What is a Connection? 🧭
A Connection is someone who is already connected with your church or ministry and is part of your current "audience." Connections can "add themselves" into your My People tab by texting into your toll-free number because they attended your church as a connection, or because they are involved in your ministry. You can also add Connections to your My People tab yourself, through things like Integrations and csv uploads.
What is an Explorer? 🧭
Did you know that you can increase your reach beyond the walls of your church and chat with people in your community looking for help? Check out the Explorer Connections program as part of our Gloo+ offering.
People in your city are looking for answers —now more than ever. But instead of turning to the Church for help, people are searching online. These Explorers, as we call them, are looking for someone to help them process life’s big questions through meaningful conversation. We have all been there, and we are all Explorers to some extent.
Ad campaigns are running all over the country, connecting Explorers to the churches and ministries closest to them. Our ad partners do all the work of gathering Explorers and Gloo sends them directly into your account, so all you have to do is to use our easy texting features to reach out and start a conversation!
Learn more about who these Explorers are and how they are connected with churches here.
At this time, you must upgrade to a Gloo+ account in order to receive Explorers- the Explorer Inbox is not included in a Free account.
Once you have activated your Gloo+ subscription and enabled the account to receive Explorers, check out the Explorer Quick Start Guide for your next steps!
What are different statuses for Connections and Explorers? 🧭
Needs Response - When any conversation needs a reply from a Gloo Team Member. This can be an Explorer who has sent in a message and is waiting on a response, or when a Connection has texted something into your Gloo account that no automatic feature like a Keyword or Quick Response is set up to answer.
Needs Prayer - When a new prayer request is submitted by a Connection & requires a reply from a Team Member. Note that in order to prevent Gloo's automated features from interrupting sensitive conversations, Explorers will not trigger the Prayer feature.
Served - The Explorer or Connection has been helped and the conversation does not require any action from a Gloo Team Member at this time.
Disconnected - The Explorer or Connection has been disconnected from the Church. This can happen when a conversation with an Explorer finishes or they stop responding, or when a Connection unsubscribes from your communications by texting in STOP.
What are different statuses only for Explorers? 🧭
New Match - This status is when a new Explorer has been matched to your organization & are awaiting a first response - you'll see a 16 hour countdown window to send a first response
Rematched - The 16 hour timer expired and the Explorer was matched to another organization. You will no longer be able to reach out and communicate with this Explorer.
What does Reassigned mean for an Explorer? 🧭
When you see an Explorer in your inbox labeled as Reassigned, that means they have been rematched to your organization from a previous organization. Sometimes, Explorers get Reassigned to another organization if the Explorer is matched with an organization that does not meet their needs or they have not been responded to within the 16 hour window of initial matching.
