Category Archives: Guest Experience

What is Your Share of Your Guest’s Mind during a Guest Experience?

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Beyond Philosophy has created some great ideas and tools for understanding customer experience in the corporate world. In their book Revolutionize Your Customer Experience by Colin Shaw, the concept of Share Your MindTM is introduced.

Beyond Philosophy discovered that there are four different levels of customer attention:

  • Oblivious
  • Distracted
  • Engaged
  • Captivated

Graphically it looks like this (modified to reflect Guest language):

Oblivious Guest Experiences

There are many organizations that try to grab your attention as a consumer – even in ChurchWorld – and yet you are oblivious to their advances. You haven’t seen their billboards, direct mail pieces, signs, bulletins, newsletters, worship guides, etc. You are exposed to thousands of “messages” every day, and yet you ignore most of them. Giving someone an oblivious Guest Experience costs organizations – like your church – a lot of money for nothing in return.

Distracted Guest Experiences

When you are distracted, you are not focused on the Guest Experience. For instance, a Guest may come to your church and wander around, thinking about other things. A greeter does not engage them. They do not see a special opportunity coming in two weeks. They aren’t challenged to take the next step. If you are not careful, they will slip in, be a spectator, and slip right out again. When this happens, organizations have not captivated or engaged the mind of the Guest, and they are distracted and indifferent enough to not pay attention to the Guest Experience being provided. Organizations that allow their Guest’s mind to wander and be distracted are losing a massive opportunity to build on future interactions.

Engaged Guest Experience

In the engaged stage you have 95 percent of your Guests’ attention, but it is not captivating, and therefore Guests can easily be distracted. There is a danger that their minds may wander and you may lost an opportunity to connect with them. For example, if your organization has wonderful connection points and eager people but not alignment of purpose, it would be easy for a Guest to lose their overall connection curiosity because they are literally inundated with messages. They may be engaged, but are eventually lost in an overwhelming amount of information or they find something else that pulls them away.

Captivating Guest Experiences

The goal is to create a captivating Guest Experience by capturing your Guest’s whole mind and thus ensure they give you their full and undivided attention. It is the stimulating of their senses to such a degree that positive emotions are evoked, rendering them captivated. Nothing stops them from focusing on your Guest Experience, and more importantly, nothing can distract them from it. They are so engrossed in your Guest Experience that nothing will pull them away from it. Your “share of mind”TM is total.

Captivating Guest Experiences are memorable by nature. Creating a memorable Guest Experience is important when considering the culture we live in. If your Guest Experience does not stand out, your organization will blend in, becoming part of the noise and blandness of this world.

Organizations must seize Guest’s attention from the first point of contact (often digital). Organizations must stimulate Guest senses (all 5 of them) to create a captivating Guest Experience, one that will evoke deep emotions – and create a connection that will allow the possibility of a transformed life.

This post is part of a journey translating Customer Experience learnings in the corporate world to Guest Experience in ChurchWorld. Material in today’s post was excerpted from “Revolutionize Your Customer Experience” by Colin Shaw.

Want to Provide Great Guest Experiences? Focus on Emotion

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While researching Customer Experience best practices a few months ago, I came across Beyond Philosophy, a company that helps organizations create deliberate, emotionally engaging customer experiences that drive value, reduce costs, and build competitive advantage. Based in London with an office in Atlanta, Beyond Philosophy specializes in strategic consultancy services, custom research, training and education.

Steven Walden, Senior Head of Research and Consulting, was kind enough to engage me in a conversation via email and phone when I contacted the firm about my work in translating corporate Customer Experiences to ChurchWorld Guest Services.

After several conversations and a lot of great ideas, Steven recommended that I read Beyond Philosophy’s books – which I am currently doing.

I started with The DNA of Customer Experience: How Emotions Drive Value. I didn’t get far into the book when this statement jumped out at me:

Our research shows that over 50% of a Customer Experience is about emotions.

Though I skimmed through the rest of the book (a great book that’s going to be the source of future posts), I knew that to fully understand that comment, I would need to dig further into Beyond Philosophy’s research and prior work.

Which I am currently doing… 

In the meantime, as a ChurchWorld leader, how do you react to the statement above?  What part do you think emotions play in your church’s Guest Experience? 

