How Much Money Bad, Old Tech Costs You

BIG COSTS FOR BAD TECH

It’s not an exaggeration. Bad technology can have devastating consequences on a church. Your church may not be restoring lost limbs at an ER, but it’s dealing with important matters—eternal matters.

Bad technology doesn’t just slow you down. It costs you money. In January of 2016, the North Carolina-based IT firm Samanage’s State of Work Survey suggested that US businesses were losing $1.8 trillion because of bad software. It also calculated employees wasted 520 hours a year on repetitive tasks that should have been automated through software.   

These are businesses that likely break the bank on technology every year. How do you think churches fare?

No specific figures exist, but no doubt the cost is equally high. Attempting to be good stewards of their finances, many churches choose cheap technology options but they often get what they pay for. Cheap tech solutions are typically designed poorly, have slow and ineffective customer service, and aren’t widely used with no real incentive to improve.

What does that mean for your church?
Cheap tech is way too expensive for your church.

So how does bad tech derail your budget?

1. BAD TECH WASTES STAFF TIME

Your biggest costs every year likely have nothing to do with your building, outreach efforts, or even technology. You likely spend around half your budget on personnel.

And it’s probably still not enough. That means you have to make every hour count. When you straddle your staff with bad technology, it’ll take them more time to do their jobs. That means they’re not doing other ministry efforts. It means they get less done, and your church can’t benefit from their expertise for additional efforts.

Bad technology is slow and inefficient. Good technology anticipates your needs and adjusts to them, which saves your staff time.

2. PEOPLE WON’T USE BAD TECH

Outward-facing technology like your church website or your mobile app doesn’t do your church any good if your community doesn’t engage with it. Your community has an expectation that the technology you produce will work, just like products from Google and Facebook. You won’t get a hometown discount on your people’s attention spans. One quarter of mobile users delete bad apps after just one use. Most people use a mere five apps for the vast majority of the time they spend on their phones.

The competition is stiff for the attention of the people who your church wants to engage. People won’t put up with bad apps.

So how does this cost your church money? First, you’re paying for technology that isn’t having the intended impact. Just having a mobile giving solution doesn’t guarantee your giving will go up. People have to use your mobile app for it to impact your giving. People have to use your church website in order for your church to see increased community through the web. If people do not use your church’s technology, you might as well flush the money down the toilet rather than spend it on a bad solution.

3. BAD TECH CARRIES SECURITY RISKS

Security plays a big role in any new technology your church implements. Your church hangs on to all kinds of important information from the people who engage with your church. You have addresses, phone numbers, email addresses, and bank account information.

People trust you. It’s really the most important part of the relationship you have with your community. They attend your church because they trust you. They entrust you with their children because they trust you. They give to your ministry because they trust you.

One security breach could destroy those all-important relationships. Bad technology that doesn’t have top-notch security built in could be a factor in actually driving people away from your church.

Security is a critical pillar of excellent church tech. Without it, your community’s personal information is at risk at being stolen or misused. To learn the other key pillars of excellent church technology, download the free ebook, The Church Technology Buyer’s Guide, today!

Good Tech Saves You Money

If bad technology will cost you money, the opposite is also true—good tech will save you money.

Good tech should just work. When tech does what you pay it to do, you and your staff can focus on what they do best: Serving people in Jesus’ name.  

Let’s take giving platforms as an example. In 2015, Real Life Church in Covington, WA, had separate platforms for their kiosks, inside-the-building giving, and event registration. When they transitioned to Pushpay in 2015, they were able to fold all their giving into one platform, which saved them 250-300 hours of operational time. That’s money they’ve been able to spend in other places—like a ministry that helps single mothers with their continuing education, or helping to buy a new bus for a drug-and-alcohol rehabilitation center.

“For us to have an app that is streamlined, trustworthy, and easy-to-follow was a no-brainer for most of our congregation,” said Ed Holmes, the church’s operations and young adult pastor.

Yes, bad tech solutions will cost your church money. Your community gives to your church sacrificially. Don’t waste the resources you’ve been given on bad tech.

It’s not worth it.

To learn how to better identify bad technology that can wreak havoc on your church long-term, download the free ebook, The Chruch Technology Buyer’s Guide, today. It’s filled with strategies other forward-thinking churches are using to evaluate their tech, research their options, and even work with other local churches to make better tech decisions. Click here to get your free copy!