“I can’t believe you let him greet people at the front door of your church! Do you know what he does on Friday nights?”

Family Ministry requires a background check. Group Life requires an application. Care Network requires an interview. Not just anyone can volunteer in these areas. It’s no secret, however, that Guest Services makes it easy for people to volunteer. Just about anyone can be a Guest Services volunteer, and that can cause tension.

Not every volunteer role should be open to just anyone, but we believe there should be some entry level roles for those new to church or new to volunteering. Why do we believe Guest Services is a good team on which to have entry level volunteer roles?

• Volunteers are not relating to or directly working with kids.
• Volunteers are not leading others spiritually.
• Volunteers are not leading other volunteers. Our Guest Services Captains, however, are volunteers who lead other volunteers. They go through apprenticing and an interview and have specific qualifications (i.e. experience, church membership) to serve in that role. Not every Guest Services role is an entry level role.

By allowing almost anyone to serve within Guest Services, it creates a tension we have to manage. What if a volunteer, who represents our church, is living a lifestyle during the week that does not line up with the values of our church? It’s a tension we’re okay with. Why do we see this as a tension to manage instead of a problem to solve? If he is actively volunteering,…

• he’s not at the lake, playing golf, watching TV, etc. on Sunday morning. We want church to be irresistible and his choice to be here is one indication that we’re accomplishing that goal.
• he’s identified himself with our church and our Guest Services team. There is something appealing, engaging, and helpful about the church and this team that makes him want to be here!
• we can influence him. If he’s on the team, he’s giving us permission to speak into his life. If we become aware of a lifestyle concern, we can have a conversation with him.
• we can invest in him. If he’s on the team, he is building relationships with others who can pour into his life.
• we can lead him into a growing relationship with Jesus Christ. That is, after all, our mission with every person who walk through our doors.

Let’s be honest, he’s not the only volunteer in the church making poor decisions and representing our church poorly. People are messy. No one is as clean as they appear. Instead of communicating to him that he cannot be a part of what is happening at our church, we want to give him appropriate opportunities to take a step into our church. Some Guests Services volunteer roles give him that opportunity.

By Jake Miller / Director of Guest Services / Browns Bridge Community Church

A couple of weeks ago, our family visited one of our favorite places in Atlanta, the Georgia Aquarium. If you haven’t been, you owe it to yourself to take a trip. As the world’s largest aquarium, it is definitely full of “wow” moments. On this particular day, however, the best part of my experience happened before we even walked through the doors.

As we were making our way downtown, a sign along the road caught my eye. The sign read: “At the Georgia Aquarium, Every Day is Opening Day”. I love that. I’m challenged by that.

When I think of the phrase “Opening Day”, the word excellence comes to mind. On Opening Day, everything is just right. The landscaping is meticulous. The facilities are spotless. The staff is upbeat, smiling and ready to serve. Everything is fresh and new. Every Guest that walks through the door is special. Every detail is important. There is excitement in the air… because something great is about to happen.

Think about that in the context of your church. Does every Sunday at your church feel like Opening Day… or just another day?

We’ve already talked about the fact that our Guest Services Volunteers have influence with every single person that comes through our doors. The question is… what are we doing with that influence? As Guest Services, we are responsible for making sure that every Guest has the best experience possible, from the moment they pull in the parking lot until the moment they leave. We may only get one chance. A negative experience could prevent a Guest from ever returning. We simply can’t allow that to happen… there is too much at stake.

How are you leading your teams this week to ensure that this Sunday will feel like Opening Day for your Guests?

By Casey Ross / Director of Ministry Services / Browns Bridge Community Church

I get very excited about Guest Services in our church and in your church. Why do I get so excited? There are a number of reasons, but there is a clear number one reason. Here it is…Guest Services is the only team at our church and at your church who influences every single guest (all ages and all stages of life) on a Sunday morning. No one else, not even the Sr. Pastor, can say that.

Think about it. The preschool environment influences preschoolers and their parents. The middle school environment influences middle schoolers and their parents. The worship leader and Sr. Pastor influence the people who come into the auditorium. But the Guest Services team influences every person who pulls onto your campus. Someone once said, “The sermon begins in the parking lot.” They’re right! But I’d add, “Everything begins in the parking lot.”

