5 Little Known Guest Service Training Tips For Any Church

Every church ought to be ready to welcome guests – comfortably, confidently, and consistently. Here are five little known Guest Service Training Tips for any church.

1) Answer The Big Question.

Every guest who walks through the door is asking this question: “Do they care about me here?” The hospitality team needs to answer this question on several levels.

2) Care For The Building.

The church isn’t a building, but the building tells so much about the Church! Hospitality teams should try and see the building and surroundings through the eyes of a guest. Are signs in place? Is the the guest area marked clearly? Is there clutter? Is someone at entrance? Pay attention to surroundings and make them better. Take a look at this great post about 15 common church facility issues.

3) Make The Whole Church a Guest Services Team.

John Maxwell once made the argument that the single most important person at church on any given Sunday morning was the guest. If that’s true, everyone who calls that particular church home, must be involved in the process of welcoming guests in worship. In the case of the church, you can’t leave it up the “customer service dept” (hospitality team). It also can’t be left up to the pastor to be the sole connector. It takes the whole congregation connecting with and caring for guests in worship!

4) Teach Hospitality as a Mindset More Than a Mission.

A person may staff the welcome center for a specific amount of time, but making sure people are comfortable in church is an important, ongoing job. Did you meet someone before worship? Seek them out after to tell them you were glad they were here. Did someone have an issue? Contact them to make sure things were ok. In order to create a mindset of hospitality in your team, start by inviting who already do live it. Another way is to offer short articles and training for your team. Keep the vision in front – who we are and what we do! What we do as a guest service team matters to the guest, to the church and in the kingdom! Write down your goal as a team. Document it and print it. Make it simple. Print a PDF of this article to hand out, if you wish!

5) Develop Measurable Goals For Each Team Member.

Immediately measurable goals helps each person know they’re succeeding in hospitality. These goals may be different for each person, but they are worth the time to discuss, determine and evaluate. For the hospitality team organizer a simple, weekly, measurable goal might be that each position was staffed for the hospitality team. Another goal might be how many people did you make smile today. Another goal could be how many people did you walk to show them their room? How many questions did they answer? How many times did they get a “Thanks” as they opened the door and greeted people authentically and warmly? How many kids came up to you and got a tootsie roll (this number is sure to grow as word gets out). Simple measurable goals help set and keep a vision for effectiveness together. And it offers a chance to talk about the stories of connections in your church.

Here are a couple books that may be helpful:

Legendary Service is a short fable teaching people to put an emphasis on people and to answer the question, “Do they care about me?” Church Greeters 101 is a more practical manual for training and equipping church hospitality teams – the front line of hospitality and greeting ministry is critical to any church!