Gauge Your Guest Focus With This Simple Test

by: Shep Hyken

0

Tweet

Editor’s Note: During our August focus on Guest Experiences, we are honored to have some of the best voices in the world of Customer Experience provide guest posts for the Vision Room. As you read the content below, simply think “Guest” in terms of the “customer” the author is talking about – and you will benefit from the knowledge and expertise of some great minds.

A potential client called for help. His plea was, “We are so NOT customer-focused, and we need to be!” He then shared what may be one of the most crystal-clear examples of the difference between a company that is customer focused and one that isn’t.

By the way, the name of the company has been “changed to protect the innocent,” as they say. We’ll refer to them as Company X.

Two brand new identical buildings were built, side by side. One was a well-known bank. The other was Company X. In front of each building was a parking lot with about 30 spaces, while across the street were much larger parking lots. The parking spaces in front of the bank building had a sign that read: Visitor Parking. The parking spaces in front of Company X’s building didn’t.

The bank employees parked across the street and walked over. Company X’s employees insisted that they get to park close to their building. The first ones there that day got the best spaces.

My client – wow, I’m already referring to him as my client – confided that he wanted the visitors to be able to park in the closer spots without crossing the street, but he said you would have thought I’d taken away their “first-born child.” Obviously, a slight exaggeration, but you get the point.

While it’s not that inconvenient to walk across the street from the parking lot to the building, not giving the closer parking spots to customers sends a message – not to the customers, who may or may not notice, but to the employees. The message is linked to the culture and values that employees grow to know and understand about the company they work for. If the employees won’t let their customers park in the spaces most convenient to the entrance, what other “anti-customer” decisions are being made? What other unfriendly processes do they have? And, that’s where our discussion really started to take off.

We had a tough discussion about his people. Some people would embrace and be excited about a new customer-focused culture, although he confided in me that many would not. I shared that the cost of keeping employees who aren’t in alignment with a company’s vision can be financially detrimental to the company. And achieving alignment is a big project. We also talked about the various processes and procedures that could be changed. I could write a small book about that discussion.

Whether you’re customer-focused or not, this exercise is helpful. Identify all the touchpoints your customers have with your people and your organization’s processes. Where is the potential for friction? Is it easy for your customers or not? For example, when they visit your website, are there self-service options available to them? And if those self-service options fail, is there an easy way for them to reach a human? Rate these touchpoints and interactions one of three ways: company focused, customer focused, or neutral. That will give you an idea of whether your policies and procedures are more focused on what’s easiest and best for your company or what’s easiest and best for your customer? If you aren’t focused like a laser on your customers, then you are at risk of losing them to a competitor who is.

Shep Hyken is a customer service and experience expert, award-winning keynote speaker, and New York Times bestselling business author. For information, contact 314-692-2200 or www.hyken.com. For information on The Customer Focus™ customer service training programs, go to www.thecustomerfocus.com. Follow on Twitter: @Hyken

Learn more about your Guest touchpoints – start a conversation with Guest Experience Navigator Bob Adams.

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: Church Guest Experiences, Guest Experience, Guest Touchpoints, Shep Hyken

| What is MyVisionRoom? > | Back to Execution >

Three Signs of a Toxic Guest Culture

by: Danny Franks

0

Tweet

Poison is a funny thing.

We’re not talking about the late 80’s hair band, here, although they were very funny. (Some would say those guys were nothin’ but a good time.)

No, I mean funny more in an odd sense because – though poison is deadly – it’s often unnoticeable until it’s too late. It can be tasteless, odorless, and seemingly harmless. And then…bam. You’re gone.

Poison can wreak havoc on biological systems, but it also can kill cultural systems. Take your guest services culture, for example. Apply the poison of a toxic greeter, and the deadly effects will soon spread throughout the attitude and actions of every volunteer. Tap into the toxicity of an unhealthy approach – for example, not having a plan for serving guests – and soon your church growth and health will stagnate, decline, and die.

So how can you spot a toxic guest services culture? Like poison, it’s often unnoticeable until it’s too late. But there are three attitudes that might indicate toxicity amidst your team:

1. Having a guest services plan is a necessary evil.

We’d never say that. Nobody in their right mind would formulate those words and force them off of our tongues. Of course we want guests in our churches. No guests mean no growth. But in the way we plan for, resource, and maintain our guest services culture may very well reflect our core belief that this is more trouble than it’s worth. Caring for guests interrupts the status quo, because suddenly it’s not about us and what makes us comfortable. And while the above statement may never be articulated, it’s assumed by heavy sighs and eye rolls every time you bring up the need for a plan.

2. “We’ll do whatever it takes to bring ’em in.”

I refer to this as the “shock and awe” plan. We want guests to like us enough that they want to come back a second time, so we pull out all the stops when they show up the first time. We go way beyond inviting environments and assault the senses with a sense of desperation. Our all-encompassing goal is to get first-timers to take notice of our church, yet we fail to help them take notice of Jesus. And by the way…this is often an accusation lobbed at megachurches, but small churches can overdo it, too. It feels a little like the single male seminary student who uses the “God told me to marry you” line…it’s too much, too soon, and it’s off-putting.

