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Church Communications Research 2013. Julie Irwin and Kate Turner. September 2013. Contents. Business context and objectives Methodology Communication Service Conclusions and recommendations Case studies. Business Context and Objectives.
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Church Communications Research 2013 Julie Irwin and Kate Turner September 2013
Contents Business context and objectives Methodology Communication Service Conclusions and recommendations Case studies
Business Context and Objectives • Ecclesiastical has a suite of Church communications including: • Church Matters Newsletter • Archdeacons Visitation News (where Ecclesiastical provides the inner four pages) • E-Newsletters • Seminars • Inserts at renewal • Parish Packs • All communication is supported by the Church Matters website. • Ecclesiastical wished to assess the usefulness /perceived value of its of the range of communications and understand the extent to which information was shared and passed on to other PCC members. • As a secondary objective, Ecclesiastical wanted to look at service experience, particularly via the telephone, and understand if there was a need for telephone service between 8am and 9am and 5pm and 6pm.
What we did... Research Methodology • 1 focus group (6 respondents) and 5 depth interviews as follows: • Focus group of 6 respondents – one clergy member, one treasurer and 4 church wardens. • Most were in rural locations in Wiltshire. • One used social media extensively for personal and church use; one other was a more occasional personal user. • 5 depth interviews: • One city centre location; two town locations and two village/ rural locations. • Two social media users. • The focus group lasted 1.5 hours and depth interviews lasted around 1 hour. • Fieldwork dates – 25th – 27th September 2013.
Use and Sharing of Communication • Recall /awareness of Ecclesiastical communications material/resources is relatively low and pass along rates are also low. Key challenge is to improve circulation • Overall the communications tested received a positive reaction, however it is not reaching a wide enough audience: • Recall and awareness of the materials/resources is low. Archdeacon Visitation News was most widely recalled (6 out of 11). • While respondents do take their risk management responsibilities seriously: • There is a lack of awareness of the resources that Ecclesiastical provide: • Ecclesiastical are not the first port of call for information (the Diocese, Church Care website, Church Buildings Council were all mentioned as alternative information sources) • Unless there is a specific trigger (e.g. requiring a faculty) respondents are unlikely to proactively seek information • Pass along rates for information/ communications are also low: • Church wardens, treasurers, secretaries are all volunteers and are often time poor (on other committees, involved in charities, family and/or work commitments etc..): • Don’t read everything they get - they receive a lot of information from different sources – achieving cut through is a challenge and insurance not perceived to be the most interesting/engaging topic • Don’t have time to pass on information (particularly adverse to photocopying) • Reluctance to circulate single hard copy as tends to disappear/get lost. • Don’t want to overload others with information by circulating/sharing materials others have received themselves • Reluctance to share information that falls into recipients remit: • Sharing information can lead to decisions by committee which many are keen to avoid
Church Matters Newsletter • A positive reaction to the Church Matters newsletter but recall & pass along rates relatively low • 5 out of 11 respondents definitely recall seeing the Church Matters newsletter. • 2 of the 5 currently pass on the newsletter – one to the treasurer and one to the buildings manager. The rest tend to ‘file’ the newsletter with other Ecclesiastical documents as it’s generally considered relevant only for church wardens and treasurers. • Typically glance through it and see if there’s anything of interest. Rather than pass on the whole newsletter, most respondents say they would note anything of wider interest and bring it up at a PCC meeting (in reality this doesn’t happen very often). Recall and usage Positives: Improvements/ challenges: • Articles = right length. Not too long – can go onto website if want more information. • Open churches article = very interesting/ useful. • Stone mason and bursary articles generally considered good –shows other ways in which Ecclesiastical are helping and supporting the Church. • Positive stories = lead theft down. • Good quality paper/nicely produced • Story articles less interesting to some (minority) – very busy volunteers and only want to be told things that are focused and relevant to their own church. RECALL
