As much as we love to talk about the systems and structures that have to be in place to make an impact for your guests' first impression, those systems and structures only function if you've built a team - a team made up of real-life people.

I know, this could sound like a "Get-Rich-Quick" scheme from your long-lost cousin in Nigeria. Send him the cost of a morning coffee every day for a year, and you'll get your $18 million inheritance or a financial strategy to "invest the price of a cup of coffee every day into retirement."

However, there's a THIRD way that you can turn your morning coffee into an investment - your time, and more specifically, investing time in your team.

And you've probably realized that it's not just the 5 positions on your first impressions team, that matters to a guest's first impression, but your first impression really depends on EVERYONE who has a hand in what a guest experiences at your church - ushers, kids team, janitor, speakers, production (sound, lighting, video) and many more.

Here are a few ideas that you can invest the time you spend drinking your morning coffee into building relationships and strengthening your first impression this weekend for your guests.

• Make a list of 2-3 things that you noticed this past weekend that you'd like to improve on moving forward. Consider scheduling issues, cleanliness of your facility, information that could be communicated, etc.
• Send a text message to someone on your team. Thank them for serving, commend them for something great that happened this weekend, or follow up if they missed serving because of sickness or family concern.
• Send a text to someone on another team that assisted in creating a great first impression this week. This could be an usher that really welcomed a new family or a kids worker that stopped what they were doing to help clean up a spilled coffee.
• Send an "update" email to your team. Talk about something new that may be coming in the next while, or something that we'll be working on this weekend, or just a general mass 'Thank You'
• Phone a friend. Find someone to talk with for a few minutes who goes to another church and ask them one question about something your team is stuck on. Maybe getting new members, or your scheduling software, or the layout of your parking lot and how that affects a guest's first visit.
• Make a selfie video and post it to your team's Facebook group (side note: if you don't have a facebook group - not a facebook page, but a facebook group - for your first impressions team, now is the time to set one up!). Give a big, public thumbs up by video and let them know what an incredible job they did this past weekend.
• Use your facebook group/mass email to welcome a new team member, or celebrate someone's birthday.
• Send a text to someone who you'd like to invite to join your team.
• Come up with your own idea of how to invest a few minutes during your morning coffee to build your team