I have been a customer for about year or so at the local cleaners and have spent quite a bit of money there. Unfortunately, this last time, the cleaners left numerous spots on my white Air Jordan basketball shorts and I was none to pleased. I took the shorts back to the cleaners and let the owner know that they messed up my shorts and could she please get the numerous spots out. Prior to picking my clothes up, I told my wife, if this lady charges me for the cleaners mistake, I will never take my clothes there again. Well, as soon as she showed me the shorts, spots still there and all, she rang me up for $2.83, and with that I gave her $3.00, told her to keep the change and took my business elsewhere. That was one of the worst cases of customer service I had ever seen. That cleaners lost over $400 per month in cleaning services over $2.83, and she didn’t even notice.

Which leads me to my point, customer service is very important whether in business or in ministry. One of the main focal points of The iChurch Method is to use technology to provide better customer service for your members. Whether it be through the website, social media, mobile or any of the numerous ways a member can communicate with the ministry, make sure your ministry acknowledges correspondence when they receive it from members as well as responds in a timely manner.

Here are three good examples your ministry can use to increase it’s customer service capabilities. First, make sure when a user sends an email or request to the ministry online, use an autoresponder to show that you received the email. Second, if you have a “contact us” form on your website, make sure you also have a “contact us” form on your mobile site so that people can reach out to the ministry even if they are away from their computer. Finally, when online users reach out to your ministry using social media channels like Facebook and Twitter, acknowledge and respond to users and let them know that your social media channel is a two way, interactive, street.