Surprise Your Guests

From time to time throughout this 40 Day Guest Services Journey, I want to drop in some "Best Practices" from Mark Waltz and the Connections team at Granger Community Church. Author of the books "First Impressions" and "Lasting Impressions," Waltz and his team at GCC consistently knock it out of the park when it comes to Guest Services.

Surprise Your Guests

I'm not talking about jumping out from behind bushes and scaring your guests. That'd be a surprise, but no.

And I'm not thinking about blowing your budget to lavish you guest with extravagant gifts.

Think simple. Think functional. Think...

• Umbrella escorts in inclement weather
• Hand sanitizer dispensers around your building
• Chairs/lounge area in the women's restrooms
• Clean everything
• Follow-up when guests request help
• Mouthwash, lotion, and mints in the restroom
• Soft seating in the common areas

The point isn't to merely surprise your guests. The surprise communicates care and value.

...because people matter.

What Do You Do When It Rains at Your Church?

Overnight rain lingering into the morning redirected my original thoughts for today.

Rainy days, especially on Sundays and other days you have worship, can be a real challenge - for guests and for your regular attenders and members.


What do you do when it rains?

Maybe your facility has a covered drop-off area and it's not much of a problem. Many churches don't have that option. Now what?

Here are a few "rainy day thoughts" you might consider:

• Make sure your parking team is dressed appropriately for the weather (unless it's cold, simple ponchos work great)
• Purchase a quantity of large golf umbrellas (with your logo!)
• Recruit extra team members if possible to walk guests from the parking lot to the entrance, holding the umbrella for them
• Or give them an umbrella to use walking from their car to the entrance
• Coordinate with your greeter team the logistics of running umbrellas back and forth as needed
• Reverse the process when the worship experience is over
• Rain usually slows people down - plan for latecomers
• Umbrellas left at the entrance can get tangled up in a mess pretty quickly; organize them neatly
• Rain means wet floors, especially near entrances; alert the housekeeping/custodial crews so that the floors can be kept as dry as possible to prevent slips and falls
• Rainy days mean visibility is less than optimum; have flashlights and directional lights available as needed
• Rainy days are an opportunity to encourage your congregation to be servants; take a look at this post to see what I mean

That's just a few ideas - what can you add to the conversation?

The Importance of One Anothers

The ministry of guest services in churches today often seems to rank below that of preaching, teaching, and music. While that may be indeed be true, it is important that the ministry of guest services is most often the first impression guests get of your church – well before any of the others listed above! Guest Services is a ministry – one that is becoming more important than ever in today’s experience-oriented culture. The guests coming to your church next Sunday may not understand all the words they will hear, but the warm and caring actions of your Guest Services Team will speak very loud and clear. To a person seeking Truth and Peace, an ounce of kindness is worth a pound of preaching. Christian kindness is a ministry for church guest services teams who care deeply about people.

No assignment in the church is more one-on-one than the ministry of the guest services teams. The foyer is their chapel, the information desk their pulpit, and the walk-around spaces their parish. Church guest services teams have a one-another ministry – face to face, hand to hand, and heart to heart with the people they are called to serve. From the largest megachurch to the smallest rural church, their Christian service is to one customer at a time. And to make their service even more important, church guest services teams are the first face and voice guests meet when arriving at church.

Church guest services should be elevated to its fully deserved and recognized status as a one-another ministry. Scattered throughout Paul’s letter to the Romans are seven references to the one-another ministry. What a great spiritual and biblical foundation for the ministry of church guest services teams! Here are some brief thoughts about these one-anothers by Leslie Parrot, author of "Serving as a Church Greeter."

Accept One Another – Romans 15:7 gives us the ministry of mutual acceptance, resting on Christ’s teaching of unconditional love. A verbal greeting and the offer of a handshake are ways of focusing on the other person. As Jesus accepts us – no matter what – accept each and every person who comes through the church door.

Honor One Another – Romans 12:10 provides the one-another ministry of an encouraging word. Effective guest services teams hone their skills at the capacity to come up with a few words or a brief sentence that is appropriate to the person and the situation.

Be Kind to One Another – This one-another kindness is found in Romans 12:10 as well. Deliberate acts of kindness welcome worshippers no matter what their week has been. A guest services team member with a kind heart can set the tone for the rest of the day with his or her actions.

Love One Another – Found in Romans 13:8, this is the one-another ministry of unconditional goodwill. It is expressed in a positive attitude toward all people, a love that bans all kinds of verbal abuse and an attitude of love toward life in general and people in particular.

Understand One Another – Romans 14:13 phrases it negatively, but a positive approach and a spiritual understanding will overcome a negative attitude. Guest services teams need to also remember that their lives outside the church make a powerful statement, and must be lived in an uncompromising manner.

Instruct One Another – Romans 15:14 reminds guest services teams that they are to be role models in the fruit of the Spirit at all times. They live out their craft by being, doing, and demonstrating, not by telling, admonishing, and finger-pointing.

