Does this replace Planning Center?

No. Planning Center stays your database. FoxFlow handles the few days between someone filling out a connect card and becoming a name in PCO, then syncs them across matched rather than duplicated.

Will guests get a text from a strange number?

No. FoxFlow Messaging sends from a local number that belongs to your church — you pick the area code when your account is set up — so guests can simply reply.

Is texting first-time guests too much?

A short, personal text on Sunday afternoon reads as thoughtful. What reads as automated is a long message, a link, or one that arrives four days later.

Can volunteers use it?

Yes. Add them to the flow as members. They can text leads, add notes and move cards without being able to change your scripts or settings.

FoxFlow for churches

Text first-time guests back before Tuesday. Connect cards land on a board, someone real replies, and Planning Center stays your database.

Churches

A family visits on Sunday. They fill out a connect card. Then what?

At most churches the honest answer is: the card gets collected, it reaches an office on Tuesday, someone means to follow up, and by the time anyone does the family has already decided whether they're coming back.

FoxFlow exists for that gap.

The thing that actually matters

Not the software. The timing.

A text on Sunday afternoon lands while the visit is still a real memory. The same text on Thursday arrives as a message from an organisation. Same words, completely different message.

What it looks like set up

One flow, four or five columns:

New card  →  Texted  →  Replied  →  Coming back  →  Connected

Connected is your conversion step — not Replied. A reply is encouraging; someone actually plugging into a group or a serve team is the win, and it's worth measuring the real thing.

Cards arrive from a form you link with a QR code on your connect card, or from a Facebook lead ad if you run them. Each one gets assigned to whoever does hospitality follow-up, and their name is the one in the text.

Where Planning Center fits

This is the question every church asks, and the answer is clean: Planning Center stays your database. FoxFlow never tries to replace it.

What FoxFlow does is the week before someone becomes a PCO record. Then the integration pushes them across — matched against who's already there, never duplicated. When it isn't sure, it asks you rather than guessing.

Connect card  →  FoxFlow (the follow-up)  →  Planning Center (the record)

If you already know the duplicate-people problem in PCO, that matters. FoxFlow searches by email, then by phone, and creates nobody when there's more than one possible match.

Don't text your members like guests

The fastest way to look silly is sending the first-time-guest text to someone who's been there twelve years and just filled out a form about the serve team.

Two protections:

Duplicate detection is on by default. Someone already in your system gets paused rather than re-sequenced.
Tag existing members member and add a tag rule that pauses automation when it appears. If you use Blackbaud, that integration can apply the tag for you.

About the phone number

Pro includes one local line. You pick the area code when your account is set up, and the FoxFlow team turns FoxFlow Messaging on for you. Extra numbers are $45 a month plus a one-time setup fee — see Phone numbers.

Guests get a text from a real number. They can reply, and the reply lands on the lead where your team sees it.

Volunteers can do this

Hospitality follow-up is usually volunteers, and that works fine. Add them to the flow as members: they can text, comment and move cards, but can't change your scripts or settings. See Your team.

The script is already written, so a volunteer doesn't have to decide what to say. They read it, adjust a word if they want, and send.

Set the hours

Turn on the sending window before anything else. Nobody wants a text from church at 11pm, and a card submitted Saturday night shouldn't produce one.

12:00–8:00pm is a sensible window: same-day for Sunday cards, never late.

A realistic first month

Week one. One flow, one script, texting by hand. Learn whether the words work.

Week two. Add your second message — a short nudge two days later for people who didn't reply. This is where most of the gain is.

Week three. Turn on auto-send for the first text, so it stops depending on someone being free on Sunday afternoon.

Week four. Connect Planning Center so the people you're meeting land in your database without data entry.

Start here

Build your first flow walks it end to end in ten minutes. Free covers 10 leads per flow, which is enough for a month of cards at most churches.

Common questions

Does this replace Planning Center?: No. Planning Center stays your database. FoxFlow handles the few days between someone filling out a connect card and becoming a name in PCO, then syncs them across matched rather than duplicated.
Will guests get a text from a strange number?: No. FoxFlow Messaging sends from a local number that belongs to your church — you pick the area code when your account is set up — so guests can simply reply.
Is texting first-time guests too much?: A short, personal text on Sunday afternoon reads as thoughtful. What reads as automated is a long message, a link, or one that arrives four days later.
Can volunteers use it?: Yes. Add them to the flow as members. They can text leads, add notes and move cards without being able to change your scripts or settings.