Church Matters Newsletter – In their own words... I just look through to see if there is anything that interests … If it was something of huge interest I would take it to the PCC at the next meeting and we can discuss it. On agenda. I’d probably not pass it on. We could take it and put it in the church on the table but whether people would read it is another matter. I think the only way to get it across to people is at the PCC to get their attention. insurance of churches is pretty boring and so low down on peoples mind, we have a job to get people to read things that they should be reading. (Small town church warden) I don't know - I probably have had it but I wouldn't have binned it but did I read it, perhaps not. ... We're all very busy people and we're all volunteers. The fact that lead theft is down is nice but it's not something I'd bring up at a PCC meeting - we're being encouraged to have fewer PCC meetings so I wouldn't bring up nice stories that don't affect us directly. ... The obvious things in here I'm already doing and unless there's something new I wouldn't pass it on. The survey is interesting... I didn't know about that... I will recommend that we have a survey. (Village church treasurer) The articles are fine but they're not something I'd read or pass on. I only have time for things that are relevant to me and give me some call to action. (Village church treasurer) • Probably note it if there was anything we needed to do and discuss with my co church warden and make sure we did it really. (Group discussion) Yes I've seen this. ... Yes, I would pass it on,... I would pass this on to our building manager and, because money was always such a big issue, if there was something on the front cover which said competition win £5000, which I know Ecclesiastical do run, that would always attract my attention. It’s a hook, clergy are always looking for money for their parishes. (City centre church)
Church Matters Newsletter • Format and frequency considered appropriate. Calendar has limited appeal. • Once a year on paper is considered appropriate: • More than once a year could be in danger of being repetitive. • Paper is considered good once a year by most – better chance of reading it. Minority would prefer all electronic communication (potential to ‘turn off’ all paper comms?) Format and frequency Coming out on paper once a year is good. I think paper you are more likely to read. Twice a year might be okay but not if they are going to be repeating themselves. (Small town church warden) On paper as it does save on downloading it... Once a year would be enough. (Group discussion) • Looks good, could be a useful reminder but not of wide appeal: • Most are already doing the things on the calendar (often at different times of the year). • Would only be relevant to church wardens and treasurers so wouldn’t put on notice board. • Linked videos potentially useful but email is a better way to communicate that. Calendar We do these things … we do have our lightening conductor inspected, we do have the fire people coming each year and looking at our fire extinguishers and replacing them if necessary, we do have the gutters cleaned regularly – in sense this is a little bit teaching granny to suck eggs although its quite a fun layout – but truthfully now I don’t think it is that useful. (Small village church secretary)
Archdeacons Visitation News • Most widely recalled (around a half ) but pass along rate low. Positive reaction to the communication but challenge is to extend reach. • 6 out of 11 respondents (all of the wardens) definitely recall seeing the Archdeacons Visitation News • Typically not passed on – seen as relevant to Church Wardens – although some would share this with the maintenance people within the church. • Confusion over Ecclesiastical’s role in AV News – Ecclesiastical potentially not getting the recognition deserved Recall and usage Positives: Improvements/ challenges: • Good length – not too long. • Format (paper at Archdeacons Visitation) considered appropriate. • Once a year = appropriate and right. • Tailored to the local area = good/ more interesting. • Particularly relevant to new Church wardens. • None mentioned in relation to AV news – however there is requirement for a new church warden pack (checklists, along lines of Parish Pack) . RECALL
Archdeacons Visitation News – In their own words... Useful in a hard copy - I was given this when I went for my induction as part of my paperwork package and I think as a new church warden you need as much information as you can get and this is quite useful... not really thought about passing it on - I wouldn't want to pass on too much - sometimes you can give people too much information. ... if there was anything key I would raise it at a PCC meeting. ... I didn't know Ecclesiastical provided the inner pages - I thought perhaps they sponsored it. (Small town church warden) I recall it once because we were featured on the front cover, that’s why I recall it, this was in 2004 when we were just reopening. So that sounds very egotistical that I remember that. London Diocese are the in the scheme are they because I don’t remember many, but perhaps it went to, they say dear Church Wardens … No I didn’t see it after that. So when the church wardens are installed and that meeting with the Arch Deacon, they give them out. I’m much more aware of the other one. (City Centre church clergy) I would look at this. And I would look at this as well mainly it is not too big, when I get big magazines through from various charities there is very little chance I get to get through those and I get lots of them because I support lots of charities. But this is just about right I wouldn’t want any more than this. Once a year for both is right, if it is more than that it just starts to get into too much information. Online you could do more than this. (Small village church secretary) • Again it has lots of different topics in it and for new church wardens it is probably quite important. • (Group discussion)
