PastorsLine vs. One Call Now by OnSolve

Last edited: January 2021

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We think that One Call Now by Onsolve is a great company that serves many organizations. This guide is for information only and isn't updated regularly. It's based on publically shared information only. Please use this guide only as a reference point in your research as you make the best-informed decision based on your specific needs, goals or circumstances.

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Which describes your church communication system?

• One-way - We send out announcements, prayer requests, event reminders, etc.
• Two-way - We do all that but we ALSO actively capture new visitor data (digital connect cards), get regular feedback from our church members, run contests to keep our church community engaged, etc.

Churches that want to just push announcements (aka text/voice blasting) are going to be satisfied with One Call Now by Onsolve.

Churches who want to engage and grow will prefer a solution like ours: PastorsLine.

To help you understand the clear differences, we decided to do a comparison between PastorsLine and One Call Now.

After checking out the details, have a look at the comparison chart at the bottom.

For sure, we have a definite opinion on which platform your church should choose. Having said that, we have done our best to present accurate and up-to-date facts. In the event you feel we have made a mistake or misrepresented anything, please call and let us know (800) 260-9705 or send us an email ([email protected]) so we can clear up the confusion.

So, here’s the bottom line.

Onsolve is an outward-bound communication system. It allows you to effectively send text and voice messages to your church community.

PastorsLine is a two-way communication system, more like the way we humans naturally connect and engage. The added features, which allow your church community to text back to you and your team, mean that you can build deeper, more natural relationships via an essentially digital medium.

How does PastorsLine do that?

***Our Newest Difference: Short code Keywords***

Once, short codes were spammy. Now, they are much the opposite.

Why is the short code important?
The short code is already the recommended option for any bulk text messaging in order to avoid your messages being classified as “spam” by the mobile carriers. In addition, you will be able to trigger important campaigns using a short and easy to remember code; in our case, our shared, leased short code; 77411.

What are short code keywords?
Keywords are WORDS or PHRASES you can set up within PastorsLine to trigger a specific campaign (autoreply or data capture text bot). Short code keywords are those triggers which are used with our leased US shortcode, 77411. Since this shortcode is shared by all of our church partners, the triggers have to be unique to each church.

Try it: Text WELCOME to 77411.

 

Why did you lease a shared short code?
Basically, sharing the cost makes it more affordable for everyone. Purchasing your own short code costs a minimum of $1000/m for a randomly assigned short code.

Here are some more comparison points to consider...

 

1. PastorsLine’s features help your church to more effectively reach, connect and engage with your members and first-time guests in order to build deeper, more natural relationships.

• Advanced data capture (FKA autoresponder)—Capturing contact data in a non-intrusive, digital way is a top priority. PastorsLine offers more than the basic autoreply to a link so you can capture additional information like name, email and birthday without having your subscriber leave their chat application. You are likely to get the data as it’s captured in a more organic way.

• Voice broadcasting (or voice messaging)—Contact doesn’t use texting? Connect by voice. Contact not in? Leave a warmer, friendlier communication in their voicemail.
• Voice call forwarding—What about if you are not in? Your callers will hear a personalized message informing them that their call will now be transferred to your voicemail. All messages are shown within the same thread to show you a history of the communication.
• Outboard 1-on-1—You already have a unique local number for your church or ministry. Being able to not only receive but make calls from the same caller ID can ensure a synergistic communication solution that isn’t tied to your personal phone line.

• Birthday campaigns—Getting a ‘just for you’ text on their birthday touches most people in a positive, caring way. They know you care, even after you have gotten them into your disciple process. Great way to save administrative time as well as it’s 100% automated from birthday date capture to automated personalized text.
• Contests—This a great opportunity to get your guest to attend an event or your regular members to engage on your program while also capturing their data. It makes it easy to randomly pick a winner and send a message via text. People are motivated to participate and that’s what we’re after, right?
• Live polling—Imagine an event at your church...perhaps a concert, an evangelical gathering, or a community-church health fair. Asking your participants to give real time feedback lets you know exactly what they are thinking so you can change things up to better meet their needs. Then you have a segmented list of cell phone contacts to follow up with after the event and continue to engage / move along to the next steps.
• More than one number—PastorsLine offers you the option of dedicating specific numbers to specific purposes (or people) for a more personal engagement. You can pick a unique local 10 digit number for each person on your team and create a virtual cell phone network. Alternatively, you can mix and match, allowing people to share the same lines.

2. The name of the game is integrations.

Our philosophy is that churches should build a digital communication strategy using the best platforms and apps for the job. To support that, we have added programming so that PastorsLine integrates with many of the platforms you are already using.

Already, this platform seamlessly integrates with Planning Center Online (PCO), Breeze, Tithely (Elvanto), Mailchimp and Church Community Builder (CCB). We are looking into the feasibility of Slack. Following user feedback (which we always pay attention to), more integrations are in the works such as Zapier.

Why are we so keen on integrations?
Different platforms and apps have different strengths. A great example is email: PastorsLine doesn’t make MailChimp users switch to its internal limited email system but let’s them stick with the platform they know and love. We know we can’t recreate email solutions but we can do what we do best—text. PastorsLine integrates wth many of the platforms you are already using. See our list of updated integrations in the table below.

3. PastorsLine is priced for church communication. Comparing apples to apples, PastorsLine’s adjusted cost for 1500 texts is $37.50 per month. We use a credit system which allows you to buy another bucket of credits whenever needed.

Looking for something more start-up? Our Inception basic plan is only $10 a month.
We have clients on this basic plan who are texting champions and don’t even use up all their credits each month. We also have clients on this basic plan who have got 50-75-100,000 contacts in our database.

4. PastorsLine gives you better feedback on where you are and where you need to go. Basic analytics and reporting just doesn’t cut it for today’s churches whose digital strategies need to be data-driven. So PastorsLine has advanced capabilities built-in. It would be important to know how your mobile strategy is working, right? To prove that such-and-such a campaign or event moved X number of people to next steps closer to Christ. Track your success via stats such as opt-in rates and click-throughs—all easily accessible via your PastorsLine dashboard.

Why don’t we offer an unlimited texting plan?

PastorsLine believes in being truthful, not using marketing ploys.
The simple truth is that if a company is offering you unlimited texting, look for a limit somewhere else...such as capped number of contacts, reduced text speed, annual contracts you cannot cancel and use of mostly short codes.

Another limit is the one imposed by the mobile phone carriers who have their radar fine-tuned for text blasting. To them, that’s roughly over 500 msgs/day, over 100 msgs/hr, and over 25-50 per time per number. Exceed these numbers and you can find your phone number blocked. (We’ve found solutions though: secondary numbers and/or our dedicated shared short code.)

Learn more about why unlimited really isn’t at this link.

PastorsLine prefers to offer:

• Virtually infinite space for unlimited contacts so that all-sized churches can spread the Truth and grow their ministries.
• Monthly and annual plans (cancellable at any time) to match your flow.
• Long codes and short codes—choose the option that best fits your text needs.
  
• True transparency about costs.

Sounds like PastorsLine can take us to the next level. We’re in for the free trial. (https://my.pastorsline.com/register)

It’s interesting but I’m not sure yet. I’d like to find out more. (link to eBook)