3. We don’t need a team, because we’re already friendly.

I’ve been in a lot of churches, and I’ve yet to find one that’s not friendly. A quick five minute glance around the sanctuary or Sunday School room reveals people who are freely trading hugs and high fives, catching up on the news of the week, and even praying for each other’s needs. But there’s the rub…most church people are friendly to each other…to those we already know. It takes a great deal of intentionality to move beyond friendly to each other in order to be friendly to “others.” And if that intentionality isn’t intentionally installed, it’ll cause the culture of welcoming guests to shrivel up and die.

> Read more from Danny.

Learn more about the danger of a toxic Guest Experience – start a conversation with Guest Experience Navigator Bob Adams.

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

Tags: Church Guest Experiences, Danny Franks, Guest Experiences, Toxic Guest Experience

| What is MyVisionRoom? > | Back to Execution >

Ten Better Practices for Effective Guest Response

by: Bryan Rose

0

Tweet

The most-asked questions at each Auxano Guest Experience Boot Camp consistently revolve around recognizing, and hopefully eliciting, some kind of response from First Time Guests. After serving more than 100 churches and campuses while curating Guest Perspective Evaluations, I have observed various styles of church Welcome Team best practices in this arena. Here are a few common forms of Guest recognition that ultimately end in failure to produce a second visit:

The Family Reunion – We are very friendly and love it when we have first timers and they will definitely feel welcomed. But like the “last boyfriend,” we don’t expect them to be here the next time we gather so we do not invest much real effort.

The Sorority Ceremony – We quickly forget that we invited that guy to be Santa at our Christmas Party and leave him in the corner while we conduct some weird “OMG! You got engaged!” ritual. We feel sorry that he was uncomfortable and we wasted his time during exams week, but it’s our house and our rules.

The Eggshell Walk – We work hard to make sure our Guests can remain completely anonymous. However, in consciously sidestepping Guest parking spots or welcome centers, it becomes MORE conspicuous and uncomfortable to visit our campus and wander helplessly around for the first time.

The Humanitarian Relief – We are so tired from keeping the ministry held together and the lights turned on, that whenever a new family visits, they are mobbed like aid workers during a third-world famine. Every smile carries a certain sense of desperation and the hopes that “you are the one” that return us to our former glory.

Here are 10 Better Practices for Effective Guest Response:

1. Remember to leave time for them to fill out the card. If you announce the seat/pew-back connection card immediately before the offering plate or another stand-and-sing song starts, people will not have time to fill it out. Think through your service timing and make welcome announcements intentional not automatic.
2. Provide pens too. Keep the seats stocked or hand them out at the door. This simple reminder is essential for filling out cards and taking notes on the sermon. Invest in branded pens and invite them to “steal the pens” as long as they leave them for their server at lunch, alongside a generous tip.
3. Don’t ask for too much information. Think through how much you are asking for on the connection cards and what you will do with it. Do you really need every data point, or just enough to follow-up the next week?
4. Provide your contact information first. Why would a first time guest give you, a somewhat over-caffeinated announcement maker, their cell phone number? List your contact information, whatever you are asking for from them, first. Unless you are ready for them to call you randomly, do not expect to be able to call them randomly.
5. Tell them why you want their information. If you need their address or cell phone number, then tell them why. If they know that you are just sending a thank-you note and not going to show up out of the blue some evening, they may be more likely to give it to you.
6. Trade them for something. One great way to receive a Guest response is to give Guest swag. Consider a “swap” for the connection card in the form of a Bible, book, teaching resource or other tangible items. But be careful, some churches have gone too far with this idea!
7. Tie their response to your vision. What if you choose to invite your Guests into God’s better future, to share in your missional calling, instead of just making the typical announcement? Let them know how their response demonstrates a core value of your church, represents the next step in their spiritual growth, or forms the foundation of long-term disciple-making success.
8. Don’t send them to a back room or dark corner. Position any next steps, meet and greet areas, or welcome centers in prime locations within the flow of traffic. Very few people will go against the flow to huddle under the dark balcony stairs – no matter what new swag you have to give them.
9. Plan for a multi-dimensional response. Create two to three different opportunities to respond rather than just relying on one card. You should provide online web forms, Facebook group pages and regular discovery classes to attend. Move beyond the worship tear-off card and look for other, natural opportunities to connect. Team up with the Kids ministry and share information about Guest families, as every parent will have given contact information at sign-in.
10. Plan the work and work the plan. Think through the entire experience a new family will have at your church, from their first Google search to the ride home. Now think beyond the first visit and how that family will be engaged and growing in Christ at your church. Create a plan and the supporting systems that move people toward God’s better future, one step at a time. Assign one person to have ownership over the entire process, working with and for every ministry.

At Auxano, we use Seven Checkpoints to frame the Guest Experience process from the web to the welcome center. Interested in learning more? Bring a team of up to five leaders to one of our upcoming Guest Experience Boot Camps and learn how to integrate the seven checkpoints, as well as create an intuitive plan to get an excellent Guest response at your church.

> Read more from Bryan.

Check out Auxano’s Guest Experience Boot Camp in Cincinnati, OH on August 7-8.

