We have a problem at our Browns Bridge church. It’s the kind of problem that can turn a guest’s great experience into a bad experience. Mom and dad can love our worship service. Little Johnny can love UpStreet. Little Suzy can love Waumba Land. And that positive feeling can go away by what happens next.

Traffic. When we built Browns Bridge, we only built one exit off the campus. Trying to move guests off the campus in a safe and timely manner is not easy. We have had traffic engineers, traffic experts, Parking Team volunteers, and many others give us feedback and ideas. The bottom line is we’re doing the best we can with what we have. Traffic is a “combustion point” we deal with every Sunday.

Combustion point is a term Disney uses to define…

“spots where even a finely tuned process can break down and, instead of contributing to a positive customer experience, begin to turn a guest’s good day into a bad one. It’s impossible to completely eliminate combustion points, but the goal is to stop them from turning into explosion points.” (*page 24)

Can you guess Disney’s combustion points? One are the long lines guests stand in waiting for a ride or attraction. Another is a guest remembering where they parked their vehicle at the end of a long day. Good experiences can turn bad at these points.

It is important that your church identifies your combustion points. Disney says look for those places where guests…

• complain consistently
• get stuck in your systems
• have common issues and problems

Traffic is not Browns Bridge’s only combustion point. Another example is the time it takes to join a small group. We officially only have four times each year when people can join a small group (two GroupLinks and two Access Group seasons.) This means people often have to wait to get into a small group. Combustion point.

If you’re still having trouble determining what your church’s combustion points are, Disney has found that combustion points are commonly found in four areas:

1. guest flow
2. staff/volunteer-to-guest communication
3. guests with special needs
4. poor process design

A combustion point in your church could be how guests register for your kid’s environments or how you communicate with guests who want to volunteer. It could be any number of things. It’s important that you identify them. Maybe you can eliminate the problem. Maybe you can soften the combustion point by making the experience less painful.

People lead your church. And people attend your church. It will never be perfect. There are systems and processes that frustrate your guests. Your guests are aware of them. Are you? What can you do to create a better experience for them?

* For more information and discussion on combustion points and other Guest Services topics, see the Disney Institute’s book Be Our Guest: Perfecting the Art of Customer Service.

In the last post, we talked about what to do with guests who arrive late to your worship service. It is more of a tension to manage than a problem to solve. In response to that post, Deni from LCBC in Pennsylvania asked,

“Our question is why do we have the crowd that leaves early, during the last song or after the message? It is such a distraction to many and can really break an individual’s personal connection to the moment.”

We wrestle with the same issue. Guests leave early for a variety of reasons:

• They want to beat the traffic.
• They want to get to lunch.
• They need to get somewhere by a certain time.
• They are not engaged during the end of the service.

We don’t do a closing song every Sunday. Oftentimes, the communicator will end the sermon with a prayer and dismiss everyone. At times, someone will add a brief announcement after the prayer then dismiss everyone. On these Sundays, we may have a very small number of guests leave the service early.

But on the Sundays we do have a closing song, we do have an issue with guests leaving early. From time to time, our communicator will simply ask people to not leave early. Even when we do that, we still have some guests who leave. It can be frustrating. Those guests are missing out on the complete worship experience that was created for them. They may be distracting other guests as they leave. They may even be distracting or discouraging the musicians.

From a Guest Services perspective, there may not be much you can do to prevent them from leaving early. It’s important that you treat them like you would all other guests who stay for the entire service. Give them the same good-bye you give all of your guests. Don’t assume they know they are being a distraction. They may have a very good reason to leave early that particular Sunday.

Most likely, the team that can do the most about this tension is the team in charge of planning the worship service. While it may not be a solvable problem for them, they may have the most influence in trying to keep the guests at their seats. They are doing all they can to make sure the end of the service is so engaging that guests do not want to miss it. The reality, though, is there will always be some guests who leave early.

Guests don’t always behave exactly like we want them to. It can be irritating. It can cause challenges. But when you make your guests feel valued regardless of what time they arrive or leave, everyone wins! You are accomplishing your church’s mission in the lives of more people. People tell their friends about the places that make them feel valued. As a result, others will come to experience your church and its mission.

I recently had the opportunity to talk with some leaders from different states about Guest Services in their churches. During the conversation, I learned something very interesting. We’re not the only church to which people come very late. Apparently, people all over the United States arrive late to church every Sunday. Do you have this “problem” in your church? We do.

How do you handle the people who arrive late to your church? Before we answer that question, maybe we should ask ourselves a different question. Anytime you are trying to determine if there is a problem to solve or a tension to manage, it’s important you see the big picture. There is a question that can help you see the situation through the eyes of the guest: Why are they late?

This is an important question to ask because it helps you see each latecomer as a story and not just a person who walked in late. Maybe they were late because…

• it was their first time coming to your church. They didn’t know there would be traffic or that it would take so long to check-in to your children’s environments.
• they are always late. Some people just naturally run late.
• something specific made them late that morning. Maybe their car wouldn’t start or one of their kids didn’t cooperate.
• they wanted to be late. They were intentionally late because they don’t love your music, but they do love your preaching.
• they didn’t know what time you started. You don’t communicate your service times as well as you think you do.

The truth is you don’t know why they were late. But it’s important we see them as a story and not as a problem.

So, this Sunday when the service has already started and in walk the latecomers, what are you going to do? Admit it. A little part of you wants to drop a hint what time the service started and make them feel a little guilty for not being on time. But when you remember they are a story and not a problem, you will respond differently.

No matter what time a guest walks into your church on Sunday, treat them the same way you treated every guest who came before them. Welcome them as if they arrived 10 minutes before the service started. Help them feel valued by assisting them. If they mention they were late, respond, “You’re not late. You’re right on time.” Treat them as a story not a problem.

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.]

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?

Browns Bridge has been open a little over three years. We have amazing volunteers on our Parking Teams, Host Teams, and Information Center Teams. We have the best leadership over Guest Services…I can say that because it is not me. Over the last year, we have really become intentional about focusing on not only the how of Guest Services but also the why of Guest Services. So you would think we have Guest Services pretty much figured out. We don’t.

We have discovered a significant hole in Guest Services. How did we discover this hole? Waumba Land, our preschool environment, made us aware of the hole. Apparently a number of first time guests have been walking into our building, feeling uncertain about where to go, and have been coming to our preschool check-in area to get help. Our preschool volunteers have done a tremendous job of helping these guests, but it’s not their job to do this.

So we’re creating a first time guest assistance kiosk right next to our preschool environment. We’ve never done anything like this, and we’re still working on what it will look like. But we’re excited about one more opportunity to welcome, inform, and serve our guests, especially our first time guests.

This situation has reminded us of two important things. First, those involved in Guest Services should not be the only ones evaluating Guest Services. Second, we will never have Guest Services all figured out.

It goes without saying that every church in America has designated “handicapped” parking spaces for those with special needs. It’s the law. Offering these parking spaces allows our guests with special needs to park closer to our building, which is a great thing. But, what if we could do more?

At Browns Bridge, we recently took steps to improve the guest experience for those with special needs. In the picture below, you’ll notice that we added a small sign to each of our handicapped parking spaces. The telephone number on the sign is a direct line to our Information Center. At any point on Sunday, when a guest with special needs attends our church, they can simply dial this number to receive assistance.

BBCC - Handicapped Parking

From the moment our guests with special needs arrive in the parking lot until the time they leave, we have a Guest Services Volunteer available to help them if needed.  We’ve already seen this system put into action, and it has been a success.

Creating this sign was a simple step for us to take, and it is one more way we are improving the experience for every guest on Sunday.