Mark Waltz | ...Because People Matter

Guest Services Best Practice #25: Be in the Moment

Everyone arrives at your church campus under the same circumstance. Everyone. Your guests, your volunteer teams, your staff.

Someone couldn't find their socks. The train was too long. They left late. They forgot something and had to go back. The kids were fighting. You were fighting. Someone didn't feel like going today. You overslept. You were up too late the night before. There's still a long list of un-finisheds.

The pastor, the volunteers, you. We arrive at church easily distracted. Rushed. Mind everywhere but here.

Right here. Right now.

But providing excellent guest service requires being present in the moment, from moment to moment.

Not our own moment. But someone else's moment. And the next moment, and the next person, and the next...

Here are some quick thoughts to help you stay engaged:

• Sleep. The night before.
• Awake with margin. To eat. To focus. To reflect on why you're going where you're going.
• Go early. The train is gonna be slow; it's a train.
• Meet with friends, your team well before you need to be where you're going to need to be. Debrief. Decompress. Pray. Get focused.
• Keep praying. Practice presence with Jesus.
• Read body language. Connect with the eyes - yours with theirs.
• Ask questions. Enter into another person's world, if only for a moment.
• As your mind drifts back into your day, or forward into your day, stop. Set it aside. Come back.
• Engage people as Jesus would... as though they were Jesus.

Be in the moment.

Guest Services Best Practice #26: It’s Not About You

Accept it. It's not about you. Not completely.

Around Granger there probably was a time when it was all about you. The cafe was about you. The shuttles were about you. The kids' launch zone slides were about you. The smoke and lights and music was about you.

But, after you've been around awhile, after you've agreed to join the mission we share - it's not about you.

it's about others. Others who aren't here yet or who are new to our church.

After being around a bit, you become a "regular", even a member. It's easy to let a sense of entitlement settle in. You can start to wonder "what's in it for me?" You can wish the music was more your style; think the cafe should carry your brand of coffee.

But joining the mission of the church isn't about entitlement or comfort. It's about shared responsibility. It's about sacrifice. It's about others.

Others who'll take our parking spot, our favorite seat, and the attention of the guest services teams.

Yep. That's right.

You in? It's not about you.

It's about Jesus and the others he died for, too.

Guest Services Best Practice #27: Bust Up Your Party

If you've been in one of my workshops, you've heard me say this... and say this.

Bust up your party!

Here's the scenario fraught with tension: You and your greeter buds are near an entry, intending to greet guests as they enter your building or room. It's been at least seven days since you've all seen each other, maybe longer since you've volunteered together. You're having a great time laughing it up, swapping stories, catching up on life. This is community at its finest (or depending on your church culture and language: fellowship)!

And guests are just streaming by - "ungreeted." 

Arggggh.

Here's the tension. We want community and relationship among our team members. However, we also want our guests to be warmly greeted. Get this: these two things must be rank-ordered and given some context. They cannot happen simultaneously at the level we hope for. We have to decide. Will we greet our guests? Or will we engage each other in community?

Here's where we've settled at Granger. Have fun when you serve. Do so with people you enjoy. But do it shoulder to shoulder. Never block the guest. Keep you stance open so your face and focus is on the guest. Go ahead, chat while you're standing there. But, when a guest comes by, shut up. Greet the guest! If you see a guest who needs engagement, leave your friends - cold - and attend to the needs or interest of the guest. They're our priority.

If your team conversation is critical, urgent...must happen right now, then leave the floor. If it's that immediate and crucial, excuse yourselves, find replacements and go elsewhere to talk. Or agree to talk later. You matter. Your teammates matter.

Just don't pretend you can focus fully on each other and your guests at the same time. You can't. You won't.

Guest Services Best Practice #28: Brew Good Coffee

Our culture has quickly associated "free" with "cheap." "Cheap" is too often - pardon me - "crap."

No church has to brew bad coffee. Even if it's free. Especially if you charge for it.

Value excellence. Value people. Value the brew.

That's it.

Guest Services Best Practice #29: Meet Them Where They Are

When I visit a different city than my own, I often wander into a local mall to pick up a memento for my wife or daughter. If I know the kind of store I want to find—clothing store, music store, novelty store—I look first for the mall directory.

