There are several ways to set up Gloo based on how you plan to use and manage the account. With all Gloo has to offer with receiving and responding to explorers, as well as keeping in touch with church members and increasing engagement through text, we have some tips to effectively manage all aspects in one account. However, sometimes it makes more sense to set up and manage multiple accounts in order to meet your specific needs. For example, each Gloo account can only be associated with one phone number, and each Gloo account can only have one zip code to be used for routing explorers. Let's look further into what you might consider when choosing how to manage multiple campuses, churches, or ministries with Gloo.
When should I choose to have one account?
First of all, choosing to have one account means you will have one zip code associated with your church. This means that if you have multiple campuses in different zip codes, you will only be able to have one of those zip codes associated with your account in order to receive explorers.
Second, you will also only have one phone number associated with your account. This means that you will text with both explorers and your congregation using the same phone number, if you choose to take advantage of all of the texting features. However, you never have to worry about accidentally including explorers in a message meant only for your congregation, as explorers are excluded from your broadcast messages by default.
Also, since there is only one phone number, you will not be able to separate out different ministries like youth ministry, men’s/women’s ministry, etc. However, setting up groups in your Gloo account can easily solve this problem so that each group can be communicated with according to their needs.
Finally, when choosing to have one premium account, you will only have 1 bill for Explorer Connections, whereas opening multiple accounts means you'd pay separately for each account. You can adjust the details or your plan at any time in the Billing section of your account.
When should I choose to have multiple accounts?
Choosing to have multiple accounts will allow you to have more flexibility with phone numbers and zip codes. First, each account can be associated with a different zip code, meaning the different campuses of your church can receive explorers from the zip codes closest to them.
Second, each account will have its own phone number. This can be useful for each campus or ministry of your church to have a dedicated phone number and the ability to only text with the appropriate explorers or segment of the congregation. Here are a few cases where this might be helpful:
If you want to have one phone number to use for interacting with explorers and another for interacting with your church, you could open an account with Explorer Connections included in the subscription, claim a phone number, and use that account only to interact with explorers. You could then open a separate free account without Explorers, claim another number, and use this number to interact only with your congregation using our texting features.
If your church has multiple campuses spread throughout the city with different zip codes and you want each campus to receive explorers from the areas closest to them, you can open separate accounts that include Explorer Connections in the subscription for each campus, and each account can claim its own phone number.
If you want separate phone numbers for each ministry in your church (youth, men’s/women’s, general congregation, etc) and setting up groups isn’t a good solution, you could open multiple free accounts and claim a phone number for each account that will be used only for that particular ministry.
In all three cases above, it is possible to allow the same team member(s) to access and manage multiple accounts. Whenever a team member is added to multiple accounts using the same email address, that team member will automatically have the ability to log in with one username and password and then switch between all of those accounts by clicking the drop down menu next to the icon at the top left corner.
Important: Not all team members will automatically get access to all of your accounts. Only the team members specifically added to multiple accounts will have access.
Finally, when choosing to have multiple accounts, the billing for each account is completely separate from one another.
If you need any help in deciding which of these setups is best for you, feel free to reach out in our live chat and we’re happy to help guide you!