Great article today called Is your org gettin’ it?. Response is key to online ministry…and timely response even better. The article quotes a survey done of financial services companies:

Here are some of those results:

• one out of five inquiries never receives a reply.
• a third receive messages that are deemed unhelpful, often involving canned text and stock answers directing users to the Web site.
• 31 percent of firms did not respond consistently or did not respond at all to online inquiries resulting in nearly 20 percent of all online inquiries being ignored.
• only 47 percent were answered within a day of being sent.

Studies consistently show that users expect an answer in less than one day. Many of the best companies (Amazon, Dell, etc.) are responding in four hours.

I’ve told you about one ministry response center you can volunteer with. Here’s another. If you’ve got an online ministry, please, don’t neglect those who are asking questions. Have the systems in place to respond.