Contact: Jennifer S. Hendrickson, Hendrickson Business Advisors, 573-335-1885, 573-986-9122

CAPE GIRARDEAU, Mo., June 21 /Christian Newswire/ -- Hendrickson Business Advisors has been working with church pastors and leaders since 2008 to improve the first-time visitor experience in churches. Now the firm is unveiling the Faith Perceptions Church Index for benchmarking results.

Hendrickson Business Advisors designed the Faith Perceptions program for churches based on the consulting firm's mystery shopping program for businesses. It sends in "undercover" mystery guests each Sunday. Jennifer Hendrickson, president of Hendrickson Business Advisors said: "When a business is losing market share, we use mystery shoppers to better understand the customer experience. When a church or denomination is struggling to grow its congregation, we send in mystery guests to better understand the