Tags: Bryan Rose, Church Guest Experiences, Guest Experience, Guest Experience Boot Camp, Guest response

| What is MyVisionRoom? > | Back to Execution >

The New Trojan Horse

by: Annette Franz

0

Tweet

Editors Note: During our August focus on Guest Experiences, we are honored to have some of the best voices in the world of Customer Experience provide guest posts for the Vision Room. As you read the content below, simply think “Guest” in terms of the “customer” the author is talking about – and you will benefit from the knowledge and expertise of some great minds.

Are you challenged in your efforts to implement organization-wide changes to improve your culture, the employee experience, and the customer experience?

Have you considered how a Trojan Mouse might help you gain traction in these efforts?

Trojan Mouse. What is it? And how does it differ from a Trojan Horse?

Well, right off the top of my head it seems like “Trojan Mouse” elicits an image of smallness, speed, and agility, while “Trojan Horse” makes me think of a larger undertaking that is a bit slower and more labored – in both planning and execution – and likely rejected.

Let’s start with what a Trojan Mouse is. From TrojanMice.com:

Much change is of the “Trojan Horse” variety. At the top of the organisation a decision is taken to introduce a strategic change programme, and consultants or an internal team are commissioned to plan it down to the very last detail. The planned changes are then presented at a grand event (the Trojan Horse) amid much loud music, bright lights, and dry ice. More often than not, however, a few weeks later the organisation will have settled back into its usual ways and rejected much of the change. This is usually because the change was too great to be properly understood and owned by the workforce.

Trojan mice, on the other hand, are small, well-focused changes, which are introduced on an ongoing basis in an inconspicuous way. They are small enough to be understood and owned by all concerned, but their effects can be far-reaching. Collectively a few trojan mice will change more than one Trojan Horse ever could.

What do you think of that?

I am immediately drawn to these two sentences: More often than not, however, a few weeks later the organisation will have settled back into its usual ways and rejected much of the change. This is usually because the change was too great to be properly understood and owned by the workforce.

Trojan Mice seem like a great approach to implementing change for a variety of reasons:

• Trojan Mice address the last point in that second sentence – they are small enough to be understood and owned.
• We often talk about quick wins and showing some successes before we do a full roll out of a CX strategy. Those small wins, those quick wins, are great examples of Trojan Mice, allowing for gradual adoption of – and engagement with – the larger journey.
• Making small, nimble changes also limits risk or makes risk more tolerable as you design a new experience, develop new products, and find creative solutions to old problems. Think: fix fast, fail fast, fix fast.
• You can deploy various changes at the same time, which means you can test which ones work and which don’t – allowing you to quickly retract the ones that won’t have the intended impact, learn from them, and redeploy with updates. Again: fail fast, fix fast.
• Given that these changes are small and nimble, they will certainly help increase speed to market, i.e., you can get the solution out there quicker.
• Small changes that are quickly accepted, understood, and owned will add up and make for a bigger impact quickly – and over time – than rolling out a Trojan Horse that baffles people and is immediately rejected.

People hate change. And if they don’t know what it is or why it’s taking place, they ignore it; they certainly don’t want to be a part of it. Why not break it down for them, simplify it, and help them understand and own it.

As I’ve said before, improving the customer experience happens in baby steps; Trojan Mice – small, yet impactful, examples with tangible value – may just be the quickest way to successful adoption of the CX strategy and to transformation success.

> Read more from Annette.

Learn more about the power of connecting with your Guests – start a conversation with Guest Experience Navigator Bob Adams.

Tags: Annette Franz, Change, Church Guest Experiences, Guest Experiences, Trojan Mouse, change process

| What is MyVisionRoom? > | Back to Execution >

What Mis-en-Place Means to Your Guest Experience

by: VRcurator

0

Tweet

Despite how it may feel, competition for the spiritual attention and Sunday attendance of today’s family is not with the growing church down the road. Church leadership must redirect energy from being “bigger and better” than other churches, and instead see those places that provide “WOW! Experiences” as the real points of comparison among first time guests.

While that may seem like an impossible to achieve negative, this present reality can also be turned into a positive. Churches must start LEARNING from those top-notch places and their leaders.

Eating out at one-of-a-kind experiences has never been more popular or accessible. Celebrity chefs and buzz-creating restaurants are literally popping up in cities across the country, large and small. In the world of hospitality, the culinary segment has unique applications to the Guest Experience ministries of a church. The dining experience at a four-star restaurant provides excellent lessons for EXCEPTIONAL welcoming ministries in your church.

Want to learn how to create an EXCEPTIONAL Guest Experience at your church? Check out Auxano’s Guest Experience Boot Camp, coming to Orlando, FL on April 3-4.

With recommendations from one son who is a general manager for a national restaurant chain and another who is the chef at a conference center, today’s post, along with two more to follow, explores the food industry. In it we will focus on a behind-the-scenes look at the importance of hospitality from some of the best restaurants in the country.

Develop the art of mise-en-place.

THE QUICK SUMMARY – Work Clean, by Dan Charnas

The first organizational book inspired by the culinary world, taking mise-en-place outside the kitchen.

Every day, chefs across the globe churn out enormous amounts of high-quality work with efficiency using a system called mise-en-place―a French culinary term that means “putting in place” and signifies an entire lifestyle of readiness and engagement. In “Work Clean,” Dan Charnas reveals how to apply mise-en-place outside the kitchen, in any kind of work.

