ServiceUniverse » Uncategorized http://www.serviceu.com/blog The official blog of ServiceU Corporation Thu, 11 Mar 2010 21:35:49 +0000 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.8.4 en hourly 1 1o tips to promote your Easter performance http://www.serviceu.com/blog/1o-tips-to-promote-your-easter-performance/ http://www.serviceu.com/blog/1o-tips-to-promote-your-easter-performance/#comments Thu, 11 Mar 2010 21:35:49 +0000 Mackenzie http://www.serviceu.com/blog/?p=1006 Are you looking for affordable ways to promote your church’s Easter performance? If so, be sure to check out 10 Tips to promote your Easter performance. This article  features easy-to-do marketing and PR tools that your church can implement to help ‘get the word out’ about your production.  There are some great ways to reach people beyond your church campus. Do you have any suggestions? Share them with  us and other churches.

]]> http://www.serviceu.com/blog/1o-tips-to-promote-your-easter-performance/feed/ 0 Online ticketing fees waived to new customers http://www.serviceu.com/blog/online-ticketing-fees-waived-to-new-customers/ http://www.serviceu.com/blog/online-ticketing-fees-waived-to-new-customers/#comments Mon, 08 Mar 2010 21:39:59 +0000 Mackenzie http://www.serviceu.com/blog/?p=986 During the holidays such as Christmas and Easter, many churches rely on special events – larger and more frequent church services, holiday-themed performances, concerts and even art galleries – to draw people in to their church as a form of outreach to the community. These events are wonderful tools to communicate the Gospel beyond your front doors and assist with overall church growth.

But before your events begin, it’s critical to take a look at the way you register people and take and sell tickets. Taking tickets for events online through your website is a wonderful solution for both events that incur a fee and those that do not.

“TicketU has made it easier for our members to invite guests, which helps with our outreach to those who may not have a church background,” says Candy Phillips, church hostess for Bellevue Baptist Church. “Last year, our Easter Memphis Passion Play drew more than 25,000 people. Although we still sell tickets at our box office, more than 50 percent of the tickets we sell are sold through online ticketing.”

With Easter just around the corner, reserving seats for the Easter services, purchasing tickets for the annual Easter egg hunt, or reserving box seats for the Easter Musical online just might be the way to go for your church. TicketU is an excellent solution that can turn your administrative nightmare and into a springtime dream.

Sign up to use TicketU for your online ticket sales by April 1, 2010, and receive your first 300 tickets free (a $300 value).

To learn more about how TicketU can simply the way you sell online tickets and to lock in your 300 free tickets, click here or call 866-709-7420 today!

Click on the links below to read more about churches that have successfully implemented TicketU for outreach:

]]> http://www.serviceu.com/blog/online-ticketing-fees-waived-to-new-customers/feed/ 0 TransactU selected as featured resource on Digital Church http://www.serviceu.com/blog/transactu-selected-as-featured-resource-on-digital-church/ http://www.serviceu.com/blog/transactu-selected-as-featured-resource-on-digital-church/#comments Thu, 04 Mar 2010 16:27:37 +0000 Tim http://www.serviceu.com/blog/?p=982 I’m very pleased to share with you that TransactU has been selected as one of the recommended resources featured as part of LifeWay Christian Resource’s Digital Church initiative that launched yesterday.

Digital Church is a collection of web-based services that LifeWay endorses. LifeWay launched the new Web portal as a way to give ministry leaders access, in one place, to a full range of resources, services and solutions that are easy to use and come from trusted resource providers.

In order to select trusted resource provides featured on Digital Church, LifeWay thoroughly researched technology products and services targeted to churches and ministries. Based on this careful, deliberate approach, LifeWay selected solutions to share with those they serve through the Digital Church Web portal.  And, we at ServiceU are so honored that Lifeway selected TransactU as their recommended source for online event registrations, payments and donations.

We are really excited to be working with LifeWay to help churches utilize technology to further their mission. LifeWay’s vision for the Digital Church aligns perfectly with our mission to make “serving others simplified.” Our goal is to bring technological advances to churches and ministries in easy-to-use software tools. Digital Church is a great resource for church leaders who are looking for those software tools that are best suited for their ministries, and we are truly honored that TransactU has been selected as a recommended resource. 

As you may know, TransactU™, is our software that equips churches to set up online giving and event registration. We are one of the few companies in compliance with the Payment Card Industry (PCI) Data Security Standards as a Level 1 Service Provider – meaning clients can have the highest degree of confidence in the security of their credit card information when making online purchases or donations.

To learn more, read the news release announcing the launch of the Digital Church initiative, or visit Digital Church.

