twice each year. We ask questions like:
“Based on your overall experience,
how was it?” “Would you come back?”
“Would you bring someone with you?”
But more simply than that, we’ve taken
a page out of the Disney playbook when
it comes to obtaining psychographic
data. We create multiple listening
posts—designated eavesdroppers, if
you will—throughout the church, and
at the end of the weekend experience,
I ask my volunteers, “What did you
hear today?” I frequently ask, so my
volunteers have begun listening for
things like this. I hear, “We kept hearing
about the coffee,” or “People were
frustrated with the temperature in the
building,” or “Guests inquired about
how we choose the pre-service music
playlist.” This type of information is
invaluable in the way that it informs
specific psychographic variables. You
discover people’s values very quickly
when you see what areas of frustration
arise in your guest services protocols.
It’s easy to forget that you have your
own market analysts in the form of your
team members. Don’t overlook this
fact. Ask people who are interacting
with the people you’re trying to reach.
Your fellow team members will give
you the insights and information you
need in order to know your guest.
Businesses can get in on this too.
It’s as simple as priming employees
to listen for specific feedback or even
ask specific questions of customers.
Some of the questions you can ask
your team members and guests are
these:
• What’s right? What functioned
properly and made sense for the guest?
• What’s wrong? Where did we miss the
mark?
• What’s missing? Was the guest
expecting something that we didn’t
anticipate? Coffee? Signage?
• What’s confusing? What questions
do we consistently answer?
And what questions take the longest
to answer?
Find ways to ask these questions each
weekend or after each event. Begin to
collect all this data. As a team, create a
profile of your guest so you can begin
crafting your hospitality experience to
Accommodate their psychographic
variables.
What Do You Do with Conflicting Data?
At the growing church where I worked,
we had a greeter who caused some
concern. She was an older, sweet-
grandmother type. She loved greeting
guests. But she did it in an unhealthy
way. She frequently hugged first-time
guests, and even kissed some of our
regulars on the cheek.
A few apprehensive staff members
brought up the issue in a meeting
where we were talking about our
hospitality experience. To most of the
team, it seemed obvious that this was
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