Greet One Another – In Romans 16:16 we are reminded of the ministry of the human touch and its import healing and calming qualities. The guest services team member needs to be sensitive to the manner of the touch and the recipient; in most cases, the offer of a handshake is appropriate for guests, while a friendly hug may be more appropriate for friends and long-time members. The key is to express a genuine welcome in the manner most appropriate.

A Final Admonition: Serve One Another – Paul, writing in Galatians 5:13, spelled out the final one-another: a ministry of service that leads guest services team members to welcome all in the name of Christ, serving all who come without prejudice or judgment.

When the guest services team members at your church understand and practice these one-another ministries, they are well on the way to living out the presence of Christ within – and it becomes very obvious to those to whom they are extending a friendly hand.

Wayfinding-More Than Just Signs

Most churches do a pretty lousy job at wayfinding. Because many churches are built as add-ons over time, sometimes many years, buildings tend to be mazes of corridors and stairwells with little rhyme or reason. Many churches suffer from poor layout, people-traffic control, and wayfinding.

Wayfinding is the process of using spatial and environmental cues to navigate through an environment. In its most literal sense, wayfinding is the ability of a person to find his or her way to a destination. It can also be defined from the standpoint of the designer or owner who is seeking to improve the function of a particular environment.

Wayfinding is not separate from traditional signage design, but is a broader, more inclusive way of assessing all of the environmental issues that affect our ability to find our way to a given destination.


A comprehensive wayfinding system can greatly improve your congregation’s ability to not only find areas of the church campus they are seeking, but to direct guests and others to these areas as well. A clear wayfinding system can add to the accessibility and friendliness of the church buildings. Here are a few tips on wayfinding:

• Focus people on buildings by labeling them
• Avoid long directional signs that slow people down
• Divide the campus into distinct zones
• Use color and monuments to create bread-crumbs
• Make room numbers make sense
• Develop a simple campus map

A church of even moderate size should address basic wayfinding


After all, how can anyone really connect with your church if they can't find the front door?

Parking is More Than Just Cars

Yesterday's post introduced the concept of parking teams and how important they are to welcoming guests, members and attenders to your campus. Today I want to expand the parking concept beyond just cars.

I lead the Guest Services (Parking) Teams at Elevation Church’s Uptown location. As the “first face” of Elevation, my crew and I get weekly opportunities to practice guest services and make a lasting first impression.

We don’t just park cars; we also:

• Sanitize all touch points and spray air freshener in the elevator cabs and stairwells of the parking deck we use
• Pick up trash along the route from the parking deck to the theater
• Put up 19 parking signs (3 different types) in a 2 block area around theater
• Pull the parking ticket from the dispenser and personally hand it to guests entering the deck and welcome them to Elevation
• When possible, push the call button so the elevator is waiting for guests to take them from the parking deck levels to the ground floor
• Hold the door for guests entering and leaving the parking garage elevator lobby
• Validate parking for all Elevation guests
• Provide VIP (our first time guests) and family parking right next to the theater
• Know what’s going on Uptown so we can help any and everyone who has a question (sporting events, concerts, special activities, etc.)
• Provide umbrellas to guests when it's raining for the walk from the parking deck to the theater
• Give a verbal greeting to everyone coming and going - in at least three different locations
• Be alert to any special needs and radio them ahead to the VIP tent
• As guests are leaving, we take the validated ticket from them and feed it into the dispenser, giving them a verbal blessing as they head out of the garage

And that’s just the parking team! Elevation’s audacious Guest Services Team also has Greeters, a First Impressions Team, VIP Tent, and Connections Tent (but that’s another part of the journey). All this BEFORE a guest has stepped into the theater for worship.

Your church is different than my campus - you probably don't have a parking garage. But you do have parking lots - and that is an excellent opportunity for you to make a powerful first impression.

Take the principle - Parking is your first opportunity to make an impact on your guests - and apply it to the context of your place.

What will you do this week to implement/change/improve your parking team?

Do not underestimate the power and influence of the first impression your parking lot makes!

The "First Face" of your Church...

...should be in the parking lot.

Guests and members coming to your church should see an energetic, welcoming, smiling group of people helping you pull into the parking lot and getting safely to the buildings.

I admit my bias: I serve as the Parking Team Coordinator for Elevation Church's Uptown Campus, so I'm all over this thing called parking.

You should be too, because it's often the "first impression" your guests receive of your church.

At Elevation Church, our worship experiences begin in the parking lot.

You may have thought that church parking lots, and the teams that staff them weekly, were just about cars, orange vests, and two-way radios.

We see it differently: we’re the first face of Elevation, and we are connectors to the current of the power of God. The parking teams at Elevation have a vision that is the same as the church’s: So that people far from God become filled with life in Christ.