 

I have a clear vision. I know what I’m looking for. I’ve already pictured the kind of thing I want to carry out of the mall when I leave. So, I look for the store most likely to sell that product. But I look for a secondary item on the mall directory. I look for the “x” or the arrow that defines, “You Are Here”. I could wander the mall and eventually find the store in my vision. But, I will find it more efficiently and effectively if I first identify where I am.

 

And even though I want to be in that store. I’m not. I’m here. Right here where the “x” says I am. I have to start there. Then, and only then, can I chart a path that will get me from veracity—what is real, to my vision—where I want to be.

 

At Granger we decided a long time ago to simply meet people where they are. I addressed this in my first book, First Impressions: Creating Wow Experiences in Your Church: “At Granger, our mission is ‘helping people take their next step toward Christ…together.’ Our mission motivates us to create a safe and welcoming environment for our guests. Our mission drives us to meet people where they are, not where we wish they were.”

(excerpt from Lasting Impressions: From Visiting to Belonging, publisher - Group Publishing)

Guest Services Best Practice #30: Use Real Language

I made several visits in our local hospital on Monday. One patient tried to tell me about his prognosis in the terms his doctor had used. We were both lost. The medical terms were over both our heads. Ultimately, he understood that one more minor surgical procedure would have him on his way home. We both knew what that meant. It was worth celebrating.

Most organizations are guilty of it: insider language that's common for insiders, but foreign to those outside or new to the organization. When I was in the employment and training field, acronyms were our favorite insider code. Except we didn't really intend it to be code.

I don't think we intend to use code or insider language in our local churches either, but we do.

• Local churches tend to label ministries with snappy, fun names that don't help guests understand what it really is.
• • For a long time we used labels like Oasis and Lifeline, then changed the name to Granger Student Ministries to describe what it really is.
  • Call a class a class, a group a group, a service a service.
• Churches tend to call our weekend handouts bulletins.
• • Why not call it a program. That's what normal people call a handout at a concert, play, or ballgame.
• Words like "serve" can sound intimidating.
• • Inviting people to "volunteer" is familiar language that everyone understands.
• Words like "testimony" conjure up images of a court room.
• • Why not just use words like "story" to talk about someone's journey or life change?

This list could go on and on... Want to help? What language could we change in the local church that would help guests relate and engage? Leave me a comment.

Guest Services Best Practice #31: Build an “I’ve Been Here” Space

We've done some informal surveys and discovered that when people decide to go to church for the first time or they decide to go to church again after years of not attending anywhere, they often do so with a fair amount of fear. They have not-so-fond memories or they've heard stuff from cultural media, and they enter our church - or any church - with a fair amount of hesitation, even fear.

• How will I know where to go?
• Will they ask for my money?
• How will know when to sit, stand, kneel?
• Will I be the only normal person there?

We want every person who decides to attend our church - especially those filled with fear and apprehension - to feel "at home", welcome and accepted. We want them to know we expected them; we've prepared for them.

So what does have to do with a cafe in our atrium?

Remember: We want our guests to feel "at home." We want them to experience "familiar." We want them to be able to drop guards - fears - that keep them from experiencing the wonder of God's love through the message of Jesus Christ. 

So, consider this: many of our guests - our focused audience - walk into Starbucks (or the coffee shop of their choice), order and pay for their own coffee/drink 3-7 times per week. Or more. They know it. It's familiar. They've "been here before."

When a guest walks into our church they smell the aroma of coffee, they see a "Starbucks-esque" cafe... and they know exactly what to do. It's easy, it's familiar... they feel at home. The questions of what to do when are suspended for the moment. Now, there's space for taking the place in, getting acclimated, even sharing a conversation.

It's true. When a guest - or anyone - gets 12-oz cup of anything in their hand, an amazing social phenomenon happens. 6' 3" men can hide behind a cup of coffee or a bottle of water. Why? Because suddenly the guest - or us - is experiencing a social norm in that environment. The guest is not alone. They're behaving like others are behaving. Guards come down. Fears subside.

