:: Cre8vE [creative] chaos ::

I Suck.

Kind of.

Today I made my blogging debut on ChurchMarketingSucks.com where I discuss "To Text or Not To Text."

Check it out!

I'm Over Starbucks

That probably sounds like heresy to most of you who know me well. But it's true. I'm over Starbucks. No, I'm not over caffeine, although I did give it up for almost 3 months this summer... I have a responsible relationship with it now.

There was a time in my life when Starbucks was magical. It didn’t come to my hometown until a few years ago, and incidentally I was the first interview and first barista hired.

Starbucks used to have a charm about it, one that didn’t wear off even after working there for over 2 years.

It used to be a place where you could escape to and get lost in (a Third Place)… there was something special about it. But something changed. It got too big. It got too automated. And it got way too impersonal. It lost its charm. I know they are closing up stores and trying to overhaul and reclaim what they lost with their expansion, but honestly… I’m over it.

A little while ago I discovered Peet’s.

Peet’s is predominantly on the West Coast but they have a couple of stores in Chicago. Peet’s is small. It’s often really crowded. It’s a little bit more expensive than Starbucks. It’s not exactly convenient for me to go to, and I actually pass two Starbucks stores on the way to get there… but you know what keeps me going back?

They know my name.

Every time I walk in the baristas say, “Hey Tim!”

They say my name when I walk in, when I order and when my drink is ready.

If they don’t know me, they ask me my name. They wear nametags so I can get to know their name.

If I don’t show up one day, they ask me where I was when I come back.

I’ve even run into some of the baristas around town or on the train and we’re able to call each other by name. 

I’m not “Grande Misto guy”, I’m Tim.

I think they have better quality coffee than Starbucks, but it’s not so much the product that keeps me coming back, it’s the fact that when I go there I’m known.

There’s a lot in that statement.

How often do we get too focused on our "products" and efficiency in process that we forget the most important thing… the customer, who we are supposed to be serving?

I wish Starbucks the best as they re-vamp and try to win back the charm they had before, but from this point forward, I'm a Peet's guy.

What if Starbucks Marketed Like a Church?

This sums it all up. Please take time to watch this critically.

Think through things you do and say at your churches. Think about ways you communicate. Think about ways you market.

Think about how everything you do filters through the lens of a first-time visitor.

A Texting We Will Go...

So we've been using texting at Park for awhile now, but this past Sunday we took it to a new level.

We had been using texting to communicate to our church about special events or services - more of a direct way to communicate than email. But, with the help of Jarbyco, we've gone 2.0!

Our Sunday night 5:30 service has the largest concentration of 20s-early 30s and so we used them as our guinea pigs this weekend to try out texting Q&A.

We kicked off our Urban Jesus series and when our lead pastor got up to start his message he explained how we would be taking questions and that throughout the service people could text in questions they had.

We had the keyword "ask Park" set up and told people to text their question to us and we'd take about 10 minutes after service to answer some of them.

Jarbyco commercial for a sec... they are incredible. They have this super cool text-to-screen feature (you can try it out here), but for this time around, we went the route of having people text us and we had a team that picked out the questions we'd choose to throw on the screen. In addition to that, we are going to set up alert groups for our different volunteer teams and ministries; we're going to use polls and quizzes; and get this... pretty soon people are going to be able to sign up AND PAY for events by texting us! Commercial over. But I will keep you posted as we continue to work with them!

The response from our people was great and we had some good questions texted in. People really liked the idea that they could interact with our pastor and have their questions answered. It helped lower the barrier between the platform and the seats, which is always a huge win.

We are going to keep doing this in our 5:30 services and eventually expand to doing this in all four of weekend services. Pretty exciting... a texting we will go!

Park Gets Another Nod from Church Marketing Sucks

Park got another nod from Church Marketing Sucks today... I don't know if I can take all this hype.

But, the article is great, it's not about us... it's about the Church Marketing Lab, a great innovation from the people at the Center for Church Communications.

The Church Marketing Lab is a Flickr photo sharing group that allows you to share current projects you are working on, get feedback, give feedback, and in the end, do what you do best. People in the Lab are at all different design levels representing different churches, different views, and different ideas of how to not suck.

I've been a part of the lab for over 2 years now and it's been a great experience to get feedback... because honestly, when you go and show what you are working on to others, they might not really understand what good design looks like, or what communicates effectively. In the Lab, there's people who get it, who will challenge you and who will help you become better at what you do.

If you are a communications person, do design for churches... whether you are expert or a novice... I recommend you check out the Church Marketing Lab and submit the projects you are working on!

This particular article on Church Marketing Sucks talked about the evolution of our logo, and honestly, we wouldn't have had the final result without the help of the Lab!