I had an interesting day today. We have been out of town the past several Sundays so we had planned on being at our home church this morning. My wife woke me up in a panic and said she needed to go to the emergency room. So instead of being “home” for worship, we spent our Sunday morning in the ER.
There were several mental notes I made about our visit. I want to share them and draw a parallel to the church:
1. Signage was an issue. It was fairly easy to find our way to the emergency room. But once we arrived, finding our way around was near impossible. My wife was in extreme pain and could barely walk. We saw one opening where the ambulance was parked, that was not our entrance. We saw another entrance where the doors were open so we could not read the signage on the doors. We walked in and were immediately met by another set of doors that would not open. I saw a nurse through the tiny windows and knocked on them. He finally came to the door, by that time my wife had collapsed on the floor in pain, the nurse looked annoyed that we had come to the wrong entrance. He slowly and quietly walked away to get a wheelchair to help my wife. I thought, his idea and my idea of an emergency are two different things. We actually weren’t too far off from the actual patient entrance. I noticed afterwards (when the doors had been closed) it said staff and faculty entrance only.
2. Most people were really friendly and helpful. Once we made it to where we were supposed to be folks were quite helpful. The nurses recognized my wife was in extreme pain and began to help her right away. We don’t visit the emergency room often but the stories of how long patients have to wait in an “emergency” were not true in our case. I noticed that this particular hospital must also train there financial people really well. Although we have insurance to help cover the cost of healthcare, I was treated so well, I almost felt good about handing over a pricy check to cover our co-payment. I also had my three-year old son with me. The guy at registration said usually they don’t let kids go back but he would check if an exception could be made. He came back and took both of us back to be with my wife. Great customer service! After we had been back there for a while, my son got thirsty. I asked a nurse if we could have a small cup so I could get him some water. Instead of helping me, her first question was how old was my son, she then proceeded to tell me he couldn’t be back there. I tried to explain that the head nurse had already given us permission but she wasn’t hearing me.
3. We evenutally saw the doctor. After we had been in the ER cubicle for a bit a nurse came to retrieve my wife for a CATScan. She was gone about ten minutes then back to the cubicle. About 30 minutes later the doctor came by to explain what was happening. Now the parallels.
First, it’s important that new people know what to do and where to go. A lot of churches have first-time visitor programs but not many have “new people” programs. How many visits does it take for a family to commit to a church? It’s important to have “sinage” at your church. Those signs should be people trained to help even if someone came in the wrong door and even if they have been there before. Until a person connects with your church in a meaningful way, they are new.
Second, make sure your friendly people know how to buffer the unfriendly people at your church. Every church has them; you can’t alienate them. The excellent customer service we received in the ER outweighed the two unfriendly contacts we had. Remember that old saying, it takes ten good comments to counteract every bad comment (paraphsed). If you want people to keep coming back, you have to make sure they’re treated like it’s important they do.
Third, everyone in the church is important. We each play a role even in the success of each local body. People want to know the leader of the organization. The two main points here are; make sure people see the Doctor ( Jesus) in every service and make every attempt for new people to meet the pastor.
My wife is ok but will be in some pain for the next several days/weeks. Please pray for her.
Blessings
Marcus
Tags: Leadership, visitors
