Our Guest Experience Strategy

2025 Leaders Gathering Breakout: Identifying and following-up with First Time Guests and how to build effective teams that serve them.

CLICK IMAGE TO DOWNLOAD BREAKOUT NOTES

ADDITIONAL LINKS

GUEST EXPERIENCE TEAM SITE

Guest Team Must Read: The Power of Connection in the Church

BREAKOUT Q&A SUBMISSIONS

CHECK-IN

Is there anything different that you do language/workflow wise when someone checks the 2nd/3rd time guest?

We do have a different template we created when someone checks in for the 2nd/3rd time. It's more "welcome back" and see if they have any questions.

CONNECT CARD

Do you mark the connect cards that are in the 1st time guest bags so you know where they got the card from?	No- we aren't as concerned where people get the connect card from. We more just want to provide multiple touch-points with the connect card so that they are encouraged to fill one out.
Do you have people who filled out the plan your visit online also fill out the connect card? Why is this good or bad? Do you have a digital connect card also (that you mention during hosting moment) or just the paper card?	We have people fill out both and that's great! We see them all so that we make sure there aren't duplicates (we aren't counting the same FTG more than once). We have a digital card as well.
Is the connect card in the bag the same as the card in the seat back?	Yes.

DATA

Do you use any specific software for capturing and visualizing data for things like responses to connect cards, texts, etc.?	We are working on building this in our Rock database, but for now we use a spreadsheet to track the numbers and collect the data.
How do you deal with illegible writing on the connect card. Have you tried kiosks instead of cards?	We do the best we can with illegible cards- it's not perfect. We have seen more people fill out a physical card still compared to an online card. We are always re-evaluating how we are serving people and how they are responding- so if we see an increase in digital compared to physical cards then we will adjust our practices!

FOLLOW-UP

After a first time guest checks in their kids what is the email or text template you send as follow up? I’m curious what information you share! I also have the same question regarding what you send to youth first time guest. Thank you!	An example of the text we send can be found in the breakout session notes above, page 8 of the PDF.
Once someone starts reaching out to a guest through project broadcast do they keep the conversation going with that individual person?	We do! As long as they are using that to respond, we respond back and help them get connected.

GUEST FLOW

How do you direct the flow of your first time guest, especially after they have left your guest suite. (After service).

A guest suite volunteer then walks them over to the cafe to redeem their free coffee card or into the worship center to hand them off to an usher so they can find a seat.

HUDDLE

Is there any sort of prepping on Sunday morning for the Connect team and greeters?

To prep the Worship Center with Connect Cards, we have a "Friday Team" of volunteers who do that! They pray over each seat and refill the connect cards in the seat backs.

For Weekend Service volunteer teams we do a team huddle 30-45 min before each service. When they arrive to serve, they huddle with their team lead and prepare for service. You can find our Huddle template on the Serve Team breakout article.

How does the staff team communicate event/important dates with their serve teams so that they can also be an extension of that communication with the congregation?

Great question! We equip the team with how to utilize our "events" page online with people AND we also create a "weekend notes" document that lists out important upcoming events that the teams can easily refer to.

NEXT STEPS

What is your next step after you complete your first initial follow-up for the weeks to come?	Next step- we encourage them to attend Discovery 101 to get more connected and learn about the heart and vision of the church
How long do you stay with the new families before they become apart of the Church Family/Team before you feel like you have completed or have the win?	The win with a guest is getting them to come back, not to immediately become members. Once we have served a guest well and done the follow up process of sending the email, text, & mailer…we give them space to breath. We make ourselves available so they can reach back out at any point, but we avoid being pushy. We want to serve them well and we know in our church culture that anyone they interact with is going to encourage them to sign up for 101- if they keep coming we know we'll get them!
How do you move first time guest into Discovery 101 from this process? Looking for language for our team for this!	Sending people to Discovery 101 as a next step is in the water at our church- everyone knows that 101 is the place to go to start getting connected. We used to send periodic emails to first time guests, but the responses to those emails proved that this method was not effective. Encouraging people to attend 101 in service hosting moments and equipping volunteers to point people to this step has been more effective for us with getting people to attend 101.

OUTREACH

Do you have a process or plan for reaching future guest who have not stepped foot on your campus yet?

Maybe more so, do you have ideas for a very active approach to help first time guests?

We have several outreach opportunities that our missions team oversees. These may have been outlined in that breakout- neighborhood Welcome boxes for new people who have moved close by has been a big outreach to invite people to Milestone. We outlined our approach for actively identifying and following up with first time guests in the session.

PLAN MY VISIT

How did you build your Plan My Visit on your website so that people utilize it?

Trial and error! We have learned to put it on the front Home Page and in other multiple locations as "nets." We have also learned to have wording like "Let Us Know You're Coming" & "Pre-register your kids." Both buttons are the same link, but the wording on one reaches a need for people with kids and the other would be for people who don't have kids.

RECRUITING & TRAINING

How do you keep volunteers to follow correction and structure.	High vision of our "why." It's never just correction. It's always "in order to serve guests better, we are going to stay out 10 minutes into service. There was this lady who came late one day and she was so frazzled. She thought service started at 11:15 but it started at 11. It was her first time, and Justin was on the patio and helped her feel at ease. He told her she was right on time and walked her into service to help her find a seat. You know she felt the love of Jesus in that interaction and that's exactly what we want to do! So grateful for you guys!" -this would be an example of a "correction" for volunteers. We always go back to the why.
How can we effectively recruit more volunteers for the serve team as our church grows, ensuring we meet the increasing demand for support?	We do this in Serve Team 201- it's expressing we want more for people than from people, and when they discover their gifts and utilize them in the church they are going to build more connections and grow spiritually. It's a value add to serve- those who refresh others will themselves be refreshed.
What training programs or process do you use to train your hospitality leaders? Roles, recruitment etc..	We have one overall templete for the Serve Team, where we recuit in Serve Team 201 and have regular team trainings. You can find more info in the Serve Team article.
Can you speak on how you train volunteers? When they start, how often do you have training, etc.	Yes- I start with team leads. I have quarterly leader sync ups with them and it's a 2 hour dinner that includes connection, laughter, celebration, & equipping. Leaders are equipped with how to run effective and powerful huddles and it becomes a time for them to problem solve together. It's so sweet! Then when we onboard volunteers, I send them the guest experience website that has vision and playbooks for each role so they can prepare. For their first serve, the team leads partner them with a "pro" on the team to shadow with. They show them the ropes and model what we get to do. If they enjoyed serving, then we onboard them to the team! The team leads float around to see how the team is going and they get ideas for what to address in their huddles (like is they see people huddled up and talking together, the next huddle they might hit on the importance of being available for guests). We also have a "connections night" once a year where we highlight the power of connection and it becomes more equipping for the volunteers to "see the one."
Do you provide special coaching to your team	Yes! This is done primarily through the team leads. We have quarterly team leader sync ups that celebrate wins and provide equipping for how to coach up the people who serve with them. A lot is done through modeling, encouraging best practices, and celebrating volunteers publicly (in huddles) when they have served a guest well!

TEAM STRUCTURE

Is your staff heading up your first time guest experience or do y’all have volunteers who are heading up those areas and teams? How extensive are your volunteers in your processes?

The volunteer teams serve them in person (guest experience team are volunteers) and then a volunteer admin team helps us enter their information in the system. A staff person is gathering the data after, sending the email, and communicating to the guests via text through project broadcast.