Culled from dozens of interviews with culinary professionals and executives, including world-renowned chefs like Thomas Keller and Alfred Portale, this essential guide offers a simple system to focus your actions and accomplish your work. Charnas spells out the 10 major principles of mise-en-place for chefs and non chefs alike: (1) planning is prime; (2) arranging spaces and perfecting movements; (3) cleaning as you go; (4) making first moves; (5) finishing actions; (6) slowing down to speed up; (7) call and callback; (8) open ears and eyes; (9) inspect and correct; (10) total utilization.

This journey into the world of chefs and cooks shows you how each principle works in the kitchen, office, home, and virtually any other setting.

A SIMPLE SOLUTION

Every day, chefs across the globe put out enormous amounts of high quality work with efficiency using a system called mise-en-place – a French culinary term that means “putting in place” and signifies an entire lifestyle of readiness and engagement.

For the culinary student, it is usually the beginning point of their career. But it is a beginning point that is repeated every day of their career – it’s the first thing they will do at the start of each day’s work.

Mise-en-place means far more than simply assembling all the ingredients, pots and pans, plates, and serving pieces needed for a particular period. Mise-en-place is also a state of mind. Someone who has truly grasped the concept is able to keep many tasks in mind simultaneously, weighing and assigning each its proper value and priority. This assures that the chef has anticipated and prepared for every situation that could logically occur during a service period.

Mise-en-place as a simple guide to focusing your actions and accomplishing your work is a necessary first step on the way to an exceptional guest experience.

Mise-en-place comprises three central values: preparation, process, and presence. When practiced by great chefs, these three mundane words become profound. The byproduct of these values may be wealth or productivity, but the true goal is excellence.

Preparation

Chefs commit to a life where preparation is central, not an add-on or an afterthought. To become a chef is to accept the fact that you will always have to think ahead, and to be a chef means that thinking and preparation are as integral to the job as cooking. For the chef, cooking comes second. Cooking can’t happen without prep coming first.

Embracing preparation also means jettisoning the notion that prep work is somehow menial, beneath us. Your preparation – and its intellectual cousin, planning – thus becomes a kind of spiritual practice: humble, tireless, and nonnegotiable.

Process

Preparation and planning along are not enough to create excellence. Chefs must also execute that prepared plan in an excellent way. S they ensure excellent execution by tenacious pursuit of the bet process to do just about everything.

A commitment to process doesn’t mean following tedious procedures and guidelines for their own sake. It’s not about turning humans into hyper-efficient robots. Process is, quite the contrary, about becoming a high-functioning human being and being happier for it.

Excellence arises from refining good process – how can I do this better or easier, or with less waste? It’s a job, like preparation, that never ends.

Presence

Chefs commit to being present in ways from the mundane to the sublime.

After months and years of repeated prep and process, the cook acquires a deeper kind of presence – becoming one with the work, and the work becoming kind of meditation. “Kitchen awareness” demands that one not only be “with” the work, but also “with” your comrades and their work at the same time.

This kind of awareness isn’t scatteredness. It is, quite the contrary, something closer to what the Eastern traditions call mindfulness.

Presence in all its forms – getting there, staying there, being focused, being open, and cultivating boundaries – helps us adjust our preparation and process as the circumstances shift around us.

Dan Charnas, Work Clean – What Great Chefs Can Teach Us About Organization

A NEXT STEP

The three values listed above – preparation, process, and presence- aren’t ideals to admire and applaud. They must be practiced – and can be, by anyone, anywhere.

To apply the values listed above to your hospitality ministry, begin by creating three chart tablets, writing the values above, one word per page.

Read the descriptions listed for each value.

In a discussion with your team, walk through your guest experience from beginning to end, and list each action on the appropriate page. If it fits on more than one page, put it on the page it makes most sense, or is strongest.

Review the lists with your team.

• What’s missing? Write it in, and assign it to a leader, along with a timeline, for development.
• What needs to be made stronger? Write it in, and assign it to a leader, along with a timeline, for strengthening.
• What’s unnecessary? Remove it from the list, and your regular activities.

Excerpt taken from SUMS Remix 73-1, released August 2017.

This is part of a weekly series posting excerpts from one of the most innovative content sources in the church world: SUMS Remix Book Summaries for church leaders.

SUMS Remix takes a practical problem in the church and looks at it with three solutions; each solution is taken from a different book. Additionally, a practical action step is included with each solution.

As a church leader you get to scan relevant books based on practical tools and solutions to real ministry problems, not just by the cover of the book. Each post will have the edition number which shows the year and what number it is in the overall sequence. (SUMS Remix provides 26 issues per year, delivered every other week to your inbox). 

>> Subscribe to SUMS Remix <<

Tags: Church Guest Experiences, Dan Charnas, Guest Experience Boot Camp, Guest Experiences, Mis en place

| What is MyVisionRoom? > | Back to Execution >

9 Secrets to a Great Guest Experience

by: Bob Adams

0

Tweet

It’s time for the second session of the summer term of the 2016 GsD program, and just as in previous summer terms, we are conducting a reading survey course. Over the next few weeks, I will be listing a broad overview of some of the best literature in the field of customer service – and you will quickly see how it connects to Guest Experiences! It’s only an introduction to whet your appetite – the application to the world of Guest Experiences for churches will come in the second summer term!

