Target vs. Babies-R-Us

I am proud to announce that I’ll become an aunt twice over in April. My sister and sister-in-love (not just law) are both expecting.  I’m not new to the Aunt game. I have two beautiful, smart, funny, almost perfect nephews now. Being an aunt is a lot of fun! I get to say YES to all kinds of fun things. I buy the loud and obnoxious toys.
When they spend the night: we eat chocolate at 9pm, we have no bed time, we set up tents in the living room and camp out, roast marshmallows over candles, you get the picture. Needless to say I’m a little excited about having two new babies in the picture.
I recently made a trip to Babies-R-Us with my mom and sister. I’m a pretty good shopper… but honestly there a big difference in shopping at Target and shopping at Babies-R-Us. Target is for everyone. Upon walking in their doors, I have many choices.
Certainly I can look at baby products and there is a great selection of them here. But if you are like me and can only look at baby bottles, formula, and car seat for so long, you have the option to stroll on over to the shoe department. (It’s the most exciting department in any store!)
So here we are… me, my mom, and my sister standing in the doorway of Babies-R-Us. Honestly I was excites! I mean the entire store is dedicated to people under the age of three years. They have entire sections dedicated to strollers… not just an end cap! So I wandered around, picking out what I thought my sister should have. We were in that store hours, by hours, I mean a whole day people!
There was NO shoe dept to be found. Well, at least not shoes for adults.  I love the idea of shopping at these specialty stores on occasion, but truthfully I have seen enough car seats to last me a lifetime. Not to mention burping clothes. I’m more of a Target shopper… it has everything.
So how does this relate to software or even how does this relate to serving Christ. I came to a couple of realizations while peering at newborn ballet slippers in four different colors.
Babies-R-Us stores exist because there is a need; a need for very, very specific baby things and a lot of that can only be found at a specialty store. Target exists because of a need also, a need for variety and convenience.
When developing ministry solutions for churches we must know what “needs” should be addressed. There are parts of the software that reflect the Target story. It’s for almost everyone; however there are pieces of the software fit the Babies-R-Us story. They are specialty things needed for a smaller subset of users.
This may be due to the size of your church, denomination, or even what part of the world you call home. The tricky part for us is to know your needs. Also to provide both the general and the specialty in a way that’s gets at what you need to accomplish ministry. How do we do this?
We do this by knowing our customers, talking to you about what’s right and what’s wrong with our software. We are building relationships so that we can build software that makes difference for God’s kingdom.