2. Make Parking Frustrating
You’ve done it. I’ve done it.
We’ve gone to a store to buy something, only to abandon the trip because the parking lot was jammed or we couldn’t find street parking.
Whether you’re downtown and relying on street parking or have your own lot, helping guests find adequate parking is so important.
Many churches now have parking teams, and that’s a great idea.
Having clearly identified people who can direct traffic into marked spaces really helps. Our team at Connexus will often clear snow off people’s cars in the winter while services are happening or walk people to the door with an umbrella overhead when it rains.
Want a clear, short expression of a great guest services vision? Check out Gwinnett Church’s Guest Services video. The team at Gwinnett Church even takes pre-schoolers into the building on wagon rides. Four-year-olds love it. I’ll bet parents do too.
You’ll never know how many people you lose because they couldn’t find parking. Why? Because the people who give up will rarely tell you. They’ll just give up.
3. Under-Greet Guests
Many churches say they’re friendly. But what they mean is they’re friendly to each other.
Unless you have a well-trained guest services team made up of people who love people, your first-time guests will probably be under-greeted.
Why?
Well, because we all naturally talk to people we know, not to people we don’t know.
First-time guests need an appropriate welcome, clear directions to what’s next and the sense that there are people there who knew they were coming and are able to help them.
4. Over-Greet Guests
Because churches have had a reputation for being cold and indifferent to outsiders, some churches have gone overboard in the other direction.
It actually is possible to over-greet guests.
If you get high-fived in the parking lot, hugged at the door and have your had shaken 15 times in the lobby by people with plastic smiles, you’re probably not coming back either. In fact, every introvert (including me) will likely run back to the car and peel away.
It’s a tough thing to know when welcoming people is too much or not enough.
One rule that’s helped us at our church is simply this: Greet people the way they want to be greeted.
Recruit emotionally intelligent guest services people who can sense if someone is an introvert and merely wants a ‘welcome’ or if a guest is an extrovert looking for a warm embrace and a conversation.
If you greet everyone once or twice and let the guest set the temperature of the greeting, things tend to go much better.