2016 GsD Summer Term 1 Survey of Customer Experience Literature 201

Text: Sprinkles: Creating Awesome Experiences Through Innovative Service

Author: Chip Bell

Synopsis: Chip Bell has written a delicious book that will make your mouth water! As you might guess from the title, Bell uses language and examples from the culinary world to focus on providing “that surprise that takes service from great to awesome.” Subtitled Creating Awesome Experiences Through Innovative Service, it delivers a delicious journey to innovative service.

According to Bell, there are nine “secret sauces” that form the basis for a customer experience that is served gourmet style.

Want to learn how “secret sauces” can be used to create an EXCEPTIONAL Guest Experience at your church? Check out Auxano’s Guest Experience Boot Camp, coming to Orlando, FL on April 3-4.

Outline

> Amazement

Amazement can be defined as “a feeling of great surprise or wonder.” When Guests come to your church, they are probably expecting several things, one of which is to be made welcome. Because today’s church Guests live in a consumeristic world, they often expect more than just a normal greeting; anything less is a negative.

The secret sauce of Amazement takes the welcome concept to a whole new level. To differentiate yourself from your competition (which isn’t other churches, by the way), how can you amaze your Guest? What will you say, do, and/or provide that takes away your Guest’s breath, capturing their attention and ruining their appetite for your competition?

> Animation

Animation can be defined as “ the state of being full of life or vigor; liveliness.” Guests coming to your church will be frustrated by indifference. They spend enough of their day at work or other places encountering boring, comatose service. Surely it will be different at a church?

The secret sauce of Animation is present when your team members are alive and spirited. They anticipate Guests, eagerly welcome them, and leave the Guest’s energy level higher than they found it. What does your organization do to instill and inspire in your teams so that they are full of life?

> Abundance

Abundance can be defined as “a very large quantity of something.” Who isn’t surprised and delighted when receiving a little something “extra”?

The secret sauce of Abundance is demonstrated by the generous attitude your team presents to Guests. Almost magnetic, it attracts Guests because it conveys an unconditional positive regard. How are you developing your teams to go beyond the expected with a generous spirit and attitude?

> Ambiance

Ambiance can be defined as “the character and atmosphere of a place.” As humans, we are wired to favor symmetry. Our psyche reads dissonance in an experience long before our logical mind comprehends the reason. When you weave all five senses (sight, sound, smell, touch, and taste) together, you can create an experience that yields a story your Guests are eager to spread.

The secret sauce of Ambiance involves integrating all the sensory elements of a Guest Experience so they are congruent around a compelling story, theme, or vision. The secret is attention to minute details because the Guest’s brain can pick up any dissonant signal or symbol. What opportunities would you discover if you looked at your organization’s environment and experience with all five senses in mind?

> Adoration

Adoration can be defined as “deep love and respect.” There is no greater gift one can give a Guest than serving them with love. Love is also expressed in how your team members love the organization they represent.

The secret sauce of Adoration comes from ensuring that your front line team members know your organization’s benefits, not just the feature. It comes from investing in your team’s training. What can you do to make your Guests fall in love with the team member and the experience they are receiving?

> Allegiance

Allegiance can be defined as “loyalty of an individual to a commitment or cause.” It is created through the small acts of communication and caring that make Guests feel they can trust your team members to serve them well.

The secret sauce of Allegiance is demonstrated when your team members treat Guests like valued neighbors rather than strangers. It grows as a trusting relationship is developed, with a focus on the Guest, not the task at hand. How will your organization deliver an unexpected surprise to Guests, seeking to build trust with them in every encounter?

> Alliance

Alliance can be defined as “an association formed for mutual benefit, or a relationship based on an affinity in interests, nature, or qualities.” Guests care when they share, particularly if sharing is invited, not expected. Simplicity and sincerity are important to remember when helping the Guest move toward a position of helping you.

The secret sauce of Alliance reminds us that the partnership between team members and Guests always carries a co-created experience. Guest inclusion begins by being comfortable enough to ask the Guest for assistance. It also means being willing at times to sacrifice a little on efficiency or effectiveness for the commitment gained through participation. How are you involving your Guests in a partnership that creates and delivers an exceptional experience?

> Accessible

Accessible can be defined as “able to be reached or entered.” Recent research shows that being easy to do business with trumps every other feature of basic customer service. When a customer feels they can connect with you anytime, even big problems can be reduced to manageable proportions. Make access to stressless service a vital and obvious part of your Guest Experience recipe. After all, “stressed” spelled backwards is “desserts.”

The secret sauce of Accessible is best used by examining your Guest’s experience through their eyes. Often, that involves the conscious effort to see details that we are blind to. When was the last time you took an “empathy walk” in the shoes of your Guests, experiencing exactly what they do?

> Adventure

Adventure can be defined as “an unusual or exciting experience or activity.” Is the Guest Experience you provide more like a light or a candle? Lights are important because they provide us with the capacity to see or see better. Candles do they same thing, but with style. If you want a romantic dinner, you don’t just turn on the light.

The secret sauce of Adventure reminds us that a great Guest Experience is light-like, but an innovative Guest Experience is candle-like. People who deliver great Guest Experiences focus on being good at what they do; people who deliver innovative Guest Experiences seek to add imagination to what they do. What could your organization do to make your Guest’s experience unexpectedly unique?

