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 Reach -> 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.
Ensure email and/or text 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 Reach tab 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.
View the message the explorer submitted with any specific questions they might have.
See how long ago an Explorer submitted their message and has been waiting for a response. The timer will count down for 12 hours, and once it turns red, it will display the amount of hours “late” beyond the 12 hour recommended response window. The timer will continue to count until a team member updates the status of an Explorer from “New Match.”
Note: 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 to team members” 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.
How to respond to An Explorer
After reading the message submitted, craft your response in the “Send a message” box.
Pro Tip: Need help with what to say? Check out this resource or try using a Conversation Prompt!
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.
Some Explorers do not provide a phone number. 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 [Name]” button 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 “In Contact” (see next step) once you’ve sent one!
Use the Status drop down menu to track the status of your Explorers. All Explorers will automatically come into your account with the "New Match" status- all other statuses must be set manually by a Team Member.
We recommend updating the status to “In Contact” immediately after sending a message. (This will also stop the timer from continuing to count.)
New Match: The Explorer has been matched to your church, but you have not yet communicated with them.
In Contact: The Explorer has been matched to your church, you’ve assigned them to a team member, and an initial conversation has started.
Fully Connected: The Explorer has been connected to your church and is now a regular member of your community.
Disconnected: The conversation has ended and no further contact is being made. For texting purposes, this Explorer is treated as Inactive.
Note: You may also see Explorers in your Inbox with a status of "Rematched." This 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. Read more about paused accounts and 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.