E-Newsletters • Overall email communication considered most effective – easy to scan for relevance and easy to circulate. • 4 out of 11 respondents definitely recall seeing E-Newsletters (others recalled emails but were unsure whether they were email newsletters) • Typically glanced at to see if there’s anything of interest but people receive a lot of emails/ email newsletters = hard to read them all. • Not usually forwarded on – sometimes assume other people have got it directly. Also, if there’s anything of interest would bring it up at a PCC meeting. Recall and usage Positives: Improvements/ challenges: • No barriers to providing email addresses – all respondents in the research use email and are happy to receive email newsletters. • Potentially interesting and informative articles • Easy to digest snippets with opportunity to follow links if more information is required • More chance of information being timely • Links to videos • Key challenge is ensuring email newsletters are eye catching enough to increase open and click through rates – to achieve cut through. RECALL
E-Newsletters – In their own words... I don't know if we've seen it. ... The trouble is we get so many emails... if it is on the e-newsletter you can scan through it and see if there is something that is relevant to your particular church or a particular problem you have then you can print it out and you have got it, and then take it along to meetings or put on the notice board so you are not under any obligation. Even if you choose not to read it at all you have got that option. I think they would have to put some sort of eye catching headline. Something that you are interested in. (Small Town Church Warden) What I would do, let’s say I got this, I probably would open it, planning ahead for Easter I’d ignore that, Smart Water we’ve done it. We have an electrical survey done. That we’ve communicated with Ecclesiastical to let them know that we were doing this (building work) they sent us back conditions that the builders had to follow and we made sure the builders were aware. So we did do that. My mind set is, I have limited amount of time, is there anything on there that I’m not doing, as far as I can see, no. That I wasn’t aware of (open church), if the headline was your church could be open and still secure, you could reduce your premium by this, I would look into it. Your cover could be improved by, best practice on securing churches, if the headline was like that I would look at it. (Village church treasurer) I mean I’m sure I must have received it but I think the idea of a video is a really good one. If it’s not possible to have a Ray Sule character actually coming to see you in person I think a video is a very good way of communicating especially in somewhere like Tower Hamlets where peoples reading skills (City centre church) • I do open it and then it’s a quick glance really and probably not a lot else – not forward on to anybody else. It would be easy to send it to everybody but am conscious that people get bombarded with all manner of emails and don’t want to cascade it to people who already have got it. And that is a disadvantage to a sense as don’t know who is on the email list. (Focus group discussion)
E-Newsletters • Format and frequency considered appropriate. Content needs to be focused and headlines eye catching to achieve cut through. • 6 times a year is considered appropriate: • Not too frequent but frequent enough to be useful/topical • Format of e-newsletter is considered good – essential that the headline is eye catching. Format and frequency • Content should be focused – while stories are interesting, focused risk management pieces that can directly affect the churches have more impact. • Linking to videos = a good way of communicating and getting messages across. • Using real life case studies has appeal. Content I would have thought it would be better to have each of them mixed (story/risk management) rather than just a single focus. And I would sort of say would want some real examples rather than you should be doing this to actually XYZ church tried doing this and although they were successful these were the problems they faced and this is how they resolved them – real live anecdote. (Small village secretary) • I think I would only want it if there was something really important you wanted us to know. Rather than planning ahead for Easter for example. If it was like that you would know that you would really need to do something about it - rather than just a general message. (Focus group discussion)
E-Newsletters – Specific Topics • Signing up to newsletters on specific topics is appealing. Additional suggestion for topics included: ‘What to do when your Vicar leaves’ (interregnum) – information to support Church Wardens if a Vicar leaves. “Have you reviewed your key policy” • While all tested topics had some appeal: • keeping the church open and secure, fire prevention and electrical wiring inspection had the widest appeal.