About the author: Chip Bell, senior partner with the Chip Bell Group, is a renowned keynote speaker, consultant, trainer, and speaker to some of the largest and most well-known organizations around the world. A prolific author, he has written or co-written twenty books, many of which were bestsellers.

Additional Resources: Check out the book website for more information, including a video overview of the book as well as a free download of Chapter 1.

A Quick Comment: Just like a chef takes a basic sauce and makes it into the foundation of an exquisite meal, your organization can take the “secret sauces” Bell writes about in Sprinkles and deliver a “value-unique” service that creates an unexpected, enchanting experience for those you serve.

I hope you’ve enjoyed this brief culinary excursion into the 9 Secret Sauces from Chip Bell’s wonderful book Sprinkles. I’ve only briefly touched the surface of the great ideas you will find in it. Want to create a great Guest Experience recipe? Look no further than Sprinkles!

Guestology – the art and science of knowing and understanding your guests – is a term originated by Bruce Laval of the Walt Disney Company. The use of GsD (Doctor of Guestology) is my tongue-in-cheek acknowledgment that organizations that really want to understand and deliver a WOW Guest Experience need to study the best practices and principles in use today, and then adapt them to the context of their own environment.

If you didn’t get a chance to participate in the 2013 GsD Summer Reading 101 classes, you can begin reading a 10-part session here.

For more reading in the area of Guest Experiences, check out my Essential Guest Experience Library. I am always adding new resources for your learning pleasure!

> Read more from Bob

Want to learn more about a great Guest Experience? Check out Auxano’s Guest Experience Boot Camp in Cincinnati, OH on August 7-8.

Tags: 9 Secrets, Bob Adams, Chip Bell, Church Guest Experiences, Guest Experiences

| What is MyVisionRoom? > | Back to Execution >

Five People Who Volunteer in Every Church Parking Lot

by: Bryan Rose

0

Tweet

He is the face of your weekly welcome.

He is the first human interaction every Guest will experience.

He is fighting on the faded front lines of an automotive battlefield.

He keeps chaos at bay by the power vested in a reflective nylon vest.

He is the Church Parking Lot Volunteer.

Not that all church parking lot volunteers are men, it is just that most women are not tempted by the rush of power and vestiges of control found only by directing slow-moving automobiles toward already-obvious decisions. In fact, church parking lot volunteers are a unique breed of servant leader, a people set apart. They possess a keen ability to step right from the parking lot into the worship service, and remain blissfully oblivious to their distinctive “I’ve been outside all morning” smell… suggesting that they may not be set apart enough.

However, as a church leader, it would be foolish to classify every parking lot volunteer into one cliched, amorphous whole. There are at least five distinctive sub-types within this walkie-talkie wearing brigade, each with different needs and motivations.

Here are five types of church parking lot volunteers and clear direction for leading each one:

The Deputy
Marked by his wrap-around sunglasses, fingerless gloves, and Batman-type utility belt, the Deputy carries a flashlight to his post each and every Sunday, no matter that Christmas Eve is the only nighttime service all year. The Deputy insists on wearing an earpiece, even though he was asked to stay on a different channel from the security team after reporting yet another possible disruption/charismatic worshipper entering the building. The Deputy travels the tri-state area all week in his plumbing-supply, or similar sales role. But he has never recovered from that one week spent around the Sheriff’s Office as a part of the Boy Scouts Explorer Program. Leading the Deputy requires the twin disciplines of patience and humor. Not taking yourself too seriously allows room for how serious he is, and playing the long-game of leadership will eventually earn his respect. Validate the Deputy’s role on the team and praise his decisiveness as he regales you with yet another heroic close call story from “Malfunction Junction” – the name that only he uses for the four-way stop next to Guest Parking. But above all else remember this about the Deputy: he knows that deep down in places you don’t talk about in church staff meetings, you want him on that wall. You need him on that wall.

The Squirrel
Maybe this guy is not the best person to have in the parking lot, but it is a Fifth Sunday and everyone else is at the lake. The Squirrel is indecisive, panics easily and usually ends up stopping or sending everyone, all at once. Sweating profusely and constantly spinning around, so as not to be overtaken by a hybrid, the Squirrel is a bundle of nerves when he comes back into the lobby. In fact, he is determined that your “15 Minute Rule” keeping him in the parking lot after each service begins, takes a year off of his life each Sunday. Leading the Squirrel requires you to be a cheerleader turned hostage negotiator every week that he serves. Be sure to tell him he’s doing a good job, but do not give into his demands for a transfer to the coffee bar or handing out bulletins at the worship center door. The stakes may seem higher in the parking lot, but out there, at least the Squirrel’s sweaty palms and shifty eyes are not involved in alienating your First Time Guests.

The Zealot
He is excited to serve. Maybe a little too excited for a Sunday morning. The Zealot proves that it is possible for a Welcome Team member to actually be too friendly. Traffic comes to a complete stop as he high fives each excited child and every confused adult in the crosswalk. Heaven forbid someone have their window down in the parking lot, as inquiries toward whether or not they are having a good day and updates on the morning’s coffee flavor are inevitable. The Zealot loves his role, can be counted on to have the golf cart cobweb-free and ready to go, and loves nothing more than to give you a ride right up to the front door each week. He gets there before any staff member, and your drummer just now realized that The Zealot isn’t in the band. Leading the Zealot is easy: just stay out of his way. He is the ideal volunteer, and can be counted on to take any task. Be thankful for the Zealot and treat him and his kind well.

