What is an Explorer?
Explorers are people in your community who have seen a message of hope online and responded by filling out a form. They have asked to be connected to a local church and are looking for someone to personally follow up with them.
Learn more about this program here.
How to start receiving Explorers
Important: The Explorer Inbox is only included if you have added an Explorer Connections subscription to your account.
Make sure your status in Explorer Status is set to Active, and you will automatically be matched with Explorers closest to you! If you go to Messaging -> Explorer Settings and your status is listed as Paused, simply click Unpause to reactivate.
Note: All new Gloo accounts are set to a Paused status for the first three days so you have time to prepare. At the end of the third day, your status will automatically switch to Active. Read more about paused accounts here.
Ensure email, text, and/or push notifications are turned on in your Profile. Once you have been matched with an Explorer, you will be notified via email, text, and/or push notification that a new Explorer is in your Inbox!
How to view Explorers
Important: The terms Explorers and Connections are used interchangeably in the Gloo platform.
Navigate to the Messaging menu and click on Explorers.
Click on an Explorer to view their details. You’ll see information like their name, phone number, email, and zip code. You can also view the topic of the ad campaign the explorer responded to, and the first message the Explorer has sent you.
Note that depending on which campaign the Explorer interacted with, their first message to you may be a custom note from the Explorer, or a standard response like "I'm looking to get connected with a local church."
See how long ago an Explorer submitted their message and has been waiting for a response- the timer starts at 16 hours and counts down. The faster you respond, the more likely you are to get into a conversation with the Explorer. If an Explorer has been in your account for 16 hours and there has been no activity, that Explorer will automatically be rematched to another church and you will not be able to communicate with them moving forward.
How to assign an Explorer to a team member
If you haven’t already, you’ll need to add a team member to your account who can receive the Explorer.
Note: In order to view the Explorer Inbox, a team member will need either the “Admin - No Restrictions” or “Explorer Access” permission level. Read more about the different permission levels here.Click the Assign button near the Explorer’s name.
Choose a team member and click Assign.
Pro Tip: We recommend having at least 2 team members, one of each gender, and assigning Explorers to the same gender teammate that is in the Inbox.
If you assign an Explorer to a specific team member, that team member will know that they are responsible for responding. However, all team members with admin or Explorer permissions will be able to view the conversation for transparency. If you would prefer to make that conversation private, you can choose exactly who in your account can view that conversation by clicking the eye icon near the Explorer's status and selecting exactly who you would like to be able to view the conversation.
How to respond to An Explorer
After reading the message submitted, craft your response in the “Send a message” box. Click Send and the text message will be delivered straight to their phone.
Important: Since your message comes to the Explorer as a text message from a phone number they have never seen before, make sure to introduce yourself and share how you got their information like in the example above! Otherwise the Explorer might not connect your message with the form they filled out online and think your message is just from a bot or is spam. Explorers may request a Rematch at any time if they feel another church might be a better fit to their needs.
Pro Tip: Need help with what to say? Check out this resource or try using our Conversation Support!
The majority of Explorers provide a phone number, but occasionally one won't. If that’s an Explorer in your account, there will not be an option to send a text message. However, there will be an email option that will redirect you to your email provider and send the explorer an email! Just don’t forget to come back and update the Explorer Status to “Engaged” (see next step) once you’ve sent one!
All Explorers will automatically come into your account with the "New Match" status and will automatically update to “Engaged” after you've sent your first message. All other statuses must be set manually by a Team Member.
New Match: The Explorer has been matched to your church, but you have not yet communicated with them.
Engaged: The Explorer has been matched to your church, you’ve assigned them to a team member, and an initial conversation has started.
Connected: The Explorer has been connected to your church and is now a regular member of your community.
Completed: You have finished your conversation with the Explorer and no further action is needed.
Disconnected: You did not receive a response back from the Explorer and are ending the conversation. For texting purposes, this Explorer is treated as Inactive.
Note: You may also see Explorers in your Inbox with status of "Rematched" or "Reassigned." A Rematched status means that the Explorer was waiting too long on a response and so was rematched to another organization that could respond immediately. You will still see the Explorer in your Inbox, but you won't be able to communicate with them. Similarly, a Reassigned status means this Explorer was previously matched with another organization that was unable to respond quickly, and has been reassigned to your account in an effort to get them a quicker response. Read more about rematched Explorers here.
Once you have sent your first message to an Explorer, they are automatically added to the "Explorers" group under your Engage tab for ease of access later.
Providing Feedback on Explorers
We are working every day to improve your experience of interacting with Explorers. In order to help us grow more, you are given the opportunity to rate your experience with each Explorer so that we can see which campaigns, methods and topics are working the best.
For each Explorer, when you update their status to Connected, Completed or Disconnected for the first time, you will be asked to rate the experience. This is optional, but you can rate with 1-5 stars, choose themes that stuck out, and offer comments. We greatly appreciate your help in continuing to improve your experience in receiving and responding to Explorers!