If the rest of the experience - God's love shared through warm smiles, engaging conversation, and accepting welcomes - is on target, our guests will sense that they matter to God and to us, and they'll enter our services open to the message.

What can you do to help your guests feel they've "been here before?"

Guest Services Best Practice #32: Don’t Forget the Kids

It's really this simple: show appropriate attention to my child - and I really like you! Love my child, love me. Value my child, value me.

So, when greeting guests - pay attention to their children. Don't assume all the value they need has been expressed in your children's ministry area. High five, get on their level, talk with children. I guarantee you, your adult guests will be impressed!

Guest Services Best Practice #33: Thank Your Guests

Gratitude is too easily lost in a me-first society bent toward a sense of personal entitlement. Even in the church it's easy to blow off expressions of gratitude, thinking everything our people are doing should be for God anyway. While that's the motivation we're praying for, it doesn't excuse any of us from being grateful humans, reflecting and expressing personal value to others.

Here's a quick list of "thanks" that's worth expressing to our people - guests, members, and volunteers:

• Open your service with "grateful you've decided to join us today." People have options. Lots of options. They chose to come to church.
• Express thanks for the contribution people make in giving and volunteering - from the platform in the service.
• Thank people personally for attending your service - we call it "exit greeting".
• Thank your volunteers with public parties/gatherings.
• Tell your volunteers personally how much you value their time, expertise, willingness and unique contribution.
• Send a letter, make a phone call - thank your first-time guests for joining you for service. Remember, they had options.

I'm curious: how and who do you thank in your church? Leave me a comment.

Guest Services Best Practice #34: Serve with Friends

Paul wrote in Ephesians: "Make every effort to keep the unity of the Spirit through the bond of peace." Those are bold, challenging words. Although unity is found in the Holy Spirit, we are to play a significant role keeping it. That doesn't just happen. It requires humility, forgiveness, and hard work.

However, in church-world we tend to think that this means we'll somehow always click with every individual. We'll be great buds. We'll have endearing relationships with everyone. Hardly. While respect, grace, and love are to be our common practice, we all won't be great friends.

And that's not all bad. We're humans with unique personalities. Chemistry matters in relationships. Sometimes we just don't hit it off. And yet, we try to push through it. Make it work.

And often people end up leaving teams, even upset or at least disappointed with the church. Nuts.

I tell our new guest services team members -

"Hey, you may find yourself on a team doing just the ministry task you love doing. The mission, the work, the focus - it fires you up. You're fulfilled. But, at the same time you find yourself not all that excited. You start to dread showing up to volunteer. Nuts. That's no good. 

"But often it's just because you don't have great chemistry with the people you're serving with. Their fine people. They're moving with the same mission. They're taking steps toward Christ, too. But, you're not clicking. There's not personal chemistry between you.

"That's okay! Tell someone. Tell your leader, tell me. Let's help you find a way to serve with people you really enjoy being around! Serving - volunteering - is not merely about the task. It is about relationship, too. We need to work hard to strike that balance."

Jesus looked at his team in John 15 and told them - "I have called you friends." 

Find some friends. Make some friends. It'll put the fun in service!

Guest Services Best Practice #35: Have Fun!

This best practice is intricately tied to #36. If you're having fun, you'll smile.

I grew up in church thinking that being a Christian meant you'd serve and real service meant sacrifice and sacrifice meant not having what you wanted and not having what you wanted meant suffering and suffering meant you wouldn't always be happy ... and apparently not being happy meant you were a Christian. That's messed up.

When it comes to guest services in the local church, that's precisely why it's not enough to brush your teeth and smile. People can read a fake smile. And they can tell when you're having fun.

Here are three simple reasons to have fun when serving/volunteering in guest services:

• Fun is about joy!
• • "Be joyful always." 1 Thessalonians 5.16
• Fun is contagious among your team and your guests!
• • Years ago in my retail management days, my regional manager told me that if I built a strong team who liked each other and had fun together, I would never have to recruit staff outside of my store again. And he was right! A year or so after taking the store, mall walkers began stopping in to hang out just because they loved the vibe in our store. Customers often asked me how they could become part of the team - because they loved the team and the atmosphere in the store (and they liked the clothes).
• Fun reflects fit!
• •  When people are serving in a way that honors their unique, God-designed wiring, there will be hard work, there will be long serves, but there will also be rich, rewarding fun!

