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 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 Subaccounts 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. With subaccounts, you can have 3 additional accounts nested with your main account. 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?
Note: With 1 account you are limited to one zip code, one phone number & all messages will be within one place regardless of multiple campuses or ministries. If you have multiple campuses in different zip codes, consider a Gloo+ membership for subaccount benefits.
With a single account, you will text your connections 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 certain Groups in a message meant only for your connections. You can exclude specific Groups or contacts 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. Alternatively, setting up a subaccount with your main account would be another solution if you'd like to have a different phone number associated to a youth or men's/women's ministry.
Benefits for using Subaccounts 🔓
Choosing to have subaccounts will allow you to have more flexibility with phone numbers and zip codes. With subaccounts, you can have a different phone number for each campus or ministry.
Note: You can add 3 subaccounts with a Gloo+ Membership. Each subaccount can have its own unique toll-free phone number, but messaging credits are shared among the main account and subaccounts.
Each subaccount 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 contacts or segment of your connections. Here are a few cases where this might be helpful:
Examples on when to create a Subaccount 📝
Connections🔗 : If you want to have one phone number to use for interacting with Connections and another for interacting with a specific group at your church, you could open a Gloo+ account and claim a phone number and use that account only to interact with a specific group, such as a Youth Ministry. You could then open a subaccount within that main account, claim another number, and use this number to interact only with your connections using our texting features.
Multiple campuses⛪️: If your church has multiple campuses spread throughout the city with different zip codes and you want each campus to receive communication from a different phone number from the main account, you can create a subaccount and claim a unique toll-free number.
Multiple ministries📖: 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 can create subaccounts that would be associated to your main account and claim a phone number for each account that will be used only for that particular ministry. Remember that all messaging credits are shared between main accounts and subaccounts.
In all three cases above, it is possible to allow the same team member(s) to access and manage subaccounts. Whenever a team member is added to an account using the same email address, that team member will automatically have the ability to switch between the main account and subaccounts by clicking the drop down menu in the bottom left corner with the name of the church.
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.
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!