The Protestant Church in the Rhineland strengthens its digital presence with Yext

With 2.2 million members, the Protestant Church in the Rhineland (EKiR) is the second-largest Protestant regional church in Germany. Their 605 parishes are located in the federal states of North Rhine-Westphalia, Rhineland-Palatinate, Saarland, and Hesse.

Despite being an organization that relies on personal contact, the Protestant Church in the Rhineland understood that modern parishioners. Seek contact with the church via digital channels. They look online for information about church service times or to ask questions about participating in church life. But too often, these questions go unanswered — giving the impression that the church is not responding to parishioners' needs. This is particularly important to reaching people outside the core congregation. Local notice boards only reach a small portion of people, whereas nowadays, more people get their information online. However, if there is no response from the church to an online inquiry, people feel left alone - which is exactly what the Protestant Church in the Rhineland wanted to avoid. The Protestant Church in the Rhineland recognized that improving their digital presence and actively managing online interactions was necessary to keep pace with changing communication habits — and to communicate with their congregation.

Introducing review management in order to respond actively and promptly to people's needs and questions.

'The first contact with the church these days is often digital. It is therefore important that we also meet people online and answer their questions and respond to their concerns,' explained Ralf Peter Reimann, Internet Officer of the Protestant Church in the Rhineland. 'Not every evaluation requires an answer, but when people seek contact online, we want and need to be there.'

In its partnership with Yext, the Protestant Church in the Rhineland set the goal of improving digital communication and establishing effective review management. They wanted to increase the visibility and accessibility of the church in the digital space as well as being able to respond more efficiently to the large number of incoming reviews.

Overall, with the help of Yext, the Protestant Church in the Rhineland is aligning their digital communication with the actual needs of its members and interested parties — and positioning themselves as an accessible community that is close to people both online and offline.

The Protestant Church in the Rhineland implemented Reviews as a centralized solution to meet digital challenges and boost effective communication with the communities. The solution enables the Protestant Church in the Rhineland to recognize both positive and negative reviews and address them promptly. This not only shows that the church listens to its parishioners and visitors, but also that it values their feedback.

Studies show that companies that respond to more than 50 percent of their reviews are rated on average 0.35 stars higher than companies that do not respond. Yext offers the possibility to centrally manage all incoming reviews and user questions. The system enables the church to respond directly from the platform to questions asked on Google Listings. In addition, images uploaded by users can be checked for appropriateness and reported as inappropriate if necessary.

For church communities in particular, an active profile that reflects positive reviews is essential in order to reach people who find out about church services online. However, negative reviews can also be a valuable source of feedback and improvement. By taking care of the management of these reviews and proactively dealing with criticism, the church not only shows that they take feedback seriously, but also helps make sure that they are perceived as an open and accessible institution.

As a result of the implementation, the Protestant church has improved their digital awareness, their visibility, and their interaction with congregants.

The Protestant Church in the Rhineland used Yext to introduce comprehensive review management for around 1,800 locations, including churches and church counseling centers. This process involved monitoring and responding to reviews on various online platforms. The implementation led to significant improvements in digital presence and interaction with the community within the first few months (1 October 2023 - 29 February 2024):

• Initial situation: At the start of the initiative in October 2023, there were a total of 952 reviews — and no systematic maintenance of the rating profiles (or responses to criticism) had previously taken place.

• Improved ranking: The overall rating across all locations reached 4.5 stars.

• Increased response rate: The response rate to reviews increased by 29 percent to a total of 42 percent

• Reduced response time: The average response time to reviews was reduced from 237 hours to 74 hours

"Many of our members don't attend church services every week. But when they do seek contact, especially online, it's important that we respond. Yext has helped us to ensure this digital accessibility. Thanks to the trusting and effective collaboration, we can make sure that no question or criticism goes unanswered and that all those who search for us find the support they need,' says Ralf Peter Reimann, Internet Officer of the Protestant Church in the Rhineland.

The positive development of online interactions has encouraged the Protestant Church in the Rhineland to further expand its digital endeavors. Another project is the integration of Yext Search into the portal of the Protestant Church in the Rhineland for voluntary and professional employees — in order to make information on training programs accessible via a central search field. This further improves findability and accessibility.