 

This post is part of a journey translating Customer Experience learnings in the corporate world to Guest Experience in ChurchWorld

When the DNC Comes to Town…

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Adventures in Parking & Traffic Control at Elevation Uptown

The most brilliant battle plan is only good till the first shot is fired

Attributed to von Clausewitz, Prussian military theorist

When Charlotte was announced as the site for the 2012 Democratic National Convention in February of 2011, something clicked in my mind that the event might impact our church, Elevation Uptown. The schedule hadn’t been announced but early indications of events beginning on Monday September 3 told me that eventually it would impact us.

Sometimes, my hunches are right. This one was dead on.

First of all, you have to understand that Elevation’s Uptown campus (which meets in McGlohan Theater and started in August 2008) is literally in the middle of Uptown Charlotte, and almost everyone who comes drives a car to get there…and parks in the 7th Street Parking deck a block away.

Earlier this year a news release from the DNC indicated “several streets in the Uptown area surrounding the Time Warner Arena will be affected.”

Because of President Obama’s involvement in DNC activities, security plans were not going to be released until several days prior to the convention’s start.

When they were released, we were in for a surprise: the streets leading to, and surrounding, the parking deck we used were going to be closed, with “restricted access.”

Problem.

As noted above, Elevation Uptown worships in a theater, but all our Guests and attenders park in a deck a block away – which just happened to be on the other side of the “restricted access” line.

Campus Pastor Joel Delph met with Charlotte Mecklenburg Police Department (CMPD) officials, who assured him that the church would have access to the parking deck by going though the checkpoints. Additionally, an open lot 3 blocks away that we use for our volunteers would be available as usual, as well as the 2 lots next to the theater that we use for VIPs (our first time Guests) and families with small children.

Armed with these assurances, we moved forward with a plan to have our weekend experiences as normal at 9:30 and 11:15. The week before, we encouraged our volunteers to pick up an Elevation logo card to put in the dash to help move through the checkpoints. Late in the week, an email blast went out encouraging people to come a little early to allow extra time for the checkpoint access.

Still, I had that little gnawing feeling in my gut. I take my role as a Guest Services coordinator very seriously, and I wanted to make sure we were ready for the day.

Sunday September 2, 7:30 AM

Pulling up to our Volunteer lot, I find it chained and barricaded

Over at our VIP lots, we found the electronic gates turned off – no access.

Trying to get a handle on what we could expect, I talk to the policeman stationed outside the theater entrance, only to find he’s from Louisville, KY, and doesn’t really know anything except he’s be assigned to this spot – and, by the way, his radio wasn’t working

Checking with other policeman at the parking deck entrance, I found the same thing: they were from Louisville, and only had site-specific orders – no overall idea of the street closure plan. When I showed him the map the CMPD gave us, he said that was the first he had seen of a map.

The quote above came to mind…

By this time, our volunteers were arriving in full force, only to find the lot not accessible. A quick sign adaptation directed them to the parking deck. There, at least, the crew that runs the parking deck was ready in full force. They were only allowing cars that had Elevation logos or were on their approved list into the deck. Everyone else was turned around. The lines were long, and I know people were frustrated.

As expected, our crowds were lower than usual. I don’t know the exact number because I never made it off the street, but I would say probably half as many as a typical Sunday.

Some quick word pictures from street-side vantage point:

  • Squads of law enforcement officials from around the state, walking with an intense look around the area
  • A Hummer with two soldiers, M-16s slung around their shoulders
  • At least 6 different motorcycle patrols checking in to the precinct across the street
  • 4 different bicycle police squads whizzing by in a blur
  • A mounted police patrol clip-clopping down the street
  • Black SUVS by the dozens, with sun-shaded occupants
  • Helicopters buzzing overhead all day long – both military and news outlets
  • Assorted vehicles of every size and shape, belonging to a broad array of law enforcement agencies
  • Construction crews bringing in, and installing, concrete barriers around the perimeter of the theater

And an image that sums it up pretty well:

photo from the Charlotte Observer online

We did the best we could, and I hope anyone attending Elevation Uptown for the first time or for the fortieth time felt as welcome as we could make it.

Special thanks go out to members of our Greeters, VIP, and Security Teams for pitching in and helping things go as smoothly as possible.

As always, our Parking Team rocks. Aaron, Tim, Ed – you’re the best!

I’m headed to the beach…