When someone joins your church, or attends an event for the first time, you can create an automated task that sends them greeting communications, adds them to a ministry or group; or creates a Follow-Up.
The Newcomer and New Event Attendee Automated Tasks are configured identically. The only difference is that for the New Event Attendee Task, you can choose to consider an attendee as new if they haven't attended any event within the last 12 months.
To configure this task, follow the steps below:
- Select the task type under Settings > Automated Tasks.
- Enter a Name for the task.
- Configure the Task to execute. There are four task types available and you can set each of them once per task. So, you can create one task that sends a message to people, adds them to a ministry, adds them to groups, and creates a follow-up, all in one go.
- Communicate: Sends automated email, push notifications or SMS to newcomers once they join. You can choose whether to send the communication on the same day as configured; or after a set number of days. You can also select the sender - either the main church admin or your own account, if different.
You can add multiple communication tasks to the same Newcomer or New Event Attendee Task, so you can send messages via all channels should you wish to do so.
- Add to Ministry: This action automatically adds newcomers to the selected ministry and group.
- Add to Group: This action automatically adds newcomers to a selected group. When you choose to run this action via an automated task, you can also notify the group leaders about the new people being added.
- Follow-Up: This action lets you automatically add a Follow-Up for newcomers. You can set the Responsible, the Follow-Up Action, and Days to wait until adding the Follow-up after someone new joins your church.
- Communicate: Sends automated email, push notifications or SMS to newcomers once they join. You can choose whether to send the communication on the same day as configured; or after a set number of days. You can also select the sender - either the main church admin or your own account, if different.
- Set the task Criteria. This is where you choose what set of people the task will apply. You can filter by Gender, Age Range, Groups, Zip Code, or Grade (you can enter multiple zip codes). Task Criteria are optional; and if you do not set any, the task will apply to all people.
For the New Event Attendee task, the criteria also give you the option to Consider an attendee as new if they haven't attended any event within the last 12 months. - Save the task when ready.
Once enabled, the task will be displayed on your main Automated Tasks screen. You can choose to toggle it on or off later on.
The Newcomer task is available for church accounts, and also for every church under a diocese account.