ChurchMatters Website • Positive response to the website however most hadn’t used the website and were unaware of its existence. • 3 out of 11 respondents said they’d visited the Church Matters website before • The remainder weren’t aware that it existed as a resource. • Those that have used the website had all had some construction work done on the Church and have looked at the website to get information on construction work. Recall and usage Positives: Improvements/ challenges: • Wealth of information/ very informative • Videos – very informative, well done • Easy to navigate • Key challenge is making sure people know it’s there and can be used as a resource – email newsletters with click through articles is the best way of communicating this but also backed up by information at archdeacons visitations, in the renewal pack, at survey etc.. • Signage from main Ecclesiastical website (not immediately clear) • Search function RECALL
ChurchMatters Website – In their own words... Well what you’ve got to do to get people to go on to it, is to sell the information that is on it as being useful to churches. Go on this website because you’ll get value from it. The easiest way to do that would be to have a covering note, did you know we have a website, it would provide all of this for you. Did you know you could get a free survey … it’s those things, that’s what encourages them, I would never have thought of that (Village church treasurer) If I stick on the churches bit it is a bit easier to navigate around but if you start off on the home page it is difficult to know what is there. The signage I couldn’t see a site map at the bottom so I could find out what there was – the church matters … was better but there is a lot of stuff there and can it be found quickly well it needs I wonder if it is there and if it is not – a search box – it is better than many – but overall I think it depends where you go in and you don’t know where you are looking for. (Small town Church treasurer) I thought it was pretty good and user friendly, just the headline and you go onto and then whack you are onto that. And I like the fact they have little videos like YouTube. Not been on it before. Didn’t know it was there before. You said about emails – have a look at our videos – you can find important information on our videos because often when someone sends it through and there is a link you press on it and watch it straight away. (Small town church warden) • I was surprised that it wasn’t just about answering issues on insurance. Yes they do need to get that message out there, email and also communicating in renewal letters and through the diocese because don’t forget we get information from the diocese. Letters to ministers. (Small village church secretary)
Parish Pack • Very positive reactions to Parish Pack - Considered very useful. • 1 out of 11 respondents recalled receiving a parish pack: • Much bigger pack than the one shown in research. Recall and usage Positives: Improvements/ challenges: • Very useful – very interesting. • Using less paper than previously – sufficient information on paper and then directing to the website for more information is appropriate. • Separate booklets for separate information (can be given to appropriate people easily) • Health & safety and fire risk check list approach felt to be extremely helpful • Increase distribution – clear that there is appeal/demand for this pack between surveys. • Demand for Parish Pack to be handed out as part of Church Warden’s Induction. RECALL
Parish Pack – In their own words... I think they are excellent. They are very concise each little bit is very concise and they are easy to read and health and safety guide and how to carry out your own risk assessments and that sort of thing – I wouldn’t know where to start but these are quite useful. (Focus Group discussion) This would have been really handy. Why haven’t I seen this before (I think it’s quite new), wow, this would’ve been really good it’s a fill in kind of thing, the kind of thing that church wardens can work through or building managers can work through and you can kind of go back to and, yes, that would’ve been very good. (City centre clergy) • Oh this is good. Very interesting. Can we keep this? Once we have read it and the other church wardens we could even put it in the church, we could draw out of this anything we need to discuss at the PCC and what we should be doing. And I think that is one of our failings we get stuff in the bundle from the diocese and you have to pass it round so that the next person sees it but then it just seems to disappear and half the things that I see in there I think oh that is useful that should be up on the notice board as it is suppose to be and you haven’t seen it happen and I think that sort of information, people aren’t that interested in insurance but that covers quite a lot of things really. What we could do is pass that one round the PCC members and see if anybody wants to pick up on anything. (Small town church warden) Very very useful, because effectively we have had to develop some of this ourselves, so this is incredibly useful, our H&S policy we have had to cobble something together. Really useful.... If you have pages and pages of stuff people just don’t read it. Really useful. I am sure the church warden would be very interested in this. Thank you. (Small village church secretary)
