Guest Services

Do Something Small This Sunday

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

Continue reading...

When A Child Is Missing

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

Continue reading...

Managing A Tension In Guest Services

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?

Continue reading...

A Hole In Guest Services

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

Continue reading...

Serving Guests With Special Needs

By Jake Miller / Director of Guest Services / Browns Bridge Community Church 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. [caption id="attachment_334" align="aligncenter" width="225" caption="BBCC - Handicapped Parking"][/caption] 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.

Continue reading...