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82% Satisfaction… What’s your rate?
Orginally published on Monday, November 20, 2006 at 5:02 AM
by Todd Rhoades
Last week I went to my local McDonalds drive-thru window to grab a quick breakfast sandwich (I’m kinda partial to the Egg McMuffin with sausage and cheese). I’m not sure if your local McDonalds is like this or not; but ours has an employee whiteboard located directly behind the drive-up window. It usually has great employee instructions and announcements like, “Be sure to wash your hands after using the restroom” or “Only 3 pickles per Big Mac”… But last week, the manager had written some scribbles about the latest customer satisfaction survey. Here’s something (close) to what it said:
Store cleanliness – 85%
Employee friendliness – 82%
Speed of service – 83%
Yeah! We passed!
My first thought was, “We passed?” What a way to set the bar high! Do they not realize that nearly 2 out of every ten people thought their store was not clean; their employees were not friendly; and the service was slow? Does this manager not understand that if my Big Mac is cold, next time I’ll just buy a whopper? Or if there is dried ketchup and straw papers on all the tables, I’ll probably opt for a double with ketchup, mustard, and pickles from Wendy’s?
Then I wondered, (as I often do) how this relates to churches. Do we as church leaders, set the standard high enough? Or do we pat ourselves on the back when 80% of our people don’t complain? Here’s a little test. Do you catch yourself saying any of the following things on a regular basis:
“It’s good enough.”
“No one will ever notice.”
“It’s just a small thing…”
“Whew… we’re done with that.”
“Someone should really clean that nursery someday”
“Practice… who needs practice?”
“I’ll just write my sermon Saturday night.”
All these type of comments exhibit what I’ll call “McDonald Manager Syndrome”… setting the bar just high enough to say “we passed”! Doing the bare minimum to get by.
Reality check time… What things are you neglecting at your church? In what areas do you need to increase the bar? Where have you become apathetic in your service for the King?
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Hi... I'm Todd Rhoades. I'm a Christ-follower, husband, father and I love to connect leaders with other leaders. Hopefully you'll find something here at MMI you like and will return often. If you want, you can find out more about me or follow my every step on Twitter.
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Posted by Gary Sweeten
Monday, November 20, 2006 at 10:50 PM
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Tuesday, November 21, 2006 at 12:05 AM
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Tuesday, November 21, 2006 at 11:11 AM
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Tuesday, November 21, 2006 at 6:53 PM
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Posted by Gary Sweeten
Tuesday, November 21, 2006 at 10:52 PM
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Post Your Comments:Wendi,
That is a great example. If a program has no goals then it cannot be evaluated and we never know if we are accomplishing anything. What is our purpose is a great question. Then be clear about the evalution.
We had a “Family Week” every Winter where we had many programs that serparated families from each other. One year I said to the planning group, “Let’s not really plan anything but put it on the calendar. When we get close to the week we will tell everyone to stay home and enjoy their family time without any interruptions.”
So many programs are for the staff not the people. If the only reason to have a choir presentation is for the choir…
So, let’s plan and pray and hear God and enjoy Him forever.
Satisfaction! I am 100% satisfied that the Lord Jesus Christ is who He says He is and has done and will do what He says. There is no way to measure the eternal value of what someone perceives to be a result.. There could be years between a given message and the outcome of that message. May the Lord hold you all tightly in His hand tonight! May we we all do the best we know how at any given time and leave the results up to the Spirit and the Lord. It’s such a blessing to be able to read all of the responses here. Thanks Todd for giving us a safe place to hang out!
This Sunday at our church we had a young man come to our pastor and rake him over the coals because he wasn’t letting people have their say in the church. We are a staff led church. I ended talking to this man because he is actually a good friend. After we talked the conversation ended up that all he wants is to be communicated with about the vision of where we are going. In light of the conversation how would you handle this feedback. I would really love to hear your thoughts.
