The Monday Morning Debrief: Do you know what your “Shoppers” want?

This past week I read an interesting article on Yahoo! Finance about Christmas shoppers and deals.  It appears that although the stores are offering a greater percentage off on their products, shoppers aren’t biting.  It seems that although the deals may be better percentage wise, they aren’t on items that shoppers want.  So the shoppers are revolting and holding out for better deals which made me wonder if the stores know what the consumer really wants.  Who cares that there is 50% off of a ZuZu pet when their customers want 50% off an iPod Touch?

Stores need to know what their customers really want.  If they don’t know and understand their customer and what they are looking for, then they probably aren’t going to get the kind of business they desire.

So how does this apply to ministry?

Just as holiday shoppers appear to be revolting against the “deals” the stores are offering, are students in your ministry revolting against what you are offering?  By that I mean, are you offering services and activities to students that aren’t working?  If so, what do you need to do to get them back on board and take you up on what you are offering?

Now, I’m not advocating complete “consumerism” where you “give in” to everything students (and their parents) want.  That is visionless and can be very harmful to your ministry.  However, what I am encouraging is that we listen to our customer (our target, our audience) and find out what they do want and prefer.  T’here is no use having a program filled up with what we view as great things if the students aren’t satisfied.

So right now, as the fall semester is winding down and the Christmas/New Years break is upon us, TAKE A MINUTE and begin to evaluate where you are at in ministry. Whether it is polling some leaders, talking to some students, probing some parents or even creating an evaluation to hand out to all parties involved to see if you are reaching your customer.  Now is the perfect time to make mid-year changes.  So what are you going to do so that instead of frustrating and/or losing customers, you reach more in the winter and spring?

Thoughts? Comments? Questions? Experiences?  Post a comment and let the discussion begin so that we can all benefit from it.