By Casey Ross / Director of Ministry Services / Browns Bridge Community Church
There is a tension in Guest Services. It’s not a problem that needs to be solved. It’s a tension we have to learn to manage.
Our Guest Services teams (Parking Team, Host Team, Usher Team, Information Team) welcome, inform, and serve every guest who comes onto our campus and into our buildings on Sundays. We place our volunteers at strategic locations from the parking lots to the hallways to the aisles in the auditorium so they can interact with as many guests as possible. We don’t want anyone to not be influenced in some way by one of our Guest Services volunteers.
And here is where the tension happens every Sunday. Not every guest wants to be welcomed, informed, and served by our Guest Services volunteers. Some people want to be left alone. Some people want to remain anonymous. Some people need their space. It’s important we realize this about people. So how do we manage this tension? Here are some of the ways we try:
- We teach our Guest Services volunteers to look for nonverbal signals that a guest needs assistance. At Browns Bridge, we’ve learned guests who need help often look up…maybe they’re taking everything in, maybe they’re looking for signage, or maybe they’re asking God for help.
- We make all Guest Services volunteers very easy to identify so a guest knows who to approach for help. At Browns Bridge, we require all Guest Services volunteers to wear the same t-shirt we provide to them.
- We instruct our Guest Services volunteers to not go “over the top” in how they welcome people. For instance, we don’t want them hugging or high-fiving every guest who walks by you.
- We typically do not approach a guest. Instead, we let the guest approach us.
It’s a tension we have to manage. I’m sure there are times we do not go far enough in helping a guest. And I am sure there are times we go too far in helping a guest. But most of the time we want to live in the middle of the tension where we welcome, inform, and serve every guest in just the right way for them.
This tension within Guest Services exists where you are. How are you managing it?
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August 26th, 2010 at 3:33 pm
I’m an Info Table volunteer at Buckhead Church, and I feel this same tension. I think it’s a bit different at the info table, because you already know people are looking for information; the question is just whether they’d prefer to talk to you about it or find a handout on their own. I tend to go ahead and ask anyone who’s looking through the handouts if I can help them with anything; some folks say “just looking” and then that’s that.
August 29th, 2010 at 2:20 pm
Hey Josh! The Info Center is one of my favorite Guest Service spots. They definitely feel this tension there. One advantage, like you mentioned, at the Info Center is that the guest comes to you. I think you feel the right tension. Maybe one thing to say to a guest is “How are you today?” They can still answer with a brief “Fine.”, but that question may engage them a little more. You still have to be sensitive to how much they want to talk with you, though. Sounds like you’re doing a good job!
May 6th, 2012 at 8:43 pm
I work the parking lot at NPCC and what I do is look each guest in the eye to determine my response. Obviously, no eye contact usually equals no response from me. That person, for what ever reason, wants to just keep to themselves and that’s fine. Others, will smile and interact and that’s great too. No matter what the personality type that walks by me, I try my best to live up to the charge we have which says, “The sermon begins in the parking lot.” I just want to do my small part in making that happen.
May 7th, 2012 at 1:16 pm
Andy, that is awesome! You are much more than a small part of what God is doing every Sunday at North Point. Thank you for doing what you do!