Churches gain insight to their services with mystery worshipper program

Ever wanted to get paid to go to church? That's exactly what church research firm Faith Perceptions has been doing at more than 115 churches over the past three years.

Modeled after mystery shopper programs used by retailers and restaurants for years, Faith Perceptions, based in Cape Girardeau, has created a mystery worshipper program to provide data to churches about what first-time visitors really think.

When businesses lose market share, they use mystery shoppers to better understand their customers' experience. When a church is struggling to grow, Faith Perceptions sends mystery worshippers to better understand the Sunday morning experience.

Hendrickson Business Advisors had already been doing mystery shopping for businesses and doctors offices when Melanie Smollen approached her boss, Jennifer Hendrickson, about providing a mystery guest program for churches. Hendrickson was skeptical, saying they worked with businesses, not churches.

After talking the concept over with her own pastor, Hendrickson agreed to give it a try. Since 2008 Faith Perceptions has worked with churches in more than five states and evaluated more than 1,000 worship services.

"We wanted to provide value to churches. As my pastor said to me, ‘We know why people come here and stay. What we don't know is why they leave and they don't come back,'" said Smollen, who is project manager for Faith Perceptions.

Faith Perceptions doesn't evaluate theology, it measures hospitality.

"Every church thinks it's friendly. What we discovered is yes, we're friendly to each other, to people we already know. We discovered we could do a lot better job with folks we don't know," said the Rev. Jeff Long, senior pastor at Centenary United Methodist Church in Cape Girardeau. His church was the first to use the Faith Perceptions mystery guest program.

"It's really valuable information," Long said. "People coming for a while accept the culture, they know how things are, but you don't know how newcomers feel."

Many times, mystery worshippers report they felt like they showed up to a private party they weren't invited to, Smollen said.

Mystery guests fill out online surveys to evaluate the church's signage, the music, the message, how they were greeted and how their children were treated.

They provide a numerical ranking and also written feedback from their experience.

Faith Perceptions has more than 1,400 mystery guests in its database and recruits new potential worshippers through online and newspaper advertisements, Smollen said.

Churches may purchase packages with 12 to 52 mystery visits and receive lengthy reports every 12 visits detailing what guests thought.

"It's not a direction I saw coming, but it's really rewarding to use business tools to solve church problems," Hendrickson said.

She is quick to point out, however, that her company simply provides data to churches and does not advise them. That's left to church coaches and consultants, she said.

Staff and congregation surveys and market research are two other services Faith Perceptions provides.

The company also produces an annual index, like a Dow Jones industrial average for churches, Hendrickson said.

"Churches can use this to benchmark themselves against another church of like size, or a consolidated whole," she said.

mmiller@semissourian.com

388-3646

Pertinent address:

1729 William St., Cape Girardeau, MO