With this kind of influence, a very important question is “Who should lead Guest Services at your church?”

The answer is, “Someone.” Someone at your church should be leading Guest Services. It’s too important not to give it leadership. On our campuses, it’s a full-time or part-time staff person. It doesn’t have to be a paid staff person, though. It just needs to be someone who can lead it well. It needs to be someone who cares about the guest experience at your church.

Regardless of the size of your church, there are specific things the Guest Services leader will need to do…

• Oversee all the systems (parking, traffic, greeting, seating, etc.) that make up Guest Services.
• Cast vision to new and existing volunteers.
• Constantly evaluate the overall guest experience at your church.
• Train new volunteers.
• Lead and care for volunteer leaders who lead and care for their volunteer teams.

So, who would be great at leading Guest Services at your church? Hopefully someone just came to mind. If not, talk to some of the other leaders at your church about who is the right person to lead this area. Then give them a call today and invite them to lead the most influential area of your church!

By Casey Ross / Director of Ministry Services / Browns Bridge Community Church

In the church world, a person’s name and address can be highly sought-after information. With that information, a church can…

Our Drive Conference starts next week! It’s one of my favorite times of the year! It’s so humbling to have leaders from around the world come to our North Point campus. And it’s such an honor to talk with them and learn from them.

When you attend a conference, there are certain expectations you have. You expect the content to be helpful. You expect the quality to be excellent. You expect the systems you have to go through to be efficient. You expect the group putting on the conference to wow you. Those who attend Drive will experience these things!

But my goal for next week is that each person who attends Drive will feel like they were the priority of the conference. Yes, we paid attention to content, quality, systems, etc. But we paid the most attention to them.

One thing we take very seriously…in a really fun way…at Drive is how we welcome, inform, and serve those who attend. Every person who attends is our special guest for these few days. And every one of our staff members is a part of Guest Services for these few days. This year, however, we have six specific teams whose jobs are to pay special attention to our guests:

1. Information Center Team
2. Parking Team
3. Inside the Auditorium Host Team
4. Outside the Auditorium Host Team
5. Rest Stop Team
6. Wish Granting Team

You can’t just say people are the most important thing to you. You have to act like it. I am praying we act like it next week.

If you are coming to Drive, we cannot wait for you to get here! Thank you for giving up a few days so we can learn from you!

If you are here looking for help with Guest Services, the same can be said about your church. The people who walk through your doors have expectations. And you hopefully meet these expectations through your content, quality, systems, etc. Make sure, though, you prove people are the most important part of everything you do on Sundays.

[This is a re-post with some tweaks.]

By Jake Miller / Director of Guest Services / Browns Bridge Community Church

Two of my favorite places to shop are Target and Home Depot. I could wander around both stores for hours, whether I actually need anything or not, and be perfectly content. From a shopping standpoint, Target and Home Depot don’t have very much in common. They’re both very different stores with very different inventories, and I shop at each for very different reasons. But, from a Guest Services standpoint, they have one very big thing in common. They both understand that a large part of the Guest experience begins with their employees being easily identifiable.

When I’m shopping at Target and have a question, what’s the first thing I do? I look around for someone in a red shirt. When I’m shopping at Home Depot and need help figuring out which type of paint to buy, who do I look for? Someone in an orange apron. In both situations, there is no hesitation when I need assistance. I know exactly where to go and exactly who to look for.

This isn’t exclusive to Target and Home Depot. There are hundreds of businesses and organizations that have figured this out. Unfortunately, many churches haven’t.

In fact, until about 18 months ago, our Guest Services Volunteers were not very easy to identify. Sure, our church was blanketed with Guest Services Volunteers each Sunday. But with the exception of a nametag, our Volunteers looked just like every other attendee at our church. If a Guest needed assistance, it wasn’t clear who they should ask… and that needed to change.

Taking a cue from Target and Home Depot, we created a Guest Services T-Shirt.  We gave one to each of our Guest Services Volunteers and began requiring them to wear them every time they serve.  This seemingly small decision has yielded remarkable results and improved the Guest experience.  Now, when a Guest needs assistance, they don’t have to spend 10 minutes going from person to person wondering where to get help. It’s easy… they simply ask someone in a Guest Services T-Shirt.