I just wanted to add a thought to this conversation. Remember, that we need to look at more than programs in evaluating. Our programs might be very good but not be accomplishing the ultimate goals of the Church— drawing Christians into closer, deeper relationships with Jesus so that they might be salt and light to the world and drawing non-Christians to Jesus that they might be saved. We can have amazing worship, lots of small groups, and a variety of other things that we are doing excellently and still be completely missing the point. Yet, we could have struggling programs run by committed followers of Jesus who are loving people and using their gifts in the areas in which they have been called and leading all of their friends and neighbors to the cross.
Certainly God can use poorly done music and teaching to His glory. I have seen it many times. However, that does not mean that we ought to intentionally do things poorly just to see if God will show up. That is close to throwing ourselves off the Temple Mount to tempt God to catch us.
Some of the most powerful, Spirit led congregations I have ever seen are in Singapore. However, they are also the most structured and planned and highly evaluative churches I know One does not deny the other.
Here is a note from a recent Pastor’s Newsletter.
Nearly two months ago the CPBC Leadership prayerfully embarked on a process we are calling “Changes4Growth.” The purpose of this process is to do a thorough assessment and evaluation of everything we are and everything we do. Through a combination of regular and significant prayer by various groups of committed intercessors and some diligent and thorough work by the CPBC Leadership, we are asking and trusting God to lead us in determining:
1. what’s good and should continue and be done even better
2. what’s not good and needs to be improved or discontinued altogether, and
3. how to make life and growth in and through CPBC more Life-giving than ever before.
As I mentioned in last week’s Pastor’s Newsletter, part of Changes4Growth includes seeking consultation from others and learning best practices from them. Yet another aspect of this renovation project has been to conduct Focus Group interviews in the month of October, gleaning feedback from 60-80 members representing 10 core ministries within CPBC. The feedback from these Focus Groups figured in significantly to our Annual Staff Planning Summit two weeks ago.
See, we can be spiritual and deliberate; planned and spontaneous; have ardor and order.
It’s a good thing that Jesus never took a poll regarding crowd satisfaction. It surely would have damaged His Self-esteem and shaken His confidence in what He knew to be Biblical. Jesus sought the Father’s approval and pleasure, not man’s. The American church is far too concerned with pleasing man instead of God. And it has been my experience that few men are satisfied, even if you give them what they ask for.
This is what the Lord Almighty says: “Do not listen to what the prophets are prophesying to you; they fill you with false hopes. They speak visions from their own minds, not from the mouth of the Lord. 17 They keep saying to those who despise me, ‘The Lord says: You will have peace.’ And to all who follow the stubbornness of their hearts they say, ‘No harm will come to you.’ 18 But which of them has stood in the council of the Lord to see or to hear his word? Who has listened and heard his word? 19 See, the storm of the Lord will burst out in wrath, a whirlwind swirling down on the heads of the wicked. 20 The anger of the Lord will not turn back until he fully accomplishes the purposes of his heart. In days to come you will understand it clearly. 21 I did not send these prophets, yet they have run with their message; I did not speak to them, yet they have prophesied. 22 But if they had stood in my council, they would have proclaimed my words to my people and would have turned them from their evil ways and from their evil deeds. 23 “Am I only a God nearby,” declares the Lord, “and not a God far away? 24 Can anyone hide in secret places so that I cannot see him?” declares the Lord. “Do not I fill heaven and earth?” declares the Lord. 25 “I have heard what the prophets say who prophesy lies in my name. They say, ‘I had a dream! I had a dream!’ 26 How long will this continue in the hearts of these lying prophets, who prophesy the delusions of their own minds? 27 They think the dreams they tell one another will make my people forget my name, just as their fathers forgot my name through Baal worship. 28 Let the prophet who has a dream tell his dream, but let the one who has my word speak it faithfully. For what has straw to do with grain?” declares the Lord. 29 “Is not my word like fire,” declares the Lord, “and like a hammer that breaks a rock in pieces? 30 “Therefore,” declares the Lord, “I am against the prophets who steal from one another words supposedly from me. 31 Yes,” declares the Lord, “I am against the prophets who wag their own tongues and yet declare, ‘The Lord declares.’ 32 Indeed, I am against those who prophesy false dreams,” declares the Lord. “They tell them and lead my people astray with their reckless lies, yet I did not send or appoint them. They do not benefit these people in the least,” declares the Lord.
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