I just received a feedback survey from the moving company I used. The form included great simple questions covering all aspects of our relationship. While reading the form I had a thought – why not include a feedback survey along with a postage paid envelope to all your first, second and third time visitors?

Please let me share with you a little truth. The feedback you receive in person at your Guest Center is false. The feedback you receive in the lobby as you are shaking hands is false. This is NOT my opinion as this truth is well documented. It also makes sense. People will NOT be honest to your face yet will be honest over the phone and via the mail or internet. Of course, because feeding our ego is far more important than effective growth many church leaders take the feedback a person gives and shares it in staff meetings as a testimony. Funny, the person who was visiting does not seem to be around these days so that “testimony” may not have been the real truth. Yet this continues and continues!

Let’s chase a squirrel here! Because my primary background is TV I laugh out loud when a TV minister comes back with a testimony saying that he/she met some person who recognized them and declared “I watch you all the time”. I am sure occasionally that statement is true yet a very high percentage of the time it is a lie! It is not that the person is bad. It is how people react to television celebrities (yes a TV minister to the public is perceived as a celebrity). If the TV show is on regularly than just by the law of averages the “talent” or pastor was seen by everyone at least once. Now when they run into David Letterman, or Jay Leno, or Joyce Meyer, or Rod Parsley – even if they have not watched their show in years they will say that they are regular viewers. For your low-end TV ministry who is in a smaller market (and does not develop a strategy or give resources to help the show grow) one only has to look at the ratings to see this “in the flesh” feedback is not correct. If everyone says they watch you all the time why are you only getting 5-10 calls? Hmmmm? And your ratings say that less than 200 people watched (many of those are members of your church) so how can everyone be watching?

So why not ask your viewers to send in an email or go to the internet to fill out a form to get some real honest feedback? So why not send a nicely crafted feedback form along with a visitor letter?

The ONLY reason you won’t do it is because you are scared of the truth. Finding out what the community honestly thinks of your organization may cause you to breakdown the unhealthy paradigms you have created. Again, is being in control more important than allowing God to work through honest feedback so your organization can make a difference in people’s lives? A real difference?

Read the post before this and click on both the links. The Lost Soul one is still rocking my world!

This entry was posted on Saturday, July 19th, 2008 at 4:24 pm and is filed under My Big Mouth. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.