5-Star Service 5 (of 5)
How Did They Do It?
After a few days at this luxurious resort, Amy and I agreed that we’ve never had a better experience. How did they do it?
Here’s what I learned from interviewing some staff members:
Their goal in everything was to exceed our expectations. In every way, they did. Whether it was putting down a towel for us on our chairs by the pool, remembering our names, folding down our comforter at night, leaving a handwritten note, or neatly arranging our shoes by the foot of the bed, details obviously mattered.
How did they do it?
- They were intentional. Each new staff member attends a three-day event to learn to culture of the resort. Then everyone attends a two-week customer service course.They had a large staff. This resort had 250 rooms.
- They had over 1000 staff members. If each room averaged two guests, the resort had a better than 2:1 staff-to-guest ratio. In our churches, if we have 100 members and have 5 guests on a weekend, we have a 20:1 ratio. Think about how we could better serve our guests!
Businesses should never exceed the hospitality of ministries. We must be intentional. And we must train our members to see themselves as “unpaid staff” or ministers to welcome those who don’t know Christ and invite them into our family.
Non-believers should feel more loved by the church than by any institution in the world.
What ideas do you have for your ministry? What did some ministry do to help you feel valued, loved, and accepted?
Visit 
These posts have been amazing. I think we do a pretty good job at our church but there is ALWAYS room for improvement.
Craig, your series this week has really challenged me as a member and volunteer. This would make an EXCELLENT sermon topic (not to mention a great excuse to go back to the resort to shoot your video for it). I really think a series like this could highly motivate and encourage our members to step it up a notch. It has for me.
Have a great weekend, bro.
Craig, don’t sell yourself too short. If you had 2 paid employees for every guesst I’m guessing your service would be pretty darn good. Especially if you hired like the 5 star resort and pick from the best of the best in the hotel industry.
I’m still uncomfortable with the comparison but that’s my issue at this point.
“Businesses should never exceed the hospitality of ministries. We must be intentional. And we must train our members to see themselves as “unpaid staffâ€? or ministers to welcome those who don’t know Christ and invite them into our family.”
There’s an even better idea that I know you want as well, but which isn’t stated here.
It’s the unintentional hospitality. It’s the people of the church who aren’t being leveraged by a staff, or by a program, or an agenda, or even by a vision who love God and show hospitality as a natural outgrowth of their lives. People who aren’t told to be hospitable. People who aren’t trained to be hospitable. People who aren’t paid to be hospitable (obviously). People who are generous with their time, and who serve because it’s become who they are.
Interestingly enough this particular value is often more difficult in large young (read: new church plants) churches. My experience is that some of the most hospitible churches I’ve ever visited are the most hospitable. I remember my days at St. Marks in Bethany and I wonder about your experience at First OKC (I’ve never been there). Pretty hospitable folks.
Then this makes me wonder… I wonder if there is something new churches do that unintentionally prevents hospitality, or if maturity brings hospitality.
thanks for letting wonder/wander here.
We have guests stand up & we recognize them.
Actually they did that before I arrived. We are much smaller than you so I’ve been modelling greeting guests so our people can catch it.
How do you get the people to be this way to a different race that happens to be prominent near our campus?
Lori, Glad this week has made a difference to you! Thanks!
Jeff, Thanks for stopping by. I’ve missed you on the blog. Have a great weekend to you too.
Riddle, I think you are absolutely right that the best hospitality is a natural overflow of our love for Christ.
Here is my point on being intentional… Amy and I are not gifted with natural hospitality. For example, we only have water and juice at our homes. For years people would come over and we didn’t have coffee or soft drinks to offer them.
It never crossed our minds we weren’t being great hosts. We loved the people who came, we just weren’t as considerate as we could have been. Since hospitality isn’t as natural to us as it is to some, we have to be intentional.
For better or worse, an organization typically reflects its leader. Our church (more than some), may have to be more intentional about hospitality since this isn’t my strong suit.
I’m not sure about your theories on new churches verses mature. Others might want to comment.
Kevin, Your question is very important. I’d like to address that in some posts in the future. Some of you might want to contribute some responses to his question.
Great post series this week Craig…
Probably two things stand out as I end the week with it.
1) Intentionality - Churches should be more intentional with their guests and train their staff and unpaid staff volunteers how to be more “customer” oriented.
2) Unintentionality - There should be an unintentionality to guests being served or welcomed. There should be a church culture so that it doesn’t just seem programmed in.
This has been a series that will challenge me as we seek to implement this within our church culture.
One of the characteristics of the resort that I find particularly valuable is that it was not spending its money recruiting those who were completely top-notch and qualified to work for the resort. I’m sure there were applications to fill out and interviews to be had, however even those who weren’t fluent in English were welcome to work.
Only after the person was hired were they trained in the disciplines of hospitality and customer service. This rides along the principle I’m sure many of us have heard before: Jesus doesn’t call the qualified, he qualifies the called.
We as the church aren’t looking for the best “Hospitality team” per se, we just need ordinary people who are willing to be transformed through the teaching and training the Spirit will provide to those with willing hearts. I believe thats the key to outstanding hospitality. Thanks for the great lesson this week Craig.
Kevin~
When I was attending a church of a little under 300 our pastor intentionally found a friend that no one in our church knew and had him come to church a little raggedy and unkempt. He came in quietly and sat in a pew and kept to himself. Now, thankfully he was greeted by our church and he found it very welcoming. He didn’t even felt judged. Our pastor met with him afterward to see what he felt we could do to better serve our guests. The next week our pastor told us what he had done and how we were perceived when the other gentlemen came to our church. I’m not sure if that is something you can use (race wise) with your congregation, but I have never forgot that lesson.
Great blog series, the analogy fits well! We absolutely should be focusing more on hospitality, on intentional effort to go above and beyond when serving others. In fact, as staff I see it as not about my paid job, responding to a program, or even correlating with our agenda. Rather I instead recognize it as part of the command on how I should love and serve my neighbors…anywhere. The “paycheck” is far greater than any salary!
The whole concept was summarized in that their goal “was to exceed our expectations.” All we have to do is provide the welcoming environment so as guests and new believers can feel open to the message, open to His word. Then God seems to always do the hard part for us by exceeding expectations!!
my thoughts about new churches vs. maturity..
One of my mentors used to always tell me that a persons growth is measured by rate X’s time. So, in other words, take a persons growth rate and mulitiply that by the amount of time they spend growing and you will arrive at where they are currently. In this way, it gives us a measurable for maturity. The problem is that we often associate age with maturity. I would submit to you that there are a lot of young people that are much more mature than old people-especially in their faith. The same is true of churches. There are a ton of churches out there that are very old and very immature and with that same line of thinking some very young churches that are very mature.
The key to maturity then, is to never stop growing. Our maturity in Christ is only found in obedience and without obedience, I would question your faith or maturity. My wife always says to me “a servant does not mind being treated like one.” OUCH! I hate it when she says that, because it is so unnatural for me to serve. Jesus was the perfect example of a servant, “who, made himself nothing, taking the very nature of a servant..” -Phil. 2 So, thank you Craig for being so creative in the way you have taught that this week.
Help me please.
It seems we’re all discussing this idea around trying to be more hospitable and nicer and to make our places neat and welcoming, and be more accepting and helpful to our guests at our church gatherings…
So, we’re modeling 5 Star Service from a hotel business thinking it will produce exactly “what” kind of response in our guests?
Do we really worship people (and their needs/desires/demands) this much nowadays in Christianity?
Are we really this concerned with making great impressions and showing people how committed we are to their comfort and convenience and repeat attendance?
I am a fool, but I’m just not seeing the connection here between a hotel business’ 5-Star Service and the mission of the Church…
Oh my…You aliens do make me laugh sometimes! “you are absolutely right that the best hospitality is a natural overflow of our love for Christ.” I kept reading and waiting for the other shoe to drop. From what I’ve seen, the reason two or more different races of you aliens have such a hard time worshipping together is very logical. Human nature is the most natural form of self-expression there is.
So, did you try walking through the lobby of the 5 star service hotel barefoot?
[...] Five-star service from Craig Groeschel. [...]
Craig -
These five posts have been some of the most helpful reads I’ve come across. I’m going to have our volunteer staff read these along with the replies and then come together and talk about what we’ve learned. It is my passion to see people leave every Sunday blown away by the overwhelming sense of love they feel from the members of this church. It’s one of the coolest things i’ve ever seen when real people with real pasts come together with genuine love to really serve others where they are in life. We’ve all been there and can relate to what it feels like to be lost. Thank you for your genuine love and enthusism for Jesus.
We are the sermon illustration every week.
Shay
Kevin - to answer your question about getting people in a different race to blend with another race.
Think of the apostles for a moment. On the day of Pentecost, all theological/doctrinal stuff aside, these men exhibited something that was fascinating, confusing, intriguing to other people groups. This, in turn, attracted others to find out what was going on, then taking their new found faith back to their own homes.
The church, by nature, is made to be attractive when it is running right. Jesus didn’t say, “I hope you can be salt and light”, did he?
The gospel is above culture, but is relevant to culture. The key is when the believers actually become Christ followers, and attempt to live like He wants them. That is when the gospel becomes culturally relevant. And it’s not from behind a pulpit or from a church pew…
The racial divide in the modern day church is just one of the latest manifestations of the spiritual war waged against the church to strip it of it’s power by invalidating it’s authority. Why don’t miracles happen through the church today as they did in Acts? Lack of authority. Dominion, one of the first gifts to man that was given back to the church, must be invalidated. If not, the church WILL manifest miracles, thus drawing the unsaved to salvation. How to invalidate that dominion? Division. But the church is the very bride of the Christ. How to divide it most effectively? The Big three misses are the most effective. Pride, Fear and Lust. The innate Pride of self that inherently believes in the Goodness of Man, and the Rightness of Self. The instinctive Fear of the unknown, the Other, at Man’s deepest core; human nature. And the Lust of the Flesh for comfort, safety and instinctual reaction. Use of these three have effectively kept the Church divided (and Paul a very busy writer) from its very beginning. As long as the Church can be distracted into attempting to solve these internal problems by applying the filter of Man, it will stay that way. Divided. Both parties on each side of an attempt at reconciliation would have to be willing to apply the filter of God to overcome these three barriers. So far, the amount of sacrifice of these three on all sides of just this one barrier to resolving Church division, has been insufficient and ineffective. Screwtape would be proud. (grin)