Churches

When thinking of customer research, people often ignore who and what a customer truly is. A customer is any person who is willing to give up something of value to another entity in exchange for some good or service. Value may be the key word in this definition because value is a perception and is different to each individual. Many value a church’s services and are willing to give things of value in exchange, such as time, charity, resources, trust, relationships and, perhaps above all, faith! SoonerPoll can help a church determine what their community and/or congregation specifically value and what type of exchange they are expecting in return.

In Fall 2006, SoonerPoll helped Crossings Community Church figure out many unanswered questions. With the scope of both quantitative and qualitative research, SoonerPoll focused on three areas that directly concerned Crossings. First, a blind study was  conducted of the surrounding community’s perceptions of Crossings Community Church in a five-mile radius of the church campus. Second, an intercept congregational survey using stand-alone, on-site kiosks provided a confidential collection of church member  perceptions and attitudes. Finally, a series of qualitative focus groups were utilized to provide further insight within respondents of a community perception study, former Crossings church members and current church members. SoonerPoll values our relationship  with our clients and expects complete trust by insisting on and offering pivotal professional standards through membership of Council for Marketing & Opinion Research (CMOR). This study was completely confidential, exclusively tailored for Crossings and multifaceted, using three different collection methods and tools.

Although, for obvious reasons, we cannot divulge the results, we can share many questions SoonerPoll helped answer. SoonerPoll discovered the perception of Crossings within the community it serves, including factors such as the church’s physical appearance and the church’s religious ministry. SoonerPoll also found barriers that kept potential churchgoers from visiting or developing regular attendance. Attitudes of the congregation toward Christian values and how they are being applied in today’s society was explored as well as how Crossings was doing overall in fulfilling its missions as a church.

In the end, SoonerPoll helped an entity meet its goals, better serve its community and members and, above all, directly meet the needs of members involved. In many ways, the study helped answer questions about the community and the people’s lifestyles and beliefs within this community, helped to answer questions about what church services people value in today’s modern world and helped answer questions about how to conduct its ministry by offering meaningful value!