Get the right people on the team and give them permission to have fun! Your guests will benefit!

Guest Services Best Practice #36: Smile. Just Smile.

Christians can be some of the most sour, angry-looking people I've met. I've been in some churches where the majority of people don't smile. You'd think the "joy of the Lord" would show up somewhere on their face, but alas the joy is as absent as the smile. Sad.

It's particularly sad if your desire is to create a safe, welcoming and accepting environment in your church that says, "we're glad you're here!" Smiling really should be considered a "best practice."

Keikyu Railways in Tokyo, Japan is intent on making smiling a best practice. In June of this year the company installed software and cameras that grade employees smiles - on a scale from 0 to 100.

CNN's Morgan Neill writes:

“In the beginning, everyone was confused,” says station attendant Kiyomi Ogiwara, “But now it has become a habit. In the morning, everyone lines up and practices smiling.”

Along the way, the program offers advice on improving one’s smile, for example “Relax” or “breathe deeply.” Though the company hasn’t laid down firm rules for its use, one idea under consideration would have workers print out a photo of their 100 percent smile and carry it with them so they can consult it throughout the day.

To those who say they would rather have good service than a smile, Takahashi replies, “Of course good service is the most important. But you can’t give good service with a scary face. The smile affects overall service.” (read the full article here)

Your guests recognize fake in a heartbeat. A fake smile doesn't connect with the eyes. The mouth curves up, but the eyes have no idea they were supposed to be part of the facial movement. The heart didn't engage them... no more than it did the mouth. Mere muscles moved, that's it.

There's a door greeter at a local department store whose job it is to greet customers. I think her job might be to smile, too. And she does. She doesn't smile as you approach the door, or even walk as you through it. But when your eyes connect with hers - it's there. For a second. Quick... and fake. It's just a quick flash.

At a neighboring department store is another door greeter. She's always smiling. Always. When your eyes connect with hers, the smile becomes joyous. She's contagious. Not loud, not attention-seeking, but oh, contagious (And she looks like Shirley McClain. I'm fairly certain she's not channeling, she just looks like her.). I smile when she greets me. I can't help it.

What if you were graded on your smile? What if your teams were graded on their smile? 

How can you make smiling a best practice? Would a camera help?

Say "cheese!"

Guest Services Best Practice #37: Say “No” Creatively

I hate hearing "no." Hate it.

• In a retail store: Do you have this slack in a 31x32?
• • "No. I'm sorry."
• At a hotel: Can I get free wi-fi in my room?
• • "No. We just have hard-wire data lines."
• In a theater: Can you adjust the temperature? 
• • "No. That's not my job."
• On the phone: May I speak to your manager?
• • "No. He'd tell you the same thing I just told you."
• At a local church: Do you offer childcare for your adult classes?
• • "No. You'll have to arrange your own childcare."

I hate hearing "no."

In fact, I believe each of the above questions can be answered differently, resulting in a positive experience for the customer or guest:

• In a retail store: Do you have this slack in a 31x32? 
• • "Let's see what I have." or "Yes, I can order that for you."
• At a hotel: Can I get free wi-fi in my room?
• • "I have a complimentary data line for your room. You may access our free wi-fi in the lobby and restaurant. If you choose either of those, please enjoy a complimentary drink as you do."
• In a theater: Can you adjust the temperature?
• • "I can't guarantee that it'll be satisfactory in the next few minutes, but I'll do what I can to make it more comfortable. Thank you for your feedback."
• On the phone: May I speak to your manager?
• • "Of course. I'm sorry I was not able to adequately resolve this for you. Please hold."
• At a local church: Do you offer childcare for your adult classes?
• • "At present we're able to open as many rooms for children as we have volunteers to staff them. We value the safety and care of your children, so we will not open rooms with an inadequate number of leaders."

Sometimes the answer is "no." But there's almost always another way to say "no" than "no." This is not about "spin" or mere creative language. It is about communicating care and understanding. It is about the Golden Rule.

You remember that one, don't you?