Have you ever wondered what people in your church or ministry are thinking? What sermon series they'd like to hear next? What night is best for the new Bible study launch? What their favorite book of the Bible is?
It's important for churches to have visibility into their people, but sometimes it can be difficult to do so - especially in our increasingly digital world!
This is the power Polls can give your church!
Gloo Polls are an exciting way to survey your church in real time. You can create Polls in your account and have people respond live to questions on anything from sermon topics to trivia to the best date for the church picnic.
Important Note: Polls are only available to Gloo+ members. Click here to learn more about all the benefits to a Gloo+ membership!
How to set up a new Poll
In your Messaging menu, click on Polls under the Tools section. Then click Create Poll in the top right corner. Remember, if you are not a Gloo+ member, you will be prompted to upgrade to Gloo+ in order to access this feature.
First, give your poll a title. This will only be for internal use and will not display to the people responding to your poll.
Whatever you enter for the title will autofill in the Submission URL Identifier field. This is a customized URL that you can use later to have people vote in the poll.
Note that if the identifier (in this case "Favorite") is already being used in your Gloo account, you will see an error message telling you it is already in use. All you have to do is slightly modify the Submission URL Identifier field to make it unique- for example, you could use Favorite1 in this case.
Next, give your poll a description. This is also only for internal use and will not be displayed to the people responding to your poll.
Next, enter in the question you want to ask. Each poll can only be set up with a single question.
After you've entered your question, set up the choices that people can select for a response. You must have at least 2 choices available, and you can continue to add more up to a maximum of 10 choices.
Finally, select whether or not you'd like users to be able to see the current results of the poll once they have submitted their answer. When you're ready, click Create Poll.
How to test your Poll
Once your Poll has been created, you can test everything to make sure things are working correctly.
Click the Test Poll button on the right side to begin your testing.
This will open a page for you to take the Poll. Select your answer and click Submit Vote.
Note: Users can only select one answer to a poll, not multiple answers.
If you have it toggled on, the current results of the poll will immediately show.
Back on the main page for the Poll, this test result will not show. But if you toggle on Show Test Results, you'll be able to see the results of your test(s). You can repeat the process and test the poll as many times as you'd like to see how the data will look.
If you'd like to make any changes, you can always edit the poll by clicking Edit Poll in the top right corner.
However, if the Poll is closed or already has responses, this button will be greyed out instead.
How to send your Poll out
Once you've tested and everything is ready to go, let's send your poll out!
First, you need to make sure your poll is Active. All polls are active by default when you create them- that status shows under the Details section.
Under the Duration section, you can set limits to when people can respond to your poll. You can use the date and time section to set a specific time for the poll to close. Or, you can click Close Poll Now under Duration to close the poll in real time once everyone has responded.
If your poll has closed and you'd like to reopen it so that more people can respond, just click Re-open Poll Now.
Once you've confirmed your poll is active during the times you want, you need to advertise it! There are three main ways to send out your poll- a QR code, a link, or a live presentation.
Sending a Poll via QR code
A QR code associated with your poll is automatically created for each poll and shows on the right side of the screen under the Share section. This code is unique to this poll. You can download the code, print it out, and place it anywhere, like in your church bulletin or welcome card, for people to scan.
Anyone who scans the code on their phone will be taken to a webpage where they can select and submit their answer.
Sending a Poll via a link
When you set up your poll, one field you filled in was the Submission URL Identifier. This creates a custom link that you can send people to click on so that they can respond to your poll, and shows under the Share section.
You can copy this Link and paste it somewhere public like your website if you'd like people to be able to take the poll from the website. You can also use a Broadcast in Gloo to text it out to your congregation so that they can respond. Anyone who clicks that link will be taken to a webpage where they can select and submit their answer.
Sending a Poll via a live presentation
You can project a poll on a live presentation by clicking Present Poll in the bottom right corner of the Share section.
This will open a window with the poll on screen, as well as the QR code. You can project this on a screen up front and encourage people to scan the QR code and respond to the poll. All of their results will be updated on screen in real time!
Deleting a Poll
You can delete a poll by clicking Delete Poll at the bottom of your screen. However, once deleted, a poll and it's data cannot be recovered! In general, we recommend simply closing the pool so that people cannot continue to respond. That way you can keep the data for later viewing.
