Guest Services

Every Day Is Opening Day

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?

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Who Should Lead Guest Services At Your Church?

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!

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How We Ask For Personal Information From Our Guests

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... mail the person a welcome letter. mail the person a handwritten note. send the person promotional material for months to come. drop by unannounced on a Tuesday night with a plant, cake, book, coffee mug, gift card, bag of brochures, etc. to give as a gift. count them on a first time guest report. Of course, before you can do any of this, you have to actually collect the person's name and address. And that can get a little tricky. The last thing a church wants to do is come across desperate or rude. People often inquire about how we ask for personal information from our guests. Our answer is simple. We don't. Well, we don't until they come to us and are ready to give it to us. We believe if a guest wants us to have their personal information, they will give it to us when they're ready to take a step. Honestly, it's a risk. If they choose to self-identify, then we hopefully give them clear and easy ways to do so. If they choose to remain anonymous, they can easily do so. So how do we receive people's personal information? After all, we do have a database. One primary way we collect this information is in our Family Ministry environments when someone registers their child. Another way is when someone takes a step...Starting Point Orientation, NEXT, baptism, membership, volunteer, financial giving, etc. Collecting people's personal information is important and strategic. But you may not have to collect it as aggressively as you think. Be patient and let people come to you. Their information will probably be more valuable this way.

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Our Guests Are The Most Important Part Of Drive

By Casey Ross / Director of Ministry Services / Browns Bridge Community Church 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: Information Center Team Parking Team Inside the Auditorium Host Team Outside the Auditorium Host Team Rest Stop Team 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.]

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Are You Easy to Find?

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?

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