No two churches are the same. First Impressions Ministry will meet your church where it is in the Guest Relations process.
Does the church need to capture a vision of the importance of welcoming and retaining guests? FIMP can help. Would the church benefit from an objective analysis of the guest experience so that it can really understand what visiting the church is like for a guest? FIMP can help. Does the church need training to bolster and equip Guest Relations teams? FIMP can help. Does the church need to implement a communication strategy that follows up on a guest visit? FIMP can help.
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Wherever the church may find itself in its ministry to visiting guests, FIMP Ministries stands ready to help. Here are our methods: Reports, Training, Resources.
Reports
Both the 1.7.5 Report and Comprehensive Report include introductory materials and articles as well as an implementation tool to assist church leadership in understanding and processing the Report in a way appropriate for your context. Level two and Level three reports are also presented to appropriate church leadership by the FIMP Ministries representative.
Contact Roger Graves here to learn more or to request a First Impressions Ministry visit and Report.
Ever wonder what first-time guests think upon visiting your church? Now you can know!
A FIMP Ministries representative will make himself a guest at your church; he will see what guests see, hear what guests hear; basically, he will have the guest experience with the caveat that he will then report back to the church what the experience was like.
Three different levels of reporting are available to match up with the unique needs of your church.
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LEVEL ONE is a "Guest Narrative." The Guest Narrative will tell the story of the visiting guest from beginning to end, communicating what the FIMP Guest saw and heard along the way, what path he took, what was helpful or not, what was said to him, even how he felt as he made the visit. The Narrative is a talk-through of the walk-through. It's a powerful "inside the head of the guest" account that opens the eyes of church members to the experience of every guest coming through the church doors.
LEVEL TWO is the "1.7.5 Report." The 1.7.5 Report will include 1 Guest Narrative of the visit (as in LEVEL ONE above) plus a summary of the 7 phases of the guest visit from the guest's perspective; it also includes 5 key recommendations for the church to consider going forward. The 1.7.5 Report is particularly suited to the smaller church.
LEVEL THREE is called the "First Impressions Report;" it is the most complete of the three reports. It includes notations on approximately 200 First Impressions Inventory items. Sorted according to both the 7 phases of a guest visit and 7 church organizational initiatives, it is a valuable working tool in the hands of church leadership. An Executive Summary includes a narrative of the visit, general considerations, as well as specific recommendations for the church to consider.
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Training
A host of Guest Services training options are available for the unique needs of the moment at your church.
Does your church need assistance expanding your services to guests? Are you trying to equip your team members in various roles on the Guest Services team? How about a Virtual Guest Experience for your team to build empathy with first-time attendees? Ever wonder what are some of the Best Practices in First Impressions Ministry? How can a church maximize its website for guest impact? What is the range of the Guest experience? What about follow-up? Or maybe you can't put a finger on a topic, you just need training!
For these training options and others, your church might benefit from on-site and online training services. Live and in person might be right for some; skyped training might be right for others. Another option might work well for some churches --- a shared training event with a sister church. Church staff consultations are also a popular option.
FIMP is continuing to expand its training options and topics. Click HERE for a descriptive list of training topics. Contact Roger Graves to inquire about how training might work best for your current needs, location, and leaders.
Resources
Sometimes the best solution is to gather the resources, do the homework, and share the results with others at a later time.
To that end, FIMP is providing resources that you can purchase and others that are free.
On this website, you will find a Blog tab that is a collection of tips and insights related to making a good First Impression with visiting guests at church. Covering a variety of topics, this is an easy-to-get resource that can build one's own awareness of the guest experience or be shared one Blog at a time with your Guest Services Team or your network. Be sure to sign-up for the Blog.
Many of those Blogs will be available soon in book form --- "Tips and Insights on First Impressions Ministry". Another book in the works will assist a church in developing its own team --- "Improving the Guest Experience: Building Effective Guest Services at Church."
Other resources on a variety of Guest Services topics are available under the Resources tab. Check them out here.
Contact Roger Graves if you have questions.