The Rebel
You can tell your team has a Rebel because you cannot tell him apart from anyone else in the parking lot. The Rebel refuses to wear your silly yellow vest and will only stand where HE thinks the traffic flow needs him most. This rugged individualist has been known to release a Nevada Test Site-type mushroom cloud of vape smoke just as service ends. Simply put, the Rebel doesn’t care. He is not afraid to hold traffic in every direction in order to reply to a Small Group text thread on where to go for lunch. Leading the Rebel is the polar opposite of leading the Zealot. In fact, unless you have raised a teenage son or daughter, you are not actually qualified to lead the Rebel. You cannot tell him what to do. Nor can you hope that he will eventually figure it out. Leading the Rebel well keeps your daily walk with Christ honest, and your best bet is to keep sending him the emails and high-fiveing nothing but air each week. If you think you are up to the challenge, get humble and play two steps ahead of the Rebel, in order to make him think every idea is his idea. And you should just give up on him wearing that vest.

The Hostage
His wife made him sign up for this position, and he makes sure you know it each week. The Hostage shows up to volunteer in the parking lot just as the service is scheduled to start. Without a care, he will shrug his shoulders, linger in the coffee bar for ten minutes and then heroically slink in and join his wife in worship. Just know that the Hostage does not want to be there, and, instead of making sure your parking lot experience is great, his mind is occupied with working out a great escape plan. Leading the Hostage is actually quite simple, set up a direct line to communicate with whomever is holding him against his will. Need an extra 15 minutes for a pre-service meeting? Make sure his wife gets the email. Want an extra hand on Easter Sunday? Promise his captor that the Hostage will be returned unharmed, ready for family photos and afternoon ham.

You may not have a parking lot full of Zealots, but hey, at least you are building a team! Experts say your church will never get past a bad first impression, and the parking lot is where most first impressions are made.

Do you want to learn more about creating a great guest experience at your church? 

Do you have a team full of Rebels and Hostages, and no real plan as to how to lead them? 

Do you know that, bottom line, your church’s First Time Guest Experience needs to get better?

Read more from Bryan.

Learn more about the critical importance of your church parking team at Auxano’s Guest Experience Boot Camp. More information here.

Tags: Bryan Rose, Church Guest Experiences, Church Parking Lot Team, Guest Experiences, Parking Team

| What is MyVisionRoom? > | Back to Execution >

6 Actions for Calling First Time Guests

by: Sam Rainer III

0

Tweet

Phone calls are an important connection point with church guests. Not all guests will give you their phone numbers. For those who do, here are some guidelines to consider.

What to Do When Calling Church Guests

Clearly identify yourself. Make sure you mention your name and the name of your church. It’s easy to forget this step!

Double-check the name of the person you are calling. I tend to make my phone calls in batches. After I’ve made several phone calls, I can lose track who I am calling. When I’m making several phone calls in a row, I’ll write the name of the person on a Post-It Note and have it right in front of me. For each call, I’ll use a fresh Post-It Note.

Ask how you can serve them. You should ask every guest if you can help them. People new to the community need help with local connections. People with life changes often have spiritual questions.

Ask if they have prayer requests. One of the best ways a church can serve a guest is through prayer. Always ask guests how you can pray for them.

Ask if they have any questions about the church. Some guests have questions. Most will not ask unless you prompt them. Encourage guests to ask questions. Through the pattern of questions people ask, you’ll learn something about your guests and your church.

Be kind, be brief, and call at a convenient time. Kindness and brevity are a must. Also, early morning calls and late evening calls are ill-advised.

What Not to Do When Calling Church Guests

Don’t wait to follow-up. Call within the week of a guest’s visit. A Sunday visitor should receive a phone call by Wednesday, Thursday at the latest.

Don’t ask personal questions. There is a time and place for questions like, “Where do you work?” A phone call with a first-time guest is not one of those occasions.

Don’t use pressure as a tactic. With church guests, you’re not closing a deal. Rather, you should look for avenues to serve them. Aggressiveness is unnecessary and will scare away most people.

Don’t attempt to tell jokes. It’s awkward. Not many people can land a good joke over the phone with someone they don’t know.

The phone call is one means of communication with church guests. You should also write a letter and send an email if you have the contact information. My church now asks for social media handles from our guests as well. Contact someone two or three times, spread out over a couple of weeks. With your phone calls, follow this list of things to do and not to do.

> Read more from Sam.

Tags: Church Guest Experiences, Guest Experience, Sam Rainer

| What is MyVisionRoom? > | Back to Execution >

Don’t Put Your Guests First at Your Organization – Part 1

by: Annette Franz

0

Tweet

Editor’s Note: During our August focus on Guest Experiences, we are honored to have some of the best voices in the world of Customer Experience provide guest posts for the Vision Room. As you read the content below, simply think “Guest” where you see the word “customer” – and you will benefit from the knowledge and expertise of some great minds.

In this first part of a two-part series, I’ll outline some important ways to ensure that your company is putting the customer at the center of all it does.