As always, I appreciate your continued support and patronage of ServiceU.
Tim

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I want to take a moment to let you know about some significant enhancements that we are making to our system. Tuesday, February 2nd, we will be deploying an updated user interface for my.serviceu.com. The screenshots below should give you a picture of how these changes will provide a cleaner, more modern interface. While the look has changed, the functionality is basically the same (for now). So while you will certainly notice the new look, all of your favorite features will still be in their familiar places.

The improvements to the user interface yield “lighter” pages that will load faster in browsers. These changes will also provide better support for a wider variety of web browsers. Many elements have been improved to provide better readability and usability, including the home page, search events pages, as well as buttons and other graphics throughout the system. This new design will also enable us to provide a better and more consistent display of errors and warnings.

So while we hope you enjoy the new look and cleaner interface, there are numerous “behind the scenes” modifications to the underpinnings of the system that are part of the ongoing improvements that will be rolled out in the weeks and months to come. We will keep you posted as we prepare to roll out more enhancements.

Let me be clear: we absolutely value your suggestions for improvements and new features. These changes, along with the many others that we made during 2009, demonstrate our commitment to not only listen to you but to take action. As always, we welcome your feedback and suggestions via email at support@serviceu.com.

Thank you for the privilege of serving you and your organization.

Tim Whitehorn
Founder and CEO

]]> http://www.serviceu.com/blog/serviceu-system-enhancements/feed/ 0 Accept online donations from your church’s website to help Haitian relief efforts http://www.serviceu.com/blog/accept-online-donations-from-your-churchs-website-to-help-haitian-relief-efforts/ http://www.serviceu.com/blog/accept-online-donations-from-your-churchs-website-to-help-haitian-relief-efforts/#comments Thu, 14 Jan 2010 18:38:05 +0000 Mackenzie http://www.serviceu.com/blog/?p=834 Accepting Donations from your website: A Way to Help the Haitian Relief Efforts
For many churches, nonprofit and Christian organizations, having the tools in place to raise awareness and aide for major national catastrophic events – such the 7.3 earthquake in Haiti – can make a huge difference in the responsiveness time and outreach efforts your organization is able to put forth.

And, most people feel compassion and want to help the victims when natural disasters strike. Unfortunately, not everyone is able to do the “hands-on” recovery work that is needed after a natural disaster. Making a financial contribution is one of the ways in which people feel that they are helping those affected. And, people want to feel safe in donating to a known and trusted organization, such as their church.

“Our hearts go out to the victims of the earthquake in Haiti,” says Tim Whitehorn, CEO and president of ServiceU. “Using online donations to receive funds for disaster relief efforts is the most efficient way to collect money quickly while it’s on people’s minds.”

How TransactU can help
Having TransactU in place makes it easy to quickly collect funds for the Haiti relief efforts.

If you already have TransactU, you have two options:
1. Go through the steps to set up a new donation form.
2. Add a Haitian Disaster Relief fund to your existing donation pages.

You are welcome to use our button!

If you have any problems or questions, our Support Team will be glad to help you get this set up. Just give us a call at 901. 901-869-5001 or email us at support@serviceu.com.

Download this graphic for your website
To help you raise awareness to your Haitian Disaster Relief efforts, we’ve created this “Donate Now to the Haiti Emergency” graphic. Just put this on your homepage and link it to your existing donation page or the new one you create.

Putting the funds collected to work
If your church decides that they want to collect funds for Haiti Relief, it’s up to you to decide if you want to give the funds to the Red Cross, to missionaries you support in that region of the world, or directly through relief aide. Each organization can handle getting the funds to Haiti as they find best suited to their ministry; however, TransactU is a great tool to help you get the funds collected.

If you don’t have TransactU, now’s a great time to sign up and start helping
If your church or organization would like to get set up today for taking donations for the Haitian Relief efforts, ServiceU is willing to waive the setup fee ($149.95 value) and monthly fee for the first 60 days ($59.90 value) through January 31, 2010. A merchant account established through ServiceU is required along with the $0.75 fee per transaction.

About TransactU
TransactU online donation and event registration software offers everything you need to accept online registrations, payment and donations with a credit card or online check in a secure, hosted environment. Patrons simply visit your website when it’s convenient for them, 24/7, whether your office doors are open or closed.

Here are a few reasons TransactU is a great way to take donations online:
o Do away with maintenance - Because TransactU is hosted, you don’t need any special software, servers or programming; there is no software to install, maintain and upgrade. All you do is log-in and you’re on your way.
o Receive funds directly - ServiceU assists you with the set up of your own merchant account so that funds deposit directly into your bank account. You receive funds quickly and easily, with no middle man.
o Powerful reporting capabilities- Generate customized reports to find just the information you need and make accounting easier. A simple click exports report data into Microsoft Excel as well as other program formants.

Give us a call at 866.709.7238, and we’ll help you get started! Together, we can help make a difference.

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