People & CRM

Adding and Managing Contacts

People who submit forms on your site are added automatically. For existing members, you'll add them manually or import from a spreadsheet.

Adding a contact manually

1. Go to People in the sidebar.
2. Click + Add Contact.
3. Enter: First name, Last name, Email address, Phone (optional).
4. Select their Type: contact, member, volunteer, or prayer (this is the label shown in the Recent Leads feed).
5. Set their Stage: New Visitor, Member, or Volunteer (see Stage article below).
6. Add notes if relevant (e.g., "Visited Easter Sunday, interested in connect group").
7. Click Save Contact.

Importing from a spreadsheet

1. Go to People → Import.
2. Download the CSV template — this shows the exact column order required.
3. Fill in your contacts: first name, last name, email, phone, stage.
4. Upload the completed CSV file.
5. Review the import preview — check for errors (missing emails, formatting issues).
6. Click Confirm Import. All contacts are added instantly.

Contact Stages: The Visitor Pipeline

Every contact in your People database sits at one of three stages. Moving people through stages is the core of your follow-up workflow.

The three stages

• New Visitor — someone who has connected but hasn't established a regular attendance pattern yet. This should be your highest-priority follow-up group.
• Member — an active, regular attendee. They know the church, attend consistently, and have been welcomed into the community.
• Volunteer — an engaged member who serves in a ministry role (worship team, greeting, children's ministry, etc.).

Moving a contact through stages

1. Open the contact record by clicking their name in the People list.
2. Click Edit.
3. Change the Stage dropdown.
4. Add a note in the Activity Timeline explaining the change (e.g., "Completed membership class May 4 — moving to Member").
5. Click Save.

Using the Pipeline view

1. Go to People → Pipeline.
2. You'll see three columns — one per stage — with contact cards in each.
3. Drag a contact card from one column to another to update their stage instantly.
4. Use this view for your weekly 10-minute pastoral check-in: review who's in New Visitor, decide who needs a follow-up call, and move people to Member once you've connected with them.

Setting Up Connection Forms

Connection forms capture visitor information directly from your church website and route it into your People database — no email, no spreadsheet, no copy-paste. Every submission appears instantly in your Recent Leads feed.

Available form types

• Connection Card — name, email, phone, visit date, "I'm a..." (first time, returning, member). Best for: homepage, "Plan Your Visit" page.
• Prayer Request — name, email, prayer request text. Best for: sermons page, sidebar widget.
• Volunteer Interest — name, email, ministry area. Best for: Serve/Get Involved page.
• Speaking / Event Inquiry — name, org, event type, date, message. Best for: Contact page.

Adding a form to your site

1. Go to People → Forms.
2. Select the form type you want to add.
3. Copy the embed code shown.
4. In your site editor (or your site's HTML), paste the embed code on the desired page.
5. Publish the page. The form is now live and connected.

What happens when someone submits

• They appear instantly in People with a green "New" badge.
• You receive an email notification to your admin email.
• They receive a customizable confirmation email (edit the template under People → Forms → Email Templates).
• If you have a welcome sequence set up, it triggers immediately (see Welcome Sequences article).

Logging Calls and Notes

Every interaction with a contact — a call from the pastor, a text conversation, a coffee meeting — can be logged in their Activity Timeline. This gives your whole team context so no one falls through the cracks.

Logging an activity

1. Open a contact record from the People list.
2. In the right panel, find the Activity Timeline.
3. Click + Log Activity.
4. Select the activity type: Call, Note, Email, Meeting, or Text.
5. Write your note — be specific. "Called Maria, she's coming back Sunday. Interested in the women's connect group." is far more useful than "Called."
6. The date defaults to today — change it if you're logging something that happened earlier.
7. Click Save. It appears in the timeline with a timestamp and your name.

Assigning a follow-up task

1. From the activity log, select Task as the type.
2. Write the task (e.g., "Follow up after Sunday — ask about connect group").
3. Set a due date.
4. Assign to yourself or a team member from the dropdown.
5. Click Save. The assigned team member receives an email reminder on the due date.

Building a Welcome Sequence

A welcome sequence is a series of 2–3 automated emails sent to new visitors in the days after they submit a connection card. This single automation is the highest-ROI thing you can set up for visitor retention.

Creating the sequence

1. Go to Email → Automations.
2. Click + New Automation.
3. Name it "New Visitor Welcome Series."
4. Set the trigger: Connection Card Submitted.

Email 1 — Immediate welcome

5. Add Email 1. Set delay: Send immediately.
6. Subject: "We're so glad you visited, {{first_name}}!"
7. Body: A short, personal message from your pastor. Thank them for connecting, mention something specific about your church's community, and let them know they're welcome back anytime. Keep it under 150 words — this email gets read on phones.

Email 2 — What's coming up

8. Add Email 2. Set delay: 3 days after trigger.
9. Subject: "Here's what's happening this week at [Church Name]"
10. Body: 2–3 upcoming events or ministries, with links. A brief note about what makes your church community special. Include a link to your events page.

Email 3 — Personal invitation

11. Add Email 3. Set delay: 7 days after trigger.
12. Subject: "Have questions? We'd love to meet."
13. Body: Invite them to coffee with the pastor or a meet-and-greet after the next service. Keep it personal, not promotional.
14. Click Activate. Every future connection card submission triggers this sequence automatically.