Search for the ideal church database (part 2)

July 15, 2009 in for Churches, Pastors

The search continues (for some context, read Part 1 and The List: 32 Church Database Solutions).

Where am I up to in the search?

I’ve signed up for some trials of church databases and it’s been an interesting (read: frustrating) but enlightening experience. Here’s what I’ve encountered:

1. I’m trying to get details on the cost of one database. I’ve now sent around 5 emails (to the sales rep who originally got in contact with me and also the general email address for the company) – but I’ve received no response. I hope this wouldn’t be representative of the support I’d receive if I signed up for the product, and then had a problem with it.

2. I’m trying to sign up for a trial account with another database. Every time I try to sign up to create a trial account the following error message appears:

“We were unable to create your trial account at this time. Please contact us directly.”

So I have contacted them directly several times (as I’ve tried to sign up several times!), and every piece of advice I’m given to create an account fails. Again, this isn’t a positive sign – if I can’t even create a trial account, how can I have confidence in the product that I would be paying to use?

Neither of the above companies seem particularly interested in my business. In fact, in the example above, I’m not even addressed in email correspondence and each reply is a brief one-liner, e.g.

“Do you have a different email you can use to see if that is causing the issue? let me know..”

Not a ‘Hi, how are you?’. Not an apology ‘I’m sorry it’s taking so long to get this trial working’.

This doesn’t give a great impression.

3. I’ve signed up for another database trial which, much to my frustration, required far more information than they actually need to provide me with a trial (check out ‘Don’t make contact painful‘). I was able to complete the trial request form (a better result than in the previous example!) but the confirmation page had typos and a terrible graphic:

PC User

What is that graphic trying to communicate?!

In fact, terrible graphics seem to be the order of the day for church database websites! For example, here’s another three that I’ve come across:

membership

church

Screenshot_DatabaseHomepage

Two questions arise from the latest steps in my search:

  1. Am I just being pedantic and fickle to be so easily turned off by typos and cringe-worthy graphics? Does the appearance and accuracy of a website matter, or is functionality the only consideration?
  2. Am I right to think poorly of the product based on my experience with the sales people? Or should I try to put this out of my mind too, and just use the functionality of the product as the only consideration in selecting a database?
  • Steven Kryger

    I just received an email from the third company I mentioned above, rejecting my trial application. They said:

    “Dear Mr. Kryger,

    Thanks for your interest in MembershipEdge.
    I am writing to let you know that we do not market our service outside of the US and Canada.
    Primarily this is because we do not support dates in the dd/mm/yyyy format.
    This is a show stopper for everyone who uses this date format since dates are such an integral part of church management.
    Again, I thank you for your interest and wish you the best in your
    mininstry [sic].”

  • Steven Kryger

    I sent an email to another database provider to request a trial and received the following email in response:

    “Thank you for contacting Logos Support. A technician will beresponding within the terms of your contract. Please note that, forsecurity purposes, file attachments to emails that do not contain yourcustomer ID in the subject line will not be opened.”

    I sent my email to the only email address listed on their contact page.

  • http://check12.com Ben Hudson

    Hi Steve,

    I have had a play with quite a few of the databases you’ve listed. I’ve found it really hard to find one that ticks all the boxes.

    The one that intrigues me the most is OneBody. The things I like about it are that its free, its not hosted which means you own the data and can integrate its database into other systems, but mostly its Social Networking orientation makes it modern and powerful for much more than just database functions.

    It is easy to use, replaces the church directory, maintains itself (ie your congregation maintain their own record) and it helps groups to communicate and collaborate.

    Other pros are – its an open source project being actively developed and the lead developer is a really nice guy who is happy to integrate any code contributions.

    The cons are – its a bit light on with traditional database features… eg its not easy enough to add custom fields to people’s records. It’s also Ruby on Rails and can be a bit tricky to install.

    anyway – really keen to hear your findings… I think the ‘social network’ angle is definitely the way to go.

    There are a few other social networks that look interesting including cobblestone: http://www.cobblestonecn.com/ and Mars Hill’s ‘the city’.

  • http://www.bathgates.net Ben

    Okay, easy now Bathgate.

    Steve, you are a more patient man than I.

    1. You are not being unreasonably pedantic. A database provider’s website is the face of the company. If it looks rubbish, they’re rubbish, especially if they’re an online solution.

    2. After a reasonable period, it’s time to name and shame these people. If they can’t get sales right, what hope do you have for getting support? You’re getting non-replies, impersonal one-liners and misspelt emails. That’s a dealbreaker, ladies.

    These are two sides of the same coin: poor customer interface (website) + poor sales response = fail.

  • Ashley

    Hi Steve,

    #1: Not unreasonable at all, attention to detail is often a mindset that pervades the entire company, if Sales/Marketing don’t have this as a priority then it is likely that Development/Product Management don’t either.

    This is a generalisation I know, but let’s face it – what else do you have to judge these companies by?

    #2: In terms of how to judge a database, I’m using a system whereby I list out all our requirements (separated into functional & non-functional groups). Then rate the importance of each using defined categories, I’m using “Must Have”, “Should Have”, “Could Have” for example but the general idea is to prioritise requirements. Also by splitting requirements into Functional & Non-Functional you are assessing more then just the ‘widget’ value. Examples of non-functional would be; support for various browsers, implementation of particular security levels, etc.

    If you don’t have a list of requirements you are looking for then it can be hard as there is no baseline or “yard stick” with which to compare functions of each solution. Solution XYZ may have some fantastic function – but is it something that your Users really need (or will use)? If not (i.e. it isn’t rated as “must have”) then it isn’t really of high value to you (even though out of context it might be technically a very impressive function).

  • http://www.churchcommunitybuilder.com David Coons

    Steven,

    This is David Coons from Church Community Builder.

    I wanted to let you know that I have sent you pricing on multiple occasions (12 Aug, 29 June, 13 July) as well as a long email on 16 July, explaining how you don’t seem to be receiving any of my pricing.

    When you responded again today, asking for pricing, expressing your disappointment and not even mentioning my previous email, I decided to post my response here, knowing that you would actually see this message.

    I noticed in today’s email, you are using a different email address than the one that you supplied us for communications. I will attempt to send pricing one more time to this new address. If you have not received it in the next 24 hours, please let me know and I will contact you to find out how we can overcome what appears to be a breakdown in communication.

    Contrary to what you may have been feeling, CCB does appreciate the opportunity to work with you and your ministry needs. God is doing a lot of great things among the Australian churches and He is allowing CCB to be a part of that…which is VERY exciting.

    Please let me know if you have not received the pricing information.

    Your Brother in Christ,

    David Coons
    CCB

  • Steven Kryger

    Hi David, thanks so much for posting the comments and following up. I’m not sure what’s going on with the emails! I’ve checked through the sent items and each of the emails I’ve sent has been from the same address – somehow it just seems that some of your replies aren’t getting through. This is very confusing – and frustrating for us both. I’ve received a couple of emails from you overnight – thanks. I do appreciate you persevering – I’ll reply to those now. Thank you.