Why are companies in business? For customers, right? To create and to nurture a customer, to be specific. And, yet, we still see some dismal statistics about how many companies don’t focus on the customer experience or think they focus on the customer experience but really don’t. In research published by Bain, they reported that:

• only 50% of management teams tailor their products and services to the needs of customers
• only 30% organize the functions of their company to deliver superior customer experiences
• only 30% maintain effective customer feedback loops

Temkin Group recently reported that 67% of large companies rate themselves as being good at soliciting customer feedback, but only 26% rate themselves as being good about making changes based on the insights.

These are dismal statistics. How do we turn this around?

If you haven’t yet started to focus on the needs of the customer, where should you begin?  What can you do to turn the tide?

First you must decide. And then, when you’re ready to put the customer at the center of all you do, there are six important steps to take to get started:

1.    Identify the customer
2.    Understand the customer
3.    Outline the customer lifecycle
4.    Map the customer journey
5.    Listen to your customers
6.    Socialize the insights/findings

Step 1: Identify the Customer 
Knowing who the customer is seems like a no-brainer, but you’d be surprised by how many companies have never gone through the exercise of identifying the customer. In a B2B organization, for example, customers can be many and varied; look within each customer or partner organization at the people you interact with, e.g., purchasing, product, support, accounting, end-users, etc. to identify your customer. The company is not the customer; the people you interact with within the company are. Not having a clear understanding of who the customer is hampers any further steps in this process.

Step 2: Understand the Customer 
Once you’ve identified who your customers are, you must understand them and their needs. How do they interact with your organization? Why do they buy products and services from you? What are their needs? What problems are they trying to solve? What are they trying to achieve?

A tool to use to answer all of these questions is personas. Personas are fictional characters created to describe your ideal prospect or actual customer. They are derived through primary research – research that can then also be used for your customer journey maps in Step 4. They are specific to your business, not to the industry. The descriptions include vivid narratives, images, and other items that help companies understand the needs of the customer (contextual insights) and outline feelings, motivations, goals, behaviors, challenges, likes, dislikes, objections, and interests that drive buying (or other) decisions. Each persona includes a human face and name. Used properly, personas keep the customer alive and front and center for the entire organization. They tie in nicely to your journey maps and are necessary to begin that exercise.

A hardware client of mine developed supplier personas in order to better understand the different supplier personnel with which they interact. Different supplier types and different roles within a supplier company have different needs and interact differently with your organization; understanding those then allows you to create a better experience for all involved. For their personas, we looked at the different roles within supplier companies and came up with six primary personas: operations management, logistics, production schedulers, inventory management, shipping, and accounting. A lot of research went into defining these personas, which were then used to develop journey maps that laid out the experience they had when trying to achieve whatever it was each did with the client. These personas were then used to better manage supplier relationships and to design a better supplier experience with the client, one more personalized to each specific role/persona. The client saw a remarkable uptick in supplier satisfaction, and hence retention, as a result of this increased understanding.

Step 3: Outline the Customer Lifecycle 
The lifecycle map shows the phases of the customer’s relationship with your company. It’s high level and good for understanding the overall relationship the customer has with the organization, from before he’s even considered a customer through when he is no longer a customer. It typically includes these stages: Need, Awareness, Consideration, Selection/Purchase, Experience, Loyalty, Advocacy, Engagement, Raving Fans. And, unfortunately, Exit. It’s not necessarily linear and often circles back on itself.

It’s great to understand the lifecycle at this high level before moving on to the next step. Lifecycle maps, while important to nurturing the overall customer relationship, are a natural first step to identifying listening needs along the lifecycle; however, to get to the heart of the matter, to really understand when and where to listen and to really design a better customer experience, you must dive deeper into the lifecycle stages, inventory the touchpoints, and map the customer journey, which I’ll discuss further in Step 4.

In my next post, I’ll wrap up the other three steps you can take to ensure that customers are front and center in your organization.

When a brand connects with their customer, that in some ways is the easy part, the hard part is keeping the customer at the center after the success/profits comes flooding in. Success can breed complacency, success can breed arrogance. -Anna Farmery

> Read more from Annette.

Want to learn how to create an EXCEPTIONAL Guest Experience at your church? Check out Auxano’s Guest Experience Boot Camp, coming to Orlando, FL on April 3-4.

Tags: Annette Franz, Church Guest Experiences, Guest Experiences

| What is MyVisionRoom? > | Back to Execution >

Create a Compelling Culture of Hospitality

by: VRcurator

0

Tweet

Taken from SUMS Remix 46-1, published August 2016

This is part of a weekly series posting content from one of the most innovative content sources in the church world: SUMS Remix Book Summaries for church leaders. SUMS Remix takes a practical problem in the church and looks at it with three solutions; and each solution is taken from a different book. As a church leader you get to scan relevant books based on practical tools and solutions to real ministry problems, not just by the cover of the book. Each post will have the edition number which shows the year and what number it is in the overall sequence. (SUMS provides 26 issues per year, delivered every other week to your inbox). 

Subscribe to SUMS Remix <<

Want to learn more about training your teams? Check out Auxano’s Guest Experience Boot Camp in Cincinnati, OH on August 7-8.

Tags: Chick-fil-A, Church Guest Experiences, Dee Ann Turner, Guest Experience, It's My Pleasure, SUMS Remix

| What is MyVisionRoom? > | Back to Execution >