Today, in my second post in the Ministry Metrics series, we’ll take a look at Front Door Metrics. These metrics measure how well you’re doing in getting new guests to come to your church.

Assuming you want your church to grow, this is the first place to have a specific plan in order to start measure its effectiveness.

 

Front-Door Metrics:

Website Hits –

More often than not, people go to your website first to decide whether or not to visit your church. The more people visit your website, the better chance you have in new people visiting.

Measure how many NEW visitors are viewing your website and track the pages visited. Most churches have an ‘I’m New Here’ and/or an ‘About Us’ page, for example – but if a high percentage are visiting the kids ministry pages, you’ll want to make sure you have a dynamic kids ministry.

Parking –

% Open Visitor Spaces –

Make sure you have adequate visitor parking for those you hope to come. Have someone watch this area and track the # of empty spots available 15 minutes prior to start of the service. And again at service start.

Yes, they could park somewhere else assuming there’s other space available, but nothing is more welcoming than visitor parking near the entrance with welcoming and helpful people nearby.

One thing obviously to consider is directing people to these spots. (Clearly marked directional signs, people available, maybe even have them turn on their flashers so your team knows they are first time guests).

In conjunction with above, track % Open Spaces in all other areas.

15 minutes prior and at service start. Not all visitors will park in the designated area, or they will move to other parking areas on or after the 2nd visit. Not to mention, if regular attenders can’t find a spot, you may lose them or they’ll attend less.

Also, ask your Parking Team what they are seeing.

1st Time Guests –

Now that they’ve visited your website and made the decision to come, track how many 1st time guests you are having. These are captured from connect cards, visitor cards, etc. and obviously depend on them filling out the card. Encourage them to fill out to receive a gift or something.

You can glean a lot of info from the connect cards. Age of family members for example. What age group(s) are you attracting? Do they have kids? How old are they? Something else can do is look for connect cards where the kids were registered in Preschool or Grade School. (Don’t double count them though).

Close the loop on these Front End Processes by employing a Follow Up Process.

Send a hand written note, give them a call, send them an email. Go visit with them. Track how long it takes to make 1st contact with your guests. Develop a method to track how many came back for a 2nd visit. (Admit this is harder, but look in New Members Class, Kids Sign-In, Sunday School or Small Group classes for this).

Finally, you need a metric that measures the number of 1st time guests who actually joined AND track the time it took from the 1st visit to the date joined. On average, is it taking a few weeks or a few months?

Look at these Front-End Metrics over time. If you’re not seeing many 1st time guests or 2nd visits, or they are declining – reassess the website, parking, welcome teams and your follow up process for starters.

If you are armed with the facts, then focus on the why and implement solutions.

These are some metrics to apply on the Front End.

Start there.

Then make sure you’re ready when they come.

Click here to read about Metrics for Next Steps.