4 Habits Behind a Successful Guest Experience

by: Bob Adams

2

Tweet

The most important 2 feet can be found on the front lines of your church’s Guest Services or Hospitality teams:

1. They belong to the team members who are the “first face” of your church – parking lot crews, greeters, ushers – anyone who is making the first impression with your Guests.
2. They also represent the space and distance where the words you use and the actions you take make the most powerful impact with your Guest.

The interactions that take place in that space (two feet) by your team member (two feet) are rich with expectations – and can also be filled with missed opportunities. In that space your front-line team members have become the face and voice of your organization. Creating an Exceptional Guest Experience comes down to having great people on your front line teams and training them well. Many churches struggle with Guest services. Often the primary barrier is translating the organization’s vision into action at the front line. An article in HBR.org outlined four activities that your church can learn from when it comes to your front line teams. 

1. Listen to team members. Want your team to take great care of your Guest? Start by taking great care of them.
2. Hire for attitude, not aptitude — and then reinforce attitude. To get friendly service, enlist friendly people. Having selected people with the right attitudes, leaders need to ensure they reinforce the behaviors they want to see.
3. Give people purpose, not rules. Rules have their place, but they go only so far. When people are given clear expectations and trusted to do their jobs, they feel valued and empowered. They choose to go that extra mile through passion, not compliance.
4. Tap into the creativity of your front line. Giving frontline team members responsibility and autonomy inspires them to do whatever they can to improve the Guest experience. When they see a problem, they fix it without waiting to be asked.

Engaging with Guests is primarily through personal contact, and that starts on the front lines with your team. The care and energy your teams use to connect with Guests reflect the care and energy you as a leader use to connect with your team.

Want to learn how to create an EXCEPTIONAL Guest Experience at your church? Check out Auxano’s Guest Experience Boot Camp in Cincinnati, OH on August 7-8.

How your front line teams represent your church – what they do (or don’t do), what they say (or don’t say) – that’s the powerful human “first impression” your Guest is experiencing – and will remember.

Tags: Assimilation, Bob Adams, Church Guest Experience, Church Guest Services, Guest Experience, Guest Services, Hospitality Team, Judgement on the Front Line, sums

| What is MyVisionRoom? > | Back to Process >

What is the Value of Your Guest Experience?

by: Bob Adams

0

Tweet

What is the value of your Guest Experience?

Go back and read the previous sentence again, this time attaching the mathematical meaning to the word “value.” That’s value, as in a numerical quantity that is assigned or is determined by calculation or measurement.

Dr. Len Berry, Distinguished Professor in Retailing and Marketing at Texas A&M, has developed a form of “experiential math” that was originally designed to focus on the specifics of service delivery. In the ongoing quest to translate customer service practices from the corporate world to Guest Experiences in ChurchWorld, I have modified Dr. Berry’s math just a little.

In order to demonstrate the intricacy and complexity of a Guest Experience in your church, consider the following three variables to be mastered and managed:

• Guests’ expectations of what is about to happen
• The outcome that actually does happen
• Guests’ observations of everything that goes on in-between

The critical part of this formula is in the way you do the math. The three separate variables above don’t add up to a cumulative total. They are multiplied. That difference is crucial.

When you add 6 + 4 + 0, you get 10, no matter which way you arrange the order of the numbers. On the other hand, when you multiply 6 x 4 x 0, you get zero, regardless of the numerical sequence. When you’re adding, the presence of zero doesn’t change the total.

However, the complexity of your Guest Experience is like multiplication, not addition.

When one of the numbers (variables) is zero, it wipes out everything else, regardless of the other numbers involved. All three variables have to be positives for anything significant to be produced.

If you are going to manage the total Guest experience in such a way as to obtain a positive outcome, each variable must be positive in the eyes of your Guests. If just one significant variable leaves the Guest with a “zero,” guess what – the entire value of the experience is a zero.

Take a look around at your Guest Experience variables – and you do the math.

Want to learn how your Guest Experience variables can create an EXCEPTIONAL Guest Experience at your church? Check out Auxano’s Guest Experience Boot Camp, coming to Cincinnati, OH on August 7-8.

> Read more from Bob.

Start a conversation with our team. We’re glad to offer our input. Your vision is at stake, so let’s talk.

Tags: Bob Adams, Church Guest Experience, Guest Experience, Guest Experience Value

| What is MyVisionRoom? > | Back to Execution >

Smiling is Not Enough: The Top Ten Mistakes Your Volunteers Make Welcoming Guests at Church

by: Will Mancini

0

Tweet

The team at Auxano enjoys playing the role of “secret worshipper” when we take a church through our visioning process called the Vision Pathway.  We call it a Guest Perspective Evaluation.

As I prepare to debrief a church again tomorrow, I want to share some general insights on welcoming ministry and hospitality for guests.

Here are the top ten mistakes I see when volunteers are helping me as a first time guest:

#1   Volunteers have not thought in advance about my next step as a guest so they don’t know how to guide the conversation with me.

#2   Volunteers  are talking with friends and don’t notice me.

#3   Volunteers are doing task work and are not available or responsive the moment I show up.

#4   Volunteers generally hesitate when I initiate with a question.

#5   Volunteers don’t know where the most pertinent information is located.

#6   Volunteers  tell me what to do with no information or tools or other people to help me.

#7   Volunteers generally look preoccupied, distracted or unsure of themselves in their non-verbals even when being friendly.

#8   Volunteers are unaware of the basic “how to” questions for checking-in children of every age.

#9   Volunteers don’t introduce me to others at the church.

#10 Volunteers gave me written information that is not important, pertinent or strategic (sending me on a bee-line to the trash can).

If you want more resources on welcoming ministry and church guest services, check out additional information on VisionRoom.com and follow Bob Adams who works as Auxano’s Vision Room Curator and Guest Services maven. Here is a list of resources on his blog and a recent post on Where Does Your Guest Experience Start?

My team and I want to connect with you. Fill out this short form and one of our Navigators will contact you.

> Read more from Will.

Want to learn how to create an EXCEPTIONAL Guest Experience at your church? Check out Auxano’s Guest Experience Boot Camp in Cincinnati, OH on August 7-8.

Tags: Assimilation, Bob Adams, Guest Experience, Guest Service, Will Mancini

| What is MyVisionRoom? > | Back to Process >