Author Archives: Bob Adams

Parking is More Than Just Cars

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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 22 parking signs (3 different types) in a 2 block area around the 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 from 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…

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…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 will be raised to life in Christ. We fulfill that vision by welcoming everyone to our six 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.

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 six locations and there are a lot of similarities, there are a lot of differences in the parking lots. For example, consider the locations:

  • Providence and Northwestern – high schools, with limited entrances and exits and multiple lots
  • University City – a YMCA with limited designated parking
  • 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, University City, Rock Hill 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!

 

Creating an Experience Blueprint

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The past few posts have given you a basic understanding of some of the foundations of guest services. Now it’s time to go back to school – design school.

Becoming an Experience Architect

One of the game-changing concepts related to guest services comes from Tim Brown’s book “Change by Design”. Brown, the CEO of the innovation and design firm IDEO, has challenged my thinking about design in a number of ways: it’s not just for creative industries or people designing products. Design thinking is most powerful when applied to abstract, multifaceted problems that address a wide range of issues and concerns.

Problems that the typical church encounters every day!

Here’s a great example from one chapter on the design of experience:

Design has the power to enrich our lives by engaging our emotions through image, form, texture, color, sound and smell. The intrinsically human-centered nature of design thinking points to the next step: we can use our empathy and understanding of people to design experiences that create opportunities for active engagement and participation.

Wow-that’s a lot to think about! In the world of serving the church where I work and live, the concepts of designing for experience are so important, yet so often totally overlooked. Brown goes on to talk about 3 “themes” of the design of experiences:

  • The experience economy – people have shifted from passive consumption to active participation
  • Best experiences are not scripted at corporate headquarters but decided on the spot by service professionals who create an authentic, genuine, and compelling experience
  • Implementation is everything-an experience must be as finely crafted and precision-engineered as any other product

Just as a product begins with an engineering blueprint and a building with an architectural blueprint, an experience blueprint provides the framework for working out the details of a human interaction, including emotive elements, from beginning to end.

It captures how people travel through an experience in time. Rather than trying to choreograph that journey, its function is to identify the most meaningful points and turn them into opportunities to positively impact the individual. What might be a source of discomfort or pain is now an opportunity for an experience that is distinctive, emotionally gratifying, and memorable.

The experience blueprint is at one and the same time a high-level strategy document and a fine-grained analysis of the details that matter.

It’s time to create an Experience Blueprint for your Guest Services!

Guest Services: Making Your First Impressions LAST!

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Can the church learn anything from Walt Disney, Starbucks, Nordstrom’s, and the Ritz-Carlton?

My answer is a resounding YES!

Over the past four years I’ve been working on a project exploring the world of hospitality, looking for key principles that have application to the church world I live and work in. Early motivation for this effort came from great guest experiences over consecutive days from two establishments at opposite ends of the dining spectrum: Ruth’s Chris Steakhouse and Taco Bell. In both instances, the staff went beyond the expectations to deliver exemplary service. You expect it at one, but are surprised at the other, right? Why should price be any indicator of the level of service delivered? What about a place with no “price” at all – the church?

The companies I named in the opening sentence have been my primary research targets, but you could say that the hospitality industry in general is my field of research. My proposition is that the world of restaurants, coffee shops, fine hotels, and the ultimate in customer expectation and experience – Disney – can provide tangible and beneficial principles for the church to adapt in welcoming guests and members alike.

Along the way, I’ve supplemented my research with practical application in my own church: I lead one of 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:

• Sanitize all touch points and spray air freshener in the elevator cabs and stairwells of the parking garage we use

• Pick up trash along the route from the garage to the theater

• Put up 22 parking signs along the entrances

• Man the elevator lobbies to call elevators for guests

• Hold the parking deck door for guests coming and going

• Pull the parking ticket and personally hand it to guests

• 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 in the rain

• Give a verbal greeting to everyone coming and going

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

You might say Guest Services is a big deal.

I think it is – and you should too.

Your Church has Competition…

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…and it’s not the church down the street.

Like it or not, we live in a consumer-driven society, and the people who come to our church – you and me – and the people we are trying to reach are consumers. With consumers comes competition. If your church is going to be effective in its mission, you must beat the competition.

Pretty strong words by Mark Waltz, author of “First Impressions.” But dead on accurate.

The good news is that our “competition” is not the other churches in your town. As a matter of fact, they’re on your team. So who is your competition?

Here is how Waltz sees it: Your competition, the rival that will keep people away from your church, is any business, services, or experience your guests have encountered in the past few weeks.

That competition includes restaurants, malls, golf courses, amusement parks, movie theaters, sporting events, and so on.

Bottom line: the competition for your guests began when they were wowed in another environment. Your guests have high expectations that are formed every day from new encounters with excellence and conscientious care. Although too much of their world is merely adequate, they know excellence, and they return to place where they experience it.

Bottom bottom line: Will your guests’ experience in your church be worth getting out of bed?

Thanks, Mark, for a challenging word on the critical importance of understanding who our competition is.

Now it’s time to do something about it.

Making Your First Impression a Lasting Impression

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Mark Waltz, author of “First Impressions,” suggests the following word-association exercise: Look at the following list, and jot down your first thought about each place. Don’t spend a lot of time on this – just write the first thought that comes to mind.

