Effective ways to respond to mission trip inquiries:
Have you received some basic interest from inquiries from your trips posted on MissionGuide.global?
Have you wondered why inquirers sometimes never respond to your email?
How do you effectively communicate and enlist potential goers for service beyond the first response?
We compiled some best practices from our trusted organizations on how they effectively respond to inquiries and are sharing them here with you.
Key Elements:
1. Prompt response. Best to respond the same day or at least within 24-48 hours to their inquiry. If they are looking at multiple trips from different organizations, their decision could come down to who responds first.
2. Brief but informative information on particular trip or trip they may be suited for.
This is not time for emailing pages and pages of information most will not read or be overwhelmed with. Specific and easily read information is best. And being sure to include welcoming interaction and questions.
3. Courteous, genuine, & relevant chat to get to know them. Anyone can send a form email response. Personalize it- at least the beginning. If they asked for specific information, give that first. They shouldn’t have to search for it. Some organizations also send out a brief questionnaire to return. This is all before an application.
4. Preferred communication. In your initial email response ask how they wish to hear back: email, text, call – including best number and time to reach them, or email. Some people may love a Zoom face to face approach, but ask first. This may be better held off until more interest or enlistment has been established.
5. Follow up. After contact, follow up with link to application, testimonies, or other similar trips and dates offered. A follow up call to see if they are still interested is also a good idea.
Remember that the first contact gives them not only information on a particular trip, but also an important glimpse into revealing the heart of your organization’s ministry, level of competence, accountability, experience and vision. Your response is best received when it is personal, caring and knowledgeable. This is not the time to bombard them or their email with a load of videos, long pdfs or form letters which may end up in their spam folder anyway.
This is an important interaction to see if you will be able to serve together and God is uniting you in this mission opportunity. Displaying a personal, brief, informative and attractive image in any response is always best.
Here are some other ideas and comments from some of our agencies:
- Provide a link in your initial email to reviews or testimonies from past trip leaders/participants.
- Brief information related to a specific trip should be their first initial contact
- Some organizations include a picture from the last similar trip with a sample trip itinerary, or newsletter from a team leader
- Brief questionnaire to send back indicating level of interest, the goers gifts or skills, and to get to know potential goer better, usually 5-6 questions is a standard practice for some organizations
- Some attach an application or provide a link for easy next steps
- Quick replies are essential, and replies that pique interest, and end with an ask or reason to reply really help.
We hope this gives you ideas and helps you as you seek to connect with potential goers for your mission trips.
Feel free to share other ideas that work for you. Email us at [email protected]
If you are an organization needing help with your team leadership, how to host and lead mission trips with best practices, MissionExcellence, one of our family of ministries, provide webinars, personalized training/coaching and accreditation. See more about MissionExcellence
By Dani Cypert, Customer Care Coordinator, MissionGuide
