Customer service is, quite simply, how customers perceive their every interaction with an organization. This may come as a shock to you, but churches should have customers, too. 

We just call them Guests.

Just over two years ago, Harley Manning and Kerry Bodine, customer experience analysts at Forrester Research, released a book entitled “Outside In.” Subtitled The Power of Putting Customers at the Center of Your Business, Outside In offers a complete road map to attaining the experience advantage.

When I read the book, it created a whole new awareness of how “customer service” in the corporate environment could be “translated” into the Guest Experience at churches.

If you are a ChurchWorld leader, you need to understand the powerful truths contained in this book. Today I will begin a series of updated posts from two years ago about the book Outside In. This will help introduce a new season of personal emphasis on Guest Experiences for churches, and some exciting news!

Outside In certainly stands on its own, but over the next few days I’m going to be translating the content into the language of ChurchWorld Guest Services, and making applications to how you can take advantage of the Guest Experience in your church. Go ahead and order a copy from Amazon now. It’ll be here in a couple of days. You’ll be referring to it frequently. In the meantime, here’s an outline for your consideration.

The Value of Guest Experience

• You need your Guests more than they need you
• You are in the Guest experience business – whether you know it or not

The Guest Journey

• Discover
• Evaluate
• Attend
• Access
• Use
•  Get support
• Leave
• Re-engage

The Three Levels of Guest Experience

• Meets needs – I accomplished my goal
• Easy – I didn’t have too work hard
• Enjoyable – I felt good about that

The Guest Experience Ecosystem

• Deconstructed
• Visible to customers
• How to create a Guest experience ecosystem

The Six Disciplines of Guest Experience

• Strategy
• Guest Understanding
• Design
• Measurement
• Governance
• Culture

The Path to Guest Experience Maturity

• Improve
• Transform
• Sustain

The Four Adoption Levels of Guest Experience

• Missing
• Ad Hoc
• Repeatable
• Systematic

Transformation Priorities

• Build on strengths
• Shore up weaknesses

The Rise of the Guest Experience Team

Part 1 of a multi-part series based on the book Outside In 

These posts “translate” the world of customer service to the language and setting of Guest Experiences in the church.

NEXT: The Value of Guest Experiences