at the top and bottom of the page. Since the user can proceed without confirming anything on the page, the button’s location at the top of the page allows the user to proceed without scrolling to the bottom of the page.
   3. In our new form, when the “Authorize & Process Contribution” is clicked, other buttons and links on the page will be disabled so the user cannot accidentally click away from the page. Also, the main button disappears (in both locations on the page), and in its place, a “Processing Transaction” progress indicator intuitively shows the transaction is occurring.
2. Receiving Organization – The receiving organization name and contact information is confirmed on this page.
3. Payment Method – The payment method shows with the icon and identifying information AND the one time vs. recurring information.
4. Change Buttons – Since the transaction has not been processed, the user may still modify the contribution before proceeding if desired.
5. Terms of Agreement – The Terms have been placed in a scrollable field, so the page is not as long.
6. Total Amount – The funds AND total amount of clearly shown on the page.

Step 4 – Complete / Receipt

1. Breadcrumb Trail” / Checkout Process Bar – A few elements occur here for the user:
   1. The Receipt ID provides immediate feedback that the process is complete.
   2. The previously steps can no longer be clicked on.
2. Click for Printable Receipt (opens in a new window) – This allows users to print a receipt for their personal records. The “(opens in a new window)” text notifies the user to expect a new window to open.
3. Email Receipt – The green color and check icon communicates “successful transaction”. Also, by default, the system sends the user an email version of the receipt. This green box also confirms the email address that the receipt was sent to.

Final Thoughts

• We deeply value, seek, and graciously receive customer feedback!
• We seek to serve and assist our customers
• We work extremely hard to create powerful and compelling products that our customers a proud to promote to their people, and that makes staff lives easier.
• This product update is going to be a SIGNIFICANT improvement over our current solution.