Inserts at Renewal • Potentially a useful message but no recall of inserts so message isn’t achieving cut through. That is interesting if we have a higher excess we could reduce our premium – do we know what our excess is? You have actually highlighted something which we said we have done with the utilities. We really do need to review our insurance. (Small town church warden) I actually think that an email a month before renewal it gets you thinking perhaps we need to have a conversation about this and bear in … if it was something that needed to be discussed at the PCC then there is a long lead time. (Small village church secretary) • None of the respondents remembered seeing this particular insert at renewal. • One respondent recalled an insert on discounts for introducing other churches. • The content was considered useful: • However this is potentially a message that should be received in advance of renewal:
Seminars • Awareness of seminars low. Potentially useful for a minority but not considered key. • A couple of years ago I went to an evening seminar by Ecclesiastical on lead theft which was very topical at the time and there must have been 70-80 people there at this one meeting and that was very useful. We had been hit about 7 times within about 2 years. (Focus group discussion) • Just one respondent had been to a seminar: • Just one other was aware of seminars – most weren’t aware that Ecclesiastical ran seminars at all. • Lack of volunteer time would be key barrier to attendance. • A minority felt seminars would be useful (if they were on specific, relevant topics) however the majority was of the opinion that: • It was difficult to get people to commit to going to seminars (on line videos work better) • Any costs involved couldn’t be covered by the church (even if seminars were free, it’s still asking people to give up more time and pay for petrol etc..) • Specific topics of interest similar to E-Newsletters. • A seminar on using social media for the church mentioned by one as potentially very useful.
Advertising • Mixed response to the new ads – on balance more negative than positive reaction. Positives: Improvements/ challenges: • On brand – use of corporate colours; more corporate identity. • Which? Endorsement • Red background – makes it difficult to read/ see. • Images less eye catching than previous pictures used. These are obviously identifiable logos clearer and the right colour and everything and it is very interesting … I also think it is very good to have got the Which label on here. I am quite surprised to see that they are a Which recommended provider. So that the corporate identify is a lot stronger. (Small village church secretary) I don’t like the red ad, I find the existing ones easier to see from afar... The older ones are more eye catching and more striking – I don’t like the red background. (Focus group discussion) I I like that particular colour (on the old ads) … Probably not mad keen, compared to this it does look like a lot of words I must admit, looks a bit wordy. … at the moment I see that colour and think more of Ecclesiastical but they might, I presume they’ve taken advice from disability groups about what’s the best colour scheme… I think the orange is quite bright and an attractive colour but it may be that they’ve done some eyesight work and it should be a darker colour on the background perhaps. A bit dull. (city centre clergy)
Social Media • Only a minority have embraced social media as a means of communicating to the congregation/community about their church. The curate in his late 20’s and a youth worker in his late 20’s and so they kind of dragged me… said we have to do this it should’ve been done ages ago, they set up as you say a Facebook page… it was very well used by church members. I remember that somebody put up, on Good Friday, a little kind of cartoon explanation of what the meaning of Good Friday was and we had about 5000 likes. So yes, I think it’s the way it definitely led us into a very important. (City centre clergy) • One church in particular has a goodish number of young people and some of their friends have engaged with some of things the church is doing through Facebook friends. (Focus group discussion) • We really need help with the social media… Getting the message out telling people what it going on like the church teas that might be that people who are in to that and for example walks people do walk around here quite a lot we are on a number of picturesque walks … we ought to be linking, come to the church buy a guidebook – make a donation. ... And the other detail is that we want to advertise this space as a community space not just for this village. (Small village church secretary) • Mixed in terms of Facebook and Twitter usage for the church: • 3 out of 11 respondents were actively involved in Facebook for the church (less so Twitter at the moment): • 2 of these have Facebook pages (both clergy) and believe it does encourage younger members of the Church and helps get their message out there: • The remaining respondent had set up a Facebook page and saw it as critical in getting their message out and advertising the church however wasn’t sure how to go about it:
Social Media • There is limited interest in an Ecclesiastical Twitter feed or Facebook page. • We do have a website for the church which is updated quite regularly and a lot of people look at that but I think actually we are the wrong church for twitter/facebook. (Small town church warden) It’s not my form of communication, I know lots of youngsters use it all the time.... We've not really got much of a website. We would like to improve our website. (Small village treasurer) • One thing which really winds me up on Facebook/twitter are companies that muscle in and advertise – so to answer your next question I wouldn’t want to see Ecclesiastical on Facebook/twitter. (Focus group discussion) • The great benefit with email is that it comes to you, Facebook … if I have to go on to a facebook page because I doubt that I would because I have got other things going on in my life. (Small village secretary) • Eight out of 11 respondents reject the idea of using social media – primarily because of their lack of interest in social media: • Limited appeal in Ecclesiastical’s twitter feed and Facebook page: • One respondent felt Ecclesiastical should embrace social media although they themselves would be unlikely to use this medium. • Existing Twitter users wouldn’t be interested in following Ecclesiastical on Twitter (and the tweets themselves considered repetitive):
Church Competition – Awareness • Low awareness of the Ecclesiastical competition but viewed as supportive and commendable by most. I am not in favour. Partly because I think I’ll be paying for it somehow in my premiums and partly because they are an insurance company and it’s not their core business. (Focus group discussion) It’s got to be enough to get people interested and big enough to make a difference. These amounts are fine. Cash is best because there’s the flexibility to spend it on what you want. (Focus group discussion) • Just one respondent was aware of the Ecclesiastical church competition: • Recalled one a few years ago about a church website competition – the respondent’s church didn’t enter themselves but were in the process of setting up their own website so used it for information/ looking at best practice. • The majority of respondents felt Ecclesiastical offering a church competition with the 3 prizes as advertised was commendable and demonstrated support of the church... • However, a small minority questioned the relevance of an insurer offering such a competition and was cynical about whether it affected premiums. • Cash prizes considered most relevant – and the amount suggested is appropriate:
Church Competition – Entering • To encourage entry the theme needs to be something easy to co-ordinate and administer. Sufficient notice required – preferably at the beginning of the year. Something like a church magazine competition as a competition might be interesting – because you can just say here is our magazine and stick it in an envelope and send it to them, maybe the last 2-3 copies and then I suppose you could scan in the winning ones and put them on the website… We have got a magazine editor so if she – if it was just a matter of somebody popping it into an envelope and sending it off to Gloucester or wherever as long as 20 different people didn’t do the same thing it would need to be co-ordinated from that point of view so perhaps it would get discussed at a church council meeting … We need to know what is coming up and have a mind to do some things about deadlines with at least 3-4 months notice. (Town church treasurer) • Encouraging churches to enter is a challenge: • PCC members are volunteers and busy: • Getting someone to commit to doing what’s needed and entering might be difficult (it would need to be co-ordinated) • There is also some feeling that “we wouldn’t win anyway so what’s the point of entering?” • The theme suggested (best use of church buildings) has some appeal (and its clear there are some novel/creative activities going on), however : • Could be too much work involved (taking photographs writing something up) • Element of bias/lack of fair chance - Not all churches have additional buildings or the location puts them at a disadvantage for community use. • One theme suggested was best church magazine:
Service • Overall, respondents have been happy with service received. Telephone hours of 9-5 are considered sufficient. Telephone On line Email/mail Good claims service: • Those who have had a claim experience typically very happy with the telephone service received. • Feel they have spoken to a specialist church insurer who understands their needs; very able to answer queries. • Very few had reason to call other than claims – never considered calling to discuss premium level/ excess etc.. • All said they called between 9 and 5 – and said there was no need to have hours between 8-9 and 5-6. • Just one had a minor complaint: • Dislike of 0845 numbers (too expensive) • Call back facility is appealing if on hold – most would like the call back within 30-60 minutes. • On line service with policy documents is appealing: • Often volunteers who file things away in own home and if something happens while they’re away, no one else knows how/ where to access documents. On line access of policy documents considered useful. • Strong appeal for on line calculator tool to calculate premiums/ excess: • All respondents are cost conscious and most unaware that this was an option for them • A minority prefer to communicate via email: • Easy to do in own time • Have a record of all communication • Typically would expect/ want: • An immediate response (automatic) to say the email had been received and to give the timeframe in which it would be dealt with • A reply within 2-3 working days answering queries/ giving next steps • Just one had been disappointed with email service (lost email, lack of response). • Limited need/ use of postal channels. I really like the idea of having an on line calculator to put in a premium and excess and play around with what the premium could be. (Small town church warden) A dummy email that basically says we’ve received your email and you will get a response within 48 hours. That would be fine. (Small village church treasurer)
Service – In their own words... whenever I ring up to say we have had some lead taken and we are going to have to make a claim each time the details are taken very quickly and efficiently and given a claim number and when we have further information it goes through very smoothly I find. (Focus group discussion) I suppose yes that’s what they are and when you need them they come to your aid, professional with the dealings that I had and also when we had the work done because it took quite a long time I gave them the bill and that was fine too and they were quite helpful in talking me through the questions that I asked about how long did we have to do it within a timeframe and questions I had they were able to answer.(Focus group discussion) I haven’t found a need to do that, what was going through my mind was under what circumstances would I. No, because if there is a break-in or theft which has occurred there is not much Ecclesiastical can do about it, put simply they are going to pay money back once we’ve got it sorted. They don’t and neither should they, they don’t take a part in sorting out what’s gone wrong, you know, it’s either a theft or a break-in. I get advice from the church architect, because there is lots of constraints because it’s a grade 2 star building and the diocese is quite fussy about what we can and can’t do with the building. So no, I can’t immediately think of any reason why I’d need to contact them out of hours. (Small village church treasurer) • 9-5 is fine. If we had a situation where we had a phone call to say that somebody has ripped all the lead of the roof we would immediately call the police but would like to contact Ecclesiastical – I am not saying that you need 24/7 cover as it is unlikely you are going to discover that at 3 o’clock in the morning but usually find it when it rains... .most people assume there isn't anyone to take calls before 9am. (Small town church warden)
Conclusions and recommendations • The communication material/resources all received positive feedback… However • Ecclesiastical is not necessarily first port of call for risk management guidance/advice/help: • Work in closer partnership with Diocese and other church resources (Church care, Church Buildings) to ensure the risk management help/advice available from Ecclesiastical is more promoted on relevant websites. • It is essential that Ecclesiastical improve circulation and investment is required to build the database: • Can’t assume that information is going to reach the right people as recipients rarely pass on or share information • Need to invest and build a more extensive database of email addresses/ contact details of church wardens, treasurers, secretaries, clergy. • Use existing contact details to mail out requesting email addresses • Communications could be improved to encourage readership/cut through: • Length could be paired back (keep communications concise and succinct) • Headlines and articles should be focused and relevant (risk management of more interest than stories) • Consider more hard hitting headlines/stronger calls to action to encourage cut through • More tailored communication e.g. signing up for specific Enewsletter topics • Role for a succinct warden pack/checklist – circulated to new wardens and wardens whose Vicar is leaving. • Telephone service experience typically around claims (those who hadn’t had claims had limited experience). • Feedback on service typically good – all felt they’d dealt with a specialist church insurer and had been well supported through the claims process • Call back facility is appealing if on hold – most would like the call back within 30-60 minutes.
Case Studies Depth Interview case studies
Church Communications Research 2013 Julie Irwin and Kate Turner September 2013
