You have to be intentional if you want to see first-time guests return.
Did you know that the average church only sees about 7% of guests return?
That's a pretty low percentage, but there are some proven ways you can see more guests return. Let's take a look at 5 ways you can see more guests return.
The first one is a big one.
If you want to see more guests return, then you must give them a great first experience.
You only get one opportunity to make a great first impression. If a guest has a bad first experience, I don't care how many times you email them, text them or even visit them, they are not going to return. You must exceed their expectations on their first experience.
I've shared before about the time I was having lunch with the pastor of one of the fastest growing and largest churches in the country. I asked him how he followed up with first-time guests and he told me he doesn't follow up. Instead, he puts all of his effort into giving guests a great first experience. As they create what he called "irresistible environments" they see guests return for a second time.
That strategy was new to me, but the more I thought about it, the more it made sense. You want to see more first-time guests return? Then raise the quality of your environments.
Send them a handwritten postcard.
In the day of digital communication, a handwritten note is golden. A good way to do this is to have your guest service volunteers write the note. They are the people who interact with your guests and this helps the note mean more. Mention something in the note that is specific to that family. An example would be a family who just moved to your area from Pittsburg. Put something in the note that mentions this.
Offer them a return gift.
I decided to start offering a t-shirt on their second visit. This has been highly successful in seeing more guests return. We put a note about the return gift on the handwritten postcard. It obviously costs us some money to do this, but we felt it was worth it. When we started offering the t-shirt on the second visit, our return rate went up to 38%.
Send the parents a text message.
Did you know that 98% of text messages get read? 94% in the first minute. That's a high, high percentage. On the week after their visit, send your guests a simple text message that thanks them for coming.
Establish a personal connection.
I got this idea from another church and it is highly effective.
Ask a guest parent to meet you for lunch that week.
Yep. You read that right. Approach a guest parent cold turkey and invite them to meet you for lunch that week. You will be surprised to find out that most will say "yes." Obviously this should be a man meeting a man and a woman meeting a woman.
Use the lunch to get to know them. Make a good connection and you are almost guaranteed they will be back the next Sunday. I have seen this work time after time after time.
Do these five things and I guarantee you that your return rate will go up.
p.s. Have you gotten a copy of my book "Be Our Church Guest?" It is full of ideas like this to see more of your guests return. Get your copy today at this link.
