I’m at the leadership summit with the team from Revolution Church. This is by far the best leadership conference of the year. This is my 13th summit and every year, God stretches me and challenges me. So much wisdom and inspiration wrapped up into two days. I always blog my notes, so if you can’t attend or missed something, I’ve got you covered.

Horst Schulze is the President of Ritz-Carlton, so he has a lot of wisdom that churches can learn from as it relates to guest services and be excellent.

Here are some takeaways:

• It doesn’t matter what your business is, the guest wants to be happy, you want the guest to return.
• You have to know what segment you are in so you know what that segment wants.
• If you don’t know who your customer is and what they want, you will not be able to reach them and keep them.
• To be successful, you must produce it better than the competition.
• You have to be more efficient and sufficient than the competition.
• No matter what our business is or what our market is, part of what you have to be excellent in is hospitality.
• The guest wants 3 things: that the product is perfect, that you serve them timely and that you care (personal attention).
• Personal attention drives customer satisfaction more than anything else.

• Efficiency and sufficiency doesn’t come from management but from leadership.
• Leadership involves people and implies going somewhere.
• The first day is the most crucial day for a new volunteer or employee in your church.

• Efficiency is not cost cutting. Cost cutting is killing your business and killing your brand.
• Eliminate work that is wasted effort and doesn’t add value.