In this episode, Jason Young gives some helpful ideas for guest retention and new families by considering how the experience makes people feel, especially as churches return to campus ministry. Jason also shares from his experience at Northpoint Community Church and LifeChurch.tv and what he observed while serving on staff.
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Notes
The Comeback Effect:
- How do you USE hospitality in a way that compels a guest to come back?
- Create a culture, not a job title (chapter 2)
Experience at Northpoint:
- Autonomy to try things in regards to guests
- NEXT: an opportunity to hear more about the church (stopped using this approach)
- Realized that it was more about presentation than interaction
- Simplified: Life can be complicated. You want to get it right. We can help.
- Instead of starting with the church, start with the person, and guide them to what the church offers and how that can match the person's needs
- Sometimes, we are so close to the experience that we don't understand what is wrong with our approach
- Consider getting an outside ear to listen to your approach
- Tension: Groups got the majority of stage time, but volunteering was not as much of a priority
- groups are amazing, but there was a systemic volunteer challenge because there was not a healthy approach to recruiting and retaining those volunteers
How did you get families to come back a second time (in some capacity)?
- No prescribed process, but there was an intentional approach to move people somewhere
- Create a culture of clarity
- Be clear, Be clear, Be clear (say it again)
- Instead, think about these questions, “What do we want them to know?” and “What do we want them to do?”
- Build toward clarity by saying less and giving a call to action
- We often fall in love with what we do FUNCTIONALLY, but it's more important to understand how people FEEL about the church and how they FEEL when they leave
- The church is being compared to everyday moments that people experience; the church should be lead out on how people FEEL
How does this translate to NextGen/Family Ministry?
- There must be a partnership between the ministry spaces
- Have similar language and hand-offs from ministry to ministry
- Volunteers and Staff know the plan for this experience and intentionally look for ways to serve families based on their needs
- Aim for congruency and then consistently deliver on that
- Help families know that you “have their back”
Action Items
- Retention Plan – get it and build it
- The ComeBack Effect book – build training for volunteers
- Someone with your new guests all the way through your New Family process
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