Who/what is the competition for your church?

Posted by TIm on July 28, 2009
Stored in Blog

I have to admit that I had never given this much thought until Mark Waltz (http://www.becausepeoplematter.com/marks_weblog/first_impressions_guest_services ) addressed that question in his book First Impression – Creating Wow Experiences in Your Church. I have recently been reminded of this question by Tony Morgan (www.tonymorganlive.com) in his book Killing Cockroaches.

Both of these guys make the compelling point that as a rule, churches are not competing with another church in town when it comes to reaching the unreached… (although those darn Methodists just built a gym which means our youth are going to start going down there…how dare they)…but rather it is everything else that is competing for their attention. Tony says, “It’s the Sunday newspaper, a shopping trip, a tee time, the pillow after a night out with friends.” Mark also indicates that your competition is the experiences and services that the unreached have experienced this past week. Experiences such as the Barista that knows my name and what I drink each morning. How about the dry cleaner that always gets my shirts just right, on time and without buttons missing? Don’t forget the great dinner on Friday night where the waiter gets the order right, without writing anything down and then on top of that….the food was cooked just the way I ordered it. That is a great experience.

Here is another aspect of this reality. As regular attenders of our churches, we tend to overlook certain items. We step over the piece of duct tape patching the carpet in the foyer. We don’t notice the stained ceiling tiles because they have been that way for so long. We walk right past the weeds growing through the sidewalk grass growing in road and the ponding water in the parking lot. We have become desensitized to these items…but I assure you that your first time guest are not. They will notice these things and their first impression will be impacted by them.

Is your (my) church delivering that level of “customer service”? Are we creating WOW experiences that rival these?

Will our facilities detract from our guests first impression? Take some time to walk around your facility with fresh eyes. Maybe even invite a total stranger to walk it with you…it might be telling.