  • McDonald’s
  • Your last hotel stay (not the name of the hotel, but your impression of it)
  • Your last airline experience (again, not the name of the company)
  • Your bank
  • Your local church
  • Starbucks

Now take a moment to evaluate the impressions you jotted down. Which reflect your feelings from initial encounter, and which ones describe your thoughts at the end of your experience with that organization? What does this tell you about the impressions we retain?

Organizations that understand the lasting nature of first impressions also understand that people matter. When people matter, guests are wowed. And when guests are wowed, they know they matter.

What kind of lasting impression is your first impression making?

Want to know more about Church Guest Services? The single best resource for Guest Services available today is the book “First Impressions” by Mark Waltz, Connections Pastor at Granger Community Church near South Bend, IN, and campus pastor of their Elkhart campus. If you want to know about Guest Services, get a copy of this book today!

Another helpful resource: “Customer Satisfaction is Worthless; Customer Loyalty is Priceless” by Jeffrey Gitomer, a sales and customer service expert. His primary market is the business world, but I’ve found dozens of applications to ChurchWorld in his writings.

Looking Ahead: Who is your competition? and Turn the Ordinary into EXTRAORDINARY!

Making a WOW! First Impression

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Several years ago I experienced a WOW! First Impression while eating out. It came from great guest experiences over consecutive days from two establishments at opposite ends of the dining spectrum: Ruth’s Chris Steakhouse and Taco Bell. In both instances, the staff went beyond the expectations to deliver exemplary service. You expect it at one, but are surprised at the other, right?

Why should price be any indicator of the level of service delivered? What about a place with no “price” at all – the church?

When was the last time you had a WOW! experience – at church or anywhere else?

  • WOW! is great service
  • WOW! separates the EXTRAordinary from the ordinary
  • WOW! separates the sincere from the insincere
  • WOW! separates the yes’s from the no’s
  • WOW! is doing what others can’t (or won’t)
  • WOW! is what you do for others in an exceptional way
  • WOW! is communicating you care
  • WOW! is creating a memorable experience

Remember some WOW! moments

Recall a couple of times you’ve been wowed. Who blew you away with excellent service? Who surprised you with remarkably good quality? Who impressed you with a product’s value? What did the people involved in these experiences do? How did the actions and behavior affect you?

Did those experiences want to make you return to that place?

My guess is a definite yes! The same is true of guests in our churches. The churches delivering experiences which exceed guests’ expectations are those to which people return, again and again, until they’re no longer guests but full-fledged members of the church community.

Now that’s a WOW!

The Consumer in Your Mirror

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Does the word “consumer” bother you when used in the context of ChurchWorld?

If you view a consumer strictly in the language of business, it can be offensive when used in the context of church. Who wants to be a part of consumer mentality where the object is to satisfy the wants (both stated and unstated) of individuals? Who wants to focus on telling people what they want to hear? Who really enjoys enabling a selfish, me-first attitude. Not you, right?

Go look in the mirror.

Standing before you is a consumer – whether you like it or not. You are a consumer: you have daily or weekly food needs that are satisfied by the grocery store or a restaurant. You need clothing – provided by a variety of stores. You have cash coming in and going out, so you need the financial services of a bank. The house or apartment you live in requires maintenance and upkeep, so it’s off to the local home improvement store. When you have leisure time, it’s off to the movie theaters, or downloading the latest movie, or maybe taking in a concert. For birthdays and certain holidays, there are gifts to buy for your loved ones. Parents with kids in school have multiple occasions to buy this book or that resource in order to meet the requirements. And on and on and on… The fact is, we consume. (too much, but that’s another story altogether)

Guess what? The people coming to your church – for the first time or the fifteenth time – are consumers too.

Ignore that fact, and your guests will come once – and never return.

Recognize that fact, take appropriate actions, and you will soon have guests who become regular attenders who become involved members.

Are you ready for the journey to WOW?

You’ve Planned the Music and the Sermon Well…

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…but will your guests even notice?

The Power of a First Impression

Seven minutes is all you get to make a positive First Impression. In the first seven minutes of contact with your church, your first-time guests will know whether or not they are coming back.

That’s before a single worship song is sung and before a single word of the message is uttered.

Nelson Searcy, pastor of Journey Church in New York City, wrote the above words in his book “Fusion.” They’re a timely reminder that we only get to make a first impression once.

Obviously, the First Impression isn’t a logical decision based on theological integrity or staff character or doctrinal character. The power of a First Impression comes from a more rudimentary level – our subconscious.

What is the subconscious of your Guests finding at your place?

How to Avoid Innovation’s Seven Deadly Sins

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There are many traps that litter the ground in front of the would be innovator.  Author and business thinker Scott D. Anthony has developed the concept of innovation’s seven deadly sins, introduced in yesterday’s post. He found the idea of the seven deadly sins had very clear parallels in the world of innovation.

7DeadlySins

Here are Anthony’s summaries on how to avoid those deadly sins today.

  • Pride – take an external viewpoint to make sure you understand how the customer measures quality
  • Sloth – release your inner Edison (who said genius is 1 percent inspiration and 99 percent perspiration”)
  • Gluttony – embrace selective scarcity – constrain resources in the early stages of creativity to enable creativity
  • Lust – focus your innovation efforts; remember that destruction often precedes creation
  • Envy – actively celebrate both the core business and new growth efforts
  • Wrath – reward behavior, not outcomes
  • Greed – be patient for growth and impatient for results

How will you avoid falling into one of these traps when faced with it this week?

Explore more on this topic in Anthony’s excellent book The Little Black Book of Innovation.