Communications Survey

Summary of the main findings of the survey on communications activities at Trinity Presbyterian Church

Nigel Holloway April 29, 2020

Staying in touch with our members is always important, but never more so than now, when we cannot meet in person. To find out more about people’s communication preferences, Trinity fielded a survey of its members in April 2020. We delivered 232 invitations to answer the communications survey; five were mailed and the rest were sent by email. Sixty-four people responded.

The main findings are:
Since almost all respondents have high-speed Internet, it is very important that Trinity focus on reaching its members by various online means. Right now, Trinity-E-News is by far the most important means by which members stay in touch with the church. Its content is highly appreciated and is relied on for updates. The Trinity website is appreciably less important, but plans are afoot to enhance the quality of the website and make it more lively and interesting.

Survey respondents ranked of roughly equal importance: (a) Trinity information updates; (b) staying in touch with Trinity friends; and (c) the content of worship services. Keeping in touch with friends is an important element in meeting their spiritual needs.

Despite the prevalence of a high-speed connection, a quarter or more have never watched the service online, either when it is streamed or as the recorded version. Six respondents either didn’t know about Trinity’s online services or didn’t know where to find them. Trinity will be making additional efforts to help people find the Sunday service online.

Thank you, all those who answered the survey. We’d have no results to share if you hadn’t done so!

The stats in detail:
Q1. Respondents were asked about their spiritual needs and to choose the two most important options. Eighty percent said they wanted to stay in touch with their Trinity friends and 66 percent wanted to watch the online worship services every Sunday.

Q3&4. More than 90 percent used the internet as a source of information and had high-speed internet at home.

Q5. We wanted to find out the three most important ways people learn about the goings-on at Trinity out of 10 options. The e-newsletter, delivered by email, is by far the most popular—94 percent said so. Almost half that number (45 percent) chose the online Sunday worship service. The next most popular options were volunteering for a Trinity activity or attending an online meeting (31 percent) and Trinity’s Facebook page (21 percent).

Q6. A sizeable number of people have not watched a Trinity worship service online: 25 percent said they have never watched the livestream version and 31 percent have never watched a video recording on YouTube.

Q7. We asked those who had never watched the service why they had not done so. Three said they didn’t know they could do so and three others said they knew it was available online but didn’t know where to find it.

Q8. Respondents were asked to rank the types of information from Trinity in order of importance. All three came out roughly equal: information updates; staying in touch with Trinity friends; and the content of worship services.

Q9. When asked to choose the three ways they would most prefer to receive information from Trinity, the top three ways were: the e-newsletter, emailed messages, and (some way behind) updates on the Trinity website.

To view a pdf with the results of the survey, click here.