What are you currently doing to help make your Volunteers easily identifiable to your Guests?

Forgive me if this is TMI. My wife, who is pregnant, recently went to the doctor for a routine ultrasound. When they put the gel on her stomach so they could take a peak at our child, she immediately noticed the gel was nice and warm. When she came home, she made sure to tell me about the warm gel. She assures me the gel is usually shockingly cold. It’s the small things.

One of the people I work with recently overheard another staff member mention that he was out of blue pens. She ordered him some blue pens and let him know they were on the way. I heard him tell at least ten other staff members what she had done for him. It’s the small things.

Small things only seem small to the person doing them. They are often big things to the receiver. Small things get people’s attention. Small things put a smile on people’s faces. People tell their friends about the small things.

What “small things” can you do for your church’s guests?

• Have volunteers hold the doors open for your guests.
• Have volunteers walk guests from where they are to where they want to go.
• Put wrapped mints in the restrooms.
• Have umbrellas available.
• Give volunteers permission to leave their posts and meet guest’s needs.
• Return phone calls and emails within 24 hours.
• Have warm water in the baptismal.
• Have wrapped candy at your Information Center.
• Send hand-written thank-you notes to volunteers.
• Provide towels for guests getting baptized.

Look for ways to do the small things for your guests. And do something small this Sunday!

My family and I were about to leave the YMCA recently when a lady came running by us saying she could not find her daughter. Of course, we immediately joined the search for the little girl. Minute by minute, more and more people joined in the search as we looked all over the three levels of the building, the parking lot, and anywhere else we could think of. Thankfully, after about five minutes, the little girl was found safe and sound. Whew!

During the frantic search, something really grabbed my attention. It surprised me. It was obvious that the Y staff had no plan in place if a child was reported missing. They helped in the search, but they were just as frantic as everyone else. No one took charge. No on locked down the building. No one utilized the building’s security cameras or intercoms. Clearly, there was no plan in place to deal with a lost child.

What about your church?

Regardless of the number of preschoolers, kids, and students who attend your church, you need a plan. I won’t bore you with Browns Bridge’s missing child plan. Our plan is based on the layout of our building / campus, other volunteer teams and their locations, our camera and communications systems, etc. It’s specific to us.

Your plan should be specific to you. Take into account how your building and campus are laid out, the volunteers from the children’s and student environments, other volunteer teams and their locations, your resources, etc. Here are some things we believe should be basic elements of any missing child plan:

• Don’t let anyone in or out of your building.
• Don’t let any vehicle enter or exit your campus.
• Know who is in charge of the search.
• Communicate with the right people during the situation.
• Make sure the right staff and volunteers know the plan before you use the plan.
• Stay calm.

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?

By Mike Hartley / Director of Guest Services / North Point Community Church

Guest Services at the North Point Campus requires around 1,200 volunteers that serve on 68 teams.  We like to think of ourselves as a community of families. The word “Family” is much more descriptive of the vision we have for these dedicated servants of hospitality.

Any functional family needs a strong, caring leader with good communication skills. Each family has its own style and personality, and it usually reflects the character of the shepherding parents.  Each Sunday, our family of Volunteers display a common bond and purpose with one another for the greater glory of serving Him.  The Team Leaders, or “parents”, provide regular reminders before each date of service through an email, a phone call, or in person.  At times this might include some corrective coaching, but it is always done in love and in a positive way.

When our families of Volunteers come together on Sunday, they share life experiences, pray together and clarify the daily activities.  This will include covering the order of service and encouraging the family to be sensitive to how others see our church and reminding them to experience North Point through the eyes of our guests. The Team Leader will follow up the day by sending everyone a recap of needs shared within the family.  This makes for strong and supportive relationships, and often leads to unexpected acts of kindness and service to one another in ways not normally expected in a team setting but always present in a strong family.

When it comes to welcoming, informing, and serving our guests, we think of it as a family affair. In doing so, we add dimension and unity to what otherwise might simply be a duty to church and a work to be accomplished.