Feb
18
2010
UNews By Tim | No comments yet

February Founder’s Letter

Dear Friends,

While it may feel that the Christmas season has finally wound down, for many churches and organizations that put on an Easter performance or spring production, the holiday “hustle and bustle” is just beginning.

Now is the perfect time to consider TicketU for your online and onsite ticket sales, while you still have a few weeks to go before opening day. This edition of the UNews is dedicated to helping you better understand how TicketU can streamline the entire ticketing process for your staff members and volunteers, while increasing ticket sales and outreach.

For example, have you ever considered the many ways in which online ticketing can help your church with outreach? If not, be sure to read this article: 5 Ways Online Ticketing Helps with Outreach story.

In addition, I’m very pleased with the new and improved My.ServiceU.com interface that we unveiled recently. Now that you’ve had a few weeks to use the new interface, we would appreciate your feedback. Simply send your comments and suggestions to support@serviceu.com. Read more about the enhancements.

Are you interested in winning a ServiceU “Serving Others Simplified” T-shirt? If so, check us out at www.Facebook.com/ServiceU. Each week, we’ll post a question for our “fans.” The question might seek your “tips of the trade,” ask you to share a link to your event, or ask other fun questions to generate an online conversation. Simply post a response, and we’ll select one lucky person (or more) to win a ServiceU T-shirt!

As always, I truly appreciate the opportunity to do business with you and to help your organization serve others.

Sincerely,

Tim

Feb
15
2010
Press, UNews By Mackenzie | No comments yet

TicketU helps church with outreach

TicketU helps Bellevue Baptist reach the community with Easter message

Bellevue Baptist Church in Cordova, Tenn., has been putting on its Memphis Passion Play since 1991. Bellevue’s Passion Play has been instrumental in reaching many people with the Easter message, many of whom may not have heard it before.

For the last three years, Bellevue has utilized ServiceU’s TicketU to sell performance tickets online and onsite to its members and the community. The simplified ticketing process is easier for their staff and volunteers to manage, and it allows them to focus on the outreach that accompanies an Easter performance that draws in crowds from the community.

“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 TicketU via online sales.”

“And, TicketU is convenient to use,” states Phillips. “Attendees no longer have to stand in line before the performance to purchase tickets. They just go online to our website, choose where they want to sit and purchase tickets…all from the comfort of their own home.”

Simplify the ticketing process for your staff and volunteers

In addition, TicketU simplifies the ticketing process for the church staff and volunteers, and makes the ticket sales easier to manage.

“Prior to using TicketU, we were using a very outdated DOS system to track and sell tickets to our Easter event. The system was very slow, difficult to use for our staff members, and it was hard to fix when difficulties arose.”

Three years ago, Bellevue switched to TicketU and has been ecstatic with the results.

“The ‘ticketing ladies’ just love it,” she adds. “Since it is web-based, in just a few ‘clicks’ we have entered the person’s information and printed out their ticket(s) to the event they want to attend. Even ‘editing’ information is easy as it is, ‘just a click away.’”

Training new employees on the TicketU system has also been a “snap” according to Phillips.

“It takes just a short period of time to train new staff and our events registration group is up and running,” notes Phillips. “TicketU has indeed made our lives in the ‘ticketing world’ at Bellevue a lot easier.”

Feb
11
2010
Support By Brian | No comments yet

ServiceU will no longer support I.E.6 (but you can still use it if you dare)

I.E.6 will soon be un-support by ServiceU
As you may remember, last year we started allowing un-supported browsers to log into the ServiceU system, but not without a fancy warning page that says your un-supported browser is… well, un-supported. We have a new addition to the un-supported browser club, I.E.6. Don’t worry, if your sentimental about your almost decade old browser and you dont mind the security risks, you will still be allowed to log into the ServiceU system.

What does this mean?
2 things:

  • If you use I.E.6, you will see the un-supported browser page which will tell you that your browser is not supported.
  • We will likely not fix bugs related to I.E.6.

Reasons to upgrade

Upgrade to I.E.8
Upgrade to Firefox

Brian Robison
Support Manager

Jan
27
2010
Press, Uncategorized By Tim | No comments yet

ServiceU System Enhancements!

Dear ServiceU Users,
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

Jan
14
2010
Uncategorized By Mackenzie | No comments yet

Accept online donations from your church’s website to help Haitian relief efforts

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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