Apple came through by pushing my unit through some pretty impressive hoops and got my new (replacement to my broken MacBook Pro) MacBook Pro to me the day before I head out to WFX in California! Yes, I’m happy, but this is a great lesson in several things that apply to anyone at any organization.

Here’s the three takeaways for Apple or any organization that wants a loyal clientele:

• Communicate between departments (or ministries)
• Don’t let the “Standard Procedure” get in the way of highly unique situations
• Customer Service (or a hospitality/greeting ministry) matters more than you think

When Apple Care learned of their mistake, they first tried to simply follow standard procedure and told me, in essence, “we’re sorry, we messed up, but there’s nothing we can do about it”. But with persistence, it turns out that, yes, there’s a highly unusual way for them to work between departments, clarify some procedure (and hopefully follow up with some internal training) and make the situation right.

Because departments (or ministries) are filled with people, the standard operating procedure is in place to make the typical stuff flow smoothly. But the atypical stuff needs to be addressed by people, not policy. Making the atypical situation custom requires a bit more effort but, in the end, a raving fan of their can-do attitude and someone that now has a better story to tell my friends than the one of the failure on Apple’s part.

Because a couple of key people took some extra time, I was taken care of and my needs were met. They righted the wrong of their system and have gone above-and-beyond to make things work out right. That is great customer service! In the same way, when someone has an issue at church, giving them pat answers isn’t going to solve anything. Instead, because we’re all about people in church (a great tag line, by the way - kudos to Gateway Church), people help with situations and people (leaders) do our best to right any wrongs.

With social media like Facebook and Twitter becoming common-place, we either can let the negative story be told or a highly positive one that does even more good to our reputation.

Today, everyone has a voice. They will be heard. Do your best to help them tell a great story, not a negative one.

More often than not I try to share freely from my experiences and give you a lot of useful info, links and content. But for this request, I’m asking for a favor from you.

I’m asking for you to help promote my E-Book “The Reason Your Church Must Twitter” to your friends and peers. You can simply share the link “TwitterForChurches.com” and they can download the E-Book there. Best of all, it’s a ministry-friendly price of only $5 (five bucks)!

Blog about it, Tweet it, or even share the Facebook Group.

Thank you for helping me promote this resource!

My friend Susan (better known as the Copyright Queen) wrote a great blog post about U.S. Copyright that I wanted to pass along to churches. I get this question a lot, too, and figured you’d want to know!

One of the most common questions is “I thought churches have an exemption for performance rights. Why do we need a performance license?”

The U.S. Copyright Law actually provides an exemption for churches in one important area: Religious Service Exemption. Exempts performance and display of copyrighted work of a religious nature during religious services.

Remember that copyright owners have five exclusive rights: 1) reproduction 2) display 3) derivative 4) distribution and 5) performance. So, the exemption covers display and performance but ONLY for works of a religious nature in a religious service. This means that performance of non-religious songs during a service are not exempt, and music played or performed outside a religious service requires permission from the copyright owner(s).

Many churches today play or perform music outside the service, and some of the most common examples are:

1. concerts
2. seminars and conferences
3. playing music throughout the church’s facility (in the lobby or narthex before and after services, in books stores or coffee houses and other areas of the church)
4. music-on-hold
5. social events like BBQs, youth gatherings, dinners, etc.
6. dance or aerobics classes

NOTE: some non-profit concerts may also be exempt if 3 criteria area met: 1) no fee is charged (including offerings); 2) the performers, producers or organizers are not paid, and 3) there is no profit motive.

If churches want to legally play or perform non-exempt music, they need to obtain annual facility or special events licenses from ASCAP, BMI and SESAC, the U.S. Performance Rights Organizations (PROs). These three PRO licenses cost about $700/year, plus reporting and possible additional fees throughout the year.