There are several ways to set up Gloo Workspace 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 Workspace account can only be associated with one phone number. With subaccounts, you can have 3 additional accounts nested within your main account, all with their own phone numbers. 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?
The main benefits of a single account are cost and simplicity. First of all, using a single account does not require a Gloo+ membership- you can simply use a free account. Your free account comes with a dedicated phone number and 500 free messaging credits/month. You can set up unlimited groups in your account to make sure you are only texting the people who need that specific communication. If you do have a Gloo+ membership then you will get all the same benefits as a free account, but will get 15,000 monthly messaging credits instead of just 500.
However, 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. If you are a multi-campus church, you also cannot separate out your campuses. Everyone will receive their texts from a single phone number, and everything will live in the same inbox.
If you'd like to communicate to different ministries or campuses using different phone numbers, and keep things more separated, Subaccounts may be a good solution. Note that Subaccounts are not available on free accounts- you must have a Gloo+ membership.
Benefits for using Subaccounts 🔓
Choosing to open Subaccounts under your Gloo+ membership will allow you to have more flexibility with phone numbers and keeping your communications separate. With Subaccounts, you can have a different phone number for each campus or ministry, as well as separate team members, contacts, groups, and inboxes.
Note: You can add 3 Subaccounts with a Gloo+ Membership. If you need additional Subaccounts, you can purchase them under your Subscriptions tab for $9.99/month per additional Subaccount.
Each subaccount will have its own unique toll-free phone number, but messaging credits are shared among the main account and all Subaccounts. This means that each Subaccount does not get its own 15,000 messaging credits, but simply spends the same credits as the main account.
Here are a few cases where this might be helpful:
Examples on when to create a Subaccount 📝
Multiple campuses: If your church has multiple campuses 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 for each campus.
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. Each Subaccount will not get its own 15,000 credits.
In both 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.
However, if you need certain people to have access to one of your accounts but not the other(s), you can also keep everything separate. 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!