We fulfill that vision by welcoming everyone to our four campuses, giving them the first of several audacious welcomes for the day. We remove every barrier possible so that they can be a part of a powerful worship experience.

As a Parking Team Coordinator at one campus, and after surveying our other campus team leaders, here’s why we think parking is a very important part of what happens at Elevation Church. From the first few sections of our parking manual:

Purpose:The Parking Team exists so that people far from God will be filled with life in Christ.

Goal:We will “WOW” every guest by exceeding their expectations.

Strategy: Create and ensure a quick, easy, and stress-free parking experience.

Why?
Elevation Church is called to dominate the city of Charlotte with the Gospel of Jesus. No one person can accomplish that. God accomplishes that through us as a team. You have a role to play in that - God wants to use your life. When the calling is significant there is no role that is insignificant. Parking is a demanding role in a high-pressure environment, and it requires quick thinking and high organizational skills. It is not for everyone, but for those who enjoy it, it is extremely rewarding.

Statistics show that guests make a decision on whether or not they will return to a church within the first ten minutes of driving onto the campus. It’s the role of the parkers to instantly exceed each guest’s expectation. Parkers are the first impression of Elevation, and a smile, a wave, and quick direction to a spot can ease fears and prepare a guests heart to hear the Gospel. Parking can either be a disaster or can instantly make someone’s experience great. Pastor Steven is depending on us to create a problem free parking experience so that our guests are entering the worship experience with a positive impression and high expectations.

Our priority is to help traffic enter and exit smoothly but more importantly to honor people and get them excited about Elevation.

Our basic parking guidelines are very simple:

• Make eye contact 
• Smile
• Wave
• Go the extra mile to make someone else smile

So are our suggestions for moving traffic:

• When you move, they move.
• Keep the main line of entrance traffic flowing the majority of the time. 
• Quickly help those that are stopping to ask questions and get them moving again. 
• Be aware of pedestrian traffic and be considerate of those going the wrong way.
• Stay visible.
• Wear your vest and make motions with the entire arm instead of just the forearm

The parking teams may have a single vision, and simple guidelines, but we express them differently at each campus. Even though we are one church in four locations and there are a lot of similarities, there are a lot of differences in the parking lots. For example, consider the locations:

• Providence – a high school, with limited entrances and exits and multiple lots
• Matthews – retail shopping center with shared designated parking areas
• Blakeney – mixed development with five means of egress in multiple lots
• Uptown – parking garage with two entrances

Our locations alone make a big difference in how we serve as a parking team.

Here are some interesting parking factors anyone with a parking team might consider:

1. Our parking teams have more fun than you can pay for!
2. We understand the power of a great first impression.
3. We understand the letdown of a poor first impression.
4. Safety is at the top of our list; juggling lines of moving cars and walking people is always a balancing act.
5. Multiple parking lots with many entrances and exits (Blakeney, Matthews, and Providence Campuses) are great-until you try to staff all them at once.
6. Traffic cones are a wonderful invention (see #5).
7. People sometimes pay more attention to a traffic cone than a person in a vest directing traffic flow.
8. Parking teams have to know everything about the church in order to answer guest’s questions.
9. Sharing parking spaces with retail stores (Blakeney, Matthews Campuses) is a science – and an art.
10. Checklists help parking teams do it right, every time.
11. Grace helps the parking team deal with situation when #10 doesn’t work.
12. Safety orange is everybody’s favorite color!
13. With large multiple lots, two-way radios help direct traffic flow efficiently
14. Parking garages (Uptown Campus) are a whole different world, especially when they also serve two very large nightclubs.
15. When in parking areas with major attractions nearby, the parking team will be asked directions, times, etc. A little knowledge and a great smile make a great first impression even when someone isn’t coming to Elevation.

All Parking Teams do is help guests find spaces to park their cars, right? At Elevation, there’s so much more to being a part of the parking team.

We serve everyone with audacious, radical hospitality – “just” by parking cars!

The Virtual Experience

Guests coming to your church have already checked you out - maybe in person, but almost certainly online.

What are your digital experiences telling your guests?

My good friend Mark MacDonald, founder of Pinpoint Creative Group, is the best source on church digital information around.

Go here to view his website for all kinds of great information on the church digital world.

Go here to download his eBook on "The Ten Commandments of Church Websites."

Becoming a Experience Architect begins in the digital world.


Friday Resource Wrap-Up

A companion resource to Mark Waltz's excellent book "First Impressions" is his book "Lasting Impressions." Picking up were the first book left off, "Lasting Impressions" will help you discover how to create a church culture that encourages connections - lasting impressions - and continually draws people deeper into the life of your church...and of the Kingdom.

Another excellent resource is Nelson Searcy's book "Fusion." Searcy is the founding pastor of The Journey Church in New York City. "Fusion" is an innovative, practical guide full of practical, how-to-information, testimonials from newcomers-turned-members, and helpful materials and check points to make sure you stay on track.