Environmental impact

Each environment has a specific purpose for the overall guest services experience. As people flow from one environment to the next we want the same message to be heard, they matter to God and they are valued here.

The key to a successful Sunday morning experience is the ability for each volunteer to seamlessly transition people from one environment to the next.

How is this accomplished?

• Friendliness
• Knowledge
• Servant Attitude

Volunteers must be approachable and friendly! They should have a passion for the vision and a general knowledge of what the church offers on Sunday (children's ministry, middle school/high school, how to get connected to groups, etc). Their attitude is one of service, "whatever it takes" mentality! As a leader, it's important to give volunteers the freedom to leave their "post." Walking a family to the children's area or a couple to the Worship Center while sharing the vision of the church or answering questions about the church is invaluable!

More is more

When it comes to (fill in your ministry area here) ministry, there is always one thing needed most, VOLUNTEERS! The church is and will always be a volunteer run organization. Each volunteer is a moment of truth for the "big C" church! I am so thankful for the faces I see on a weekly basis serving God by serving His people. But to be honest, there is always room for more! The more volunteers you have, the more opportunities you have to pour out of Jesus Christ and to fully serve each family member and guest.

When it comes to Guest Services, there are several areas to focus on, all of them equally important in caring for church family members and for guests;

• Parking Team
• Greeters (Parking lot greeters, door greeters, worship center greeters)
• Host Team (greeting, ushering and offering)
• Help Center (info booth)
• Volunteer Central (volunteers taking care of volunteers, vision-information-prayer)

Do you have other teams you focus on to make sure your guests are cared for?

One Chance

We have all heard the saying "you only get one chance to make a first impression." True, but when it pertains to guests arriving on your campus I believe it must be a weekly strategy. Maybe we should tweek it to say you get one chance weekly to make an impression. Good, bad, first, second (and so on), isn't as important as what's happening this week!!

With that in mind, we start with;

• What worked well last week?
• What do we need to stop doing?
• What will we change this week to make our impression count?
• What's our strategy for implementation?

Every week matters, every area matters, because people matter!! Every week people decide in the first 2 minutes whether or not to return to your church, we must make this a high priority!

Honor your guests

I went to college at the University of Toledo. At least half of the people I tell that to come back with, "Holy Toledo!" I started wondering where that phrase originated. The theories were endless, but one really stuck out to me. One theory is that the phrase came about because there was such a high concentration of churches on one boulevard. If that were the case, we could say that about any city!

There are sooooo many options for people looking for a church home. That is why I believe we must HONOR a persons decision to attend our church. They could have gone to any number of churches, but there are right there in front of you! What are you going to do to make them feel honored and cared for?

I look at it like I am inviting them into my home. How would I treat a guest in my own home?

I would

• give them good directions!!
• make sure the house is spotless
• meet and greet them outside
• walk them in
• show them around
• give them the best seat of the house

That's a good place to start! What are you doing to honor your guests?

It's time to go home

Do you ever feel nervous when you invite people to church? Oh, I do! I pray the parking team is ready and smiling and more interested in helping people find a spot than anything else. Then I move onto the parking greeters, I pray they are outside when it's cold or holding umbrellas when it's raining, always with a happy heart and a hearty hello! Next, the door greeters. I pray they are opening the door before a guest even thinks about reaching their arm out to grab the door handle, and walking guests where they need to go, not pointing with quick directions, until they have reached their destination. I pray they worship the entire time they are here! Through the music and the message!

I guess I feel like I am inviting them to MY house, and I want everything to be just right!

If you stopped by my house, I would totally greet you outside (with an umbrella if it was raining), I would smile and hug you because I would be so glad you were there! Then I would show you around the house, point out points of interest, and give you the best seat in the house! Church and home are the same, right? (Well, except for the hug, could be awkward!)

I think they could be. We could think of each person on our campus as someone we have invited to our HOME. I think about it like this;

Honor their decision to attend your church

One chance weekly to make an impression

More is more

Environmental impact

I will unpack each one of those statements.....stay tuned!

I make a mean iced caramel latte

Not mean as in "growly," but mean as in "goooooooood", just to clear any confusion!

Over the past couple of months I have found myself learning a lot, like a whole lot! We recently opened the World Cafe at West Ridge Church. The cafe itself is full of learning opportunities! Purchasing products, entering products into a POS system (point of sale, not anything else), merchandising, creating recipe's and making coffee drinks, training volunteers, etc. but my favorite lesson is all about the people. It's always about people! We are not in the coffee house business, we are in the people business and we just happen to use coffee as a vehicle.

Once More With Hobbits

Whenever I need to know a trivial little ditty, I "google" it! (you know that's actually in the dictionary right?) So, I'm in a meeting when a friend gets a text that says; "OMWH." With a puzzled face, she asks, "What in the world does OMWH mean?" Being near a computer, another friend googles it and immediately says; "Once More With Hobbits." What?? "Why would my husband send me that?" After looking a little further, the second definition was "On My Way Home."

That made a little more sense, her husband was on his way home. Then something weird happened, I starting thinking about what he would tell her about his day when he got home, maybe he would share his last impression of where he was that day. I know this sounds crazy, but I went from that thought to thinking about what is the last impression a guest has when they leave our church on Sunday? What would her husband tell her if he had just left our church as a first time guest?

I can just hear my husband saying (lovingly); "Stacey, you just aren't right," but seriously, I can't be the only one thinking about this! We don't want guests leaving with a bad taste in their mouth about God or the church, so what steps should we take to make sure their experience as they leave church leads to a conversation that is positive with an excitement to return?

Where to start? How about the time frame between the end of service, to leaving the church property...

As guests exit the worship center, is there a place clearly marked for them to go and ask questions about the church? Were people there eagerly waiting to answer questions? Did they have the knowledge (or training) to answer the questions? Were they friendly when they answered, or was there a sense that they wanted to leave and the guests were holding them up? Were there greeters at the exit doors inviting guests back next week? Was there a team of volunteers directing traffic out and smiling at each guest as they passed?

Where would you start? What questions would you ask?

Although the entire guest experience from arrival to departure must be evaluated, I am going to start with the last impression this week, I'll keep you updated!!!