Case Studies

CASE STUDY

Rebuild the Volunteer and Guest Experience

CLIENT:

Bayside Church is an energetic place for over 10,000 attendees across a family of seven church locations in California. This enthusiastic and strong Bible-teaching church is led by the Founding and Senior Pastor with decades of experience leading as well as investing deeply in other church leaders. Bayside values worship, leadership, and the younger generation. This is evident in their ministry efforts and events.

CHALLENGE:

Coming out of Covid, a good number of volunteers were slow to feel safe when deciding to come back and that number of active volunteers needed to increase. Increase the health and trust with a prominent subset of volunteers that were militant about their roles and resistant to change (more task-oriented versus guest-focused). There was a lack of trust with staff, a leadership deficit on the teams, an ambiguous mission, and a lack of care for each other.

SOLUTION:

There was a concentrated effort to pray for changed hearts. A lot of time and intentional effort was focused on building relationships, listening to each volunteer, showing them meaningful appreciation, and clarifying the mission. One huge priority was to increase the invite numbers for new team members, which included identifying communication channels, and onboarding them onto all the teams. One actionable idea was to keep repeating the message of being guest-focused over and over again involved starting huddle talks before each service.

RESULT:

There is now an engaged and caring relational culture amongst the volunteer teams along with genuine excitement to volunteer. Many see the fun they have with each other, the great attitudes when at church, and how they are taking ownership of their roles while building camaraderie with one another. The joy and laughter they share together are palpable. There is a renewed passion for hospitality and the guest.

CASE STUDY

Coaching Opportunity: Growing an Executive Ministry Leader

CLIENT:

Bethany First Church of the Nazarene is a large church located in the Oklahoma City metropolitan area. They are focused on becoming like Jesus and helping people come to know him. With a staff of 25 and regular attendance of 2,000 people. Jake is one of four executive leaders on staff where he oversees Hospitality, Group Life, Discipleship, and Digital.

CHALLENGE:

He was given a new influential role in the organization where he inherited an old system from a leader who started the department. He had to quickly learn to build relationships and lead himself and all the teams through change. Many of the team members he was leading were much older than him. He was seen as a young leader replacing an older leader and that created generational tension.

SOLUTION:

Hired Jason as a personal leadership coach. We decided to focus only on a few keystone areas of his leadership. First, we concentrated on seeing the picture from a higher perspective while creating a healthy ability to zoom in on the details. Second, we navigated through situations, processes, and relational elements. Third, we clarified vision and created actionable direction. Fourth, we worked through specific live scenarios to build confidence for future situations.

RESULT:

Soon after the coaching experience was complete, Jake was promoted to an executive role. The leadership of the church saw the positive work he put in with his self-leadership and the way he led his teams and rewarded him by inviting him to lead in more areas of the church. His teams continue to grow and find new momentum for an exciting present and future.

CASE STUDY

Build Soft Skills in Team Members to Improve the Guest Experience

CLIENT:

Delta Airlines offers its passengers access to the Delta Sky Club, a dedicated space where guests can work or relax before a flight. While inside any of their 50+ Clubs, a guest can enjoy flight assistance, complimentary cocktails, fresh and healthy food options, free high-speed WIFI, productivity tools, satellite TV, and more.

CHALLENGE:

On average, 9-10% of passengers on a Delta flight visit the Sky Club. This small percentage generates about 25% of the company's revenue, which obviously highlights the importance the Sky Club has on the bottom line. Over time, the Net Promoter Score has dropped to an undesired level, the guest has been harder to understand, and the soft skills of team members need sharpening. On top of these challenges, there is also an opportunity to expand the personal leadership of team leads.

SOLUTION:

Design and implement important elements that enhance the guest experience by growing the soft skills of each team member. This includes a focus on how to understand another person, recognizing and creating memorable moments, being the ideal team player, and how to deliver excellence. In addition, team leads have a need to grow their leadership. This effort includes a focus on emotional intelligence, servant leadership, psychological safety, and how to coach team members.

RESULT:

The beta roll out was a success. The roll out to facilitators was a success. The company-wide roll out for team members and leaders was a success. Ongoing training will continue with team leaders investing in his/her team. New measurements and scores are pending.

CASE STUDY

Develop Young Leaders to Care for Others

CLIENT:

Chick-fil-A is one of the largest American fast food restaurant chains and the largest whose specialty is chicken sandwiches. Its headquarters is in College Park, Georgia. Chick-fil-A was originally founded as the Dwarf Grill in 1946, changing the name to Dwarf House until rebranding as Chick-fil-A in 1967. This specific Chick-fil-A freestanding unit is located adjacent to the Mall of Georgia in Buford, GA.

CHALLENGE:

The Owner/Operator wanted to improve the team member experience by intentionally investing in a select group of young leaders. The team needed to increase their care for each other as well as for the guest. He realized that during the busyness of work, young team members were not being developed as much as he desired.

SOLUTION:

Create a safe place where one-on-one conversations took place with key team members who had leadership abilities to introduce them to leadership concepts and help guide them using an operable framework to increase self-leadership (emotional intelligence) and how to connect well with team members while providing remarkable care to each guest.

RESULT:

The young leader's knowledge base and how to put enact what they now know increased, which then elevated the team member experience of intentional care in the store culture. Team members increased their engagement and this spilled over into how well they showed remarkable care to each guest.

CASE STUDY

Chick-fil-A Learning Experience to Positively Impact Team Members and Guests

CLIENT:

Arch + Tower is a boutique consulting agency that focuses on customer experience, employee experience, and operational excellence. They create custom solutions for their clients that are tailored with the tools and services needed to effectively meet a brand’s needs. They are a part of the Frazier + Deeter family of brands.

CHALLENGE:

Their client was Chick-fil-A operators in three select markets including Phoenix, Arizona, Denver, Colorado, and Orange County, California. They felt the need to create an experience to aggressively invest in their employees. In other words, create a leadership event that helps team members so they can impact the guests.

SOLUTION:

A half-day experience that included entertainment, breakout sessions, and keynote communicators, including myself, that are considered experts in hospitality and leadership. The strategic focus needed to be on entertaining them and investing in their brains, heart, and craft. There was an intentional effort put on application through breakout sessions and take-home tools like my book, The Come Back Effect.

RESULT:

The event was a wild success. Attendance was remarkable and most importantly, the right leaders and learners were in the room. The inspiring experience brought employees together in a way they are often not together due to the presence of guests. They had interactive moments where they shared personal ideas related to the employee and guest experience. Managers and team members appreciated an experience that let them lead up with their supervisor as well as with other team members.

Stay updated with valuable leadership resources:
*No, it is not spam. Yes, it is free.