{"id":1828,"date":"2015-09-21T21:23:31","date_gmt":"2015-09-21T21:23:31","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/iphc.org\/discipleship\/?p=1828"},"modified":"2015-10-26T15:23:34","modified_gmt":"2015-10-26T15:23:34","slug":"customer-service-assessing-your-church-through-the-eyes-of-disney","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/iphc.org\/discipleship\/2015\/09\/21\/customer-service-assessing-your-church-through-the-eyes-of-disney\/","title":{"rendered":"Customer Service- assessing your church through the eyes of Disney"},"content":{"rendered":"

If your youth ministry were a roadside stand, what would you sell?<\/strong><\/h2>\n

If you were to think about the youth\/student ministry of your church as a business, what would you consider to be your primary product or service? Would it be tangible merchandise or a subscription-style service? Who would be your target customer? How do you make your \u201cmerchandise\u201d or \u201cservice\u201d available? Are there \u201csales\u201d goals to make? Where do you advertise? DO you advertise?<\/p>\n

It seems sacrilegious to think of the ministry of the Gospel, Christ\u2019s precious gift, in terms of merchandise to be moved or services to be rendered. We chafe at the very idea that His atoning work would ever be perverted into some kind of for-profit enterprise. Eternal salvation was purchased by His death on the cross and is offered to us as a free gift by faith. That\u2019s the preeminent power of the Gospel\u2014the very essence of Good News!<\/p>\n

Yet\u2026<\/p>\n

Would it seem equally sacrilegious to us if someone used the cherished opportunities afforded to us each week to present the astounding message of the Gospel in a haphazard, slipshod, or uninteresting way? Would we be just as offended to discover that the Spirit of God had moved on teenagers in our community to finally visit a church, only for them to be ignored or dismissed by the youth leader in charge? Or worse, that the message they heard was so intolerably boring or irrelevant that they vowed never to return to any<\/em> church?<\/p>\n

While the Gospel is not for sale, and our church is not a for-profit organization, there are many similarities between how the church wins the lost, and how the local coffee shop turns a profit. The Gospel is, of course, neither a product to be sold nor a service to be rendered, so the rules of commerce don\u2019t equally apply<\/em> to our efforts to share the Good News. However, it could be argued that they should definitely inform <\/em>those efforts. The same principles that assist an entrepreneur in successfully selling a product can also help a struggling youth leader turn an otherwise dull, ordinary youth program into a vibrant, soul-winning station and an influential voice in the community.<\/p>\n

Before you totally tune me out, allow me to make a case.<\/p>\n

I made my first visit to Walt Disney World in February of 2013. My wife Mandy had visited the world-famous theme park as a child, and still had many wonderful memories from that trip. She was absolutely convinced I would love it, and that we\u2019d make great family memories of our own. So, when my son Nate was old enough to really enjoy the characters, we took a short vacation over a long Valentines\u2019 Day weekend and visited that famous Mouse and all his Clubhouse friends on their home-turf.<\/p>\n

I\u2019m probably not the first person you\u2019ve ever heard say this, but I was awestruck from the moment I drove onto the Disney property. From the giant \u201cWalt Disney World, Where Dreams Come True<\/em>\u201d sign that arches over the highway-entrance to the park, all the way down to the complimentary shampoo bottles in the hotel rooms that were shaped like Mickey Mouse, I was constantly amazed at the painstaking-attention given to every detail\u2014each one designed to make my visit enjoyable. \u2026 And so much of our experience was filled with those \u201cwow\u201d kind of moments. The \u201ctickets\u201d to the park, for example, had arrived at our house in the mail several days before we left for Florida, but they were nothing like I expected. Not paper, or even plastic, but the tickets were actually armbands\u2014each with our names imprinted on the underside\u2014that would give us access to all the parks, our room in the resort, and even linked to our master account so that we could make purchases to our credit card with only a scan of our wrists. It was crazy!<\/p>\n

Suffice it to say, I had a great experience at Walt Disney World, and so did my family. \u2026 and so do literally millions of other families each year at Walt Disney World properties around the world. Those kind of positive reviews are common-place among us\u2014little wonder people call WDW \u201cthe happiest place on earth.\u201d The cast, setting, and processes of Walt Disney World seek to \u201cexceed [their] guests\u2019 expectations by paying attention to every detail of the delivery of [their] products and services.<\/em>\u201d[1]<\/a> They\u2019ve created a culture centered on customer service, and they\u2019ve imprinted it on every product, service and experience they produce.<\/p>\n

So, when a senior-pastor friend of mine recommended that I read a book about how Disney intentionally creates those moments of \u201cpractical magic<\/em>,\u201d and use it as a guide for ministry to first-time guests, I was intrigued. \u2026 Because when anyone mentions \u201ccustomer service\u201d to me, I don\u2019t usually think first about my church, or my role as a pastor. I certainly don\u2019t think of those who worship with us each week as customers. It seems so very sacrilegious, really, to think about the ministry of our church in those terms. However, I would have to acknowledge that we desire to present Christ with excellence at all of our worship-gatherings, and that while we have been graciously given the gifts of abundant and eternal life and earnestly desire to share it with the world, we often squander great opportunities to do so because we fail to recognize some practical, key truths relating to customer service. Quite simply, we often fail to serve those who courageously choose to visit us for the first time because we are much too focused on serving ourselves. \u201cBe Our Guest: Perfecting the Art of Customer Service\u201d<\/em> is a valuable tool in the hands of corporate professionals and<\/em> ministry leaders because it enables us to see our organization through the eyes of those we\u2019re trying to reach, and capitalize on the benefits of quality customer service.<\/p>\n

Kinni\u2019s text offered a great mix of business principles, training points, and interesting stories about Walt Disney and the genesis of his world-wide empire. Walt Disney\u2019s prior negative experiences with taking his daughters to neglected carnivals and grubby theme-parks motivated him to build a place that was clean, inviting, and fun for the whole family. Kinni described Disney\u2019s early commitment to customer service beginning with a shift in culture, a conscious decision to make every moment for every customer magical<\/em>, and every experience memorable<\/em> in the best possible ways. His commitment to entertain customers with excellence and painstaking attention to detail was propagated from the very top levels of leadership in the organization down to every entry-level position\u2026 and it has been perpetuated in that organization ever since.<\/p>\n

Kinni outlined Disney\u2019s approach to customer service in terms of identifying their target audience, defining their own terms of quality customer service, targeting the systems that deliver that service, and then integrating each of those components into a global operating system. Those four ongoing efforts make up what he calls the \u201cQuality Service Compass,\u201d[2]<\/a> and they are each founded on the singular service objective to \u201cexceed every guests\u2019 expectations.<\/em>\u201d[3]<\/a> The remainder of Kinni\u2019s work was spent describing the infrastructure that undergirded those efforts, and the attitudes and philosophies that govern them. He spoke often about how cast members, settings, and processes are critical considerations in each of those efforts, and how important it is that they each actively contribute to the same goal. He also repeatedly observed how attention to detail in each of those components often makes the difference in customer loyalty and return visits.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s a pretty technical text. So long story short, what does Kinni\u2019s observations about Disney\u2019s customer service philosophy have to do with our church\u2019s week-to-week youth ministry? How can I apply his business-principles in my ministry-setting?<\/p>\n

Here are some of my thoughts about how the two seemingly disparate organizational models relate.<\/p>\n