by Dan Scott
I know, a ton of people write about Zappos, but I just had to share my experience this past spring. My interaction with their customer service department reminded me why the time needed to achieve next-level kidmin is worth the investment.
For Christmas, I got the best laptop bag ever. Seriously, I loved it. Yet by March, the bag was falling apart, and I was left with a sad face.
Thankfully, the person who gave me this bag bought it at Zappos!
The online IM service was great, but as the bag was ripped I’d have to call into the office and talk to a live person.
More often than not, this causes me angst. If I can do business over email or IM, I’d rather, especially when dealing with a major company. But I called Zappos.
As soon as the customer service representative picked up, I knew this would not be an ordinary phone call with a multi-national company.
“Thanks for calling Zappos! This is [Jane]. How can I WOW you today?”
That phrase—“How can I wow you today?”—caught me off guard. I chuckled and started telling her my story. Not only did they overnight me a new bag, I also didn’t have to send the old one back.
Needless to say, I was wowed.
The WOW Factor
I began thinking about kid’s ministry. When was the last time any of us walked up to a parent or child and (figuratively or literally) asked them “How can I wow you today?”
How many of us actually followed through on the promise to do so?
It could be that we make a practice out of wowing our “customers” week-in and week-out as they walk our halls and enter our environments.
However, when we take a step back and take a 10,000-foot view of the landscape, we realize that our signs may be confusing, our welcome center is cluttered and insufficiently staffed, or our slides are littered with misspelled words, and we’re using a font that only a sharp-shooter could see from his scope.
Wowing means that we go above and beyond expectations.
We don’t just point people in the right direction, we walk with them to their destination.
We let that last child into the room even if they’re two minutes late—after all, getting a family of six to church is hard work!
We send a goody-bag to the hospital for the precious third-grader’s tenth round of chemo not just the first.
Making WOW part of your Kidmin
This week, take a look around your hallways, evaluate your parent and volunteer care structures, and re-read your policies. Ask yourself:
1. Where are we currently wowing people? How do we know that?
2. Where could we improve? How can we be generous to our parents and kids, wowing them each time they walk through our environments?
3. What are five small things that are inexpensive (or FREE!) that we could do this month to build WOW? Make a plan, and follow through!
Do the work. Wowing people makes them feel like you care. And you do care, otherwise you’d be in a different line of work—be sure people know that.
Do you have a WOW story?
I’d love to hear about the WOW-factor in your ministry. Comment below!
Dan is on the Orange 252 Basics creative team, is married to Jenna, and has four children: Liam, Ellison, Addison and Taye. This post was originally published by Dan to his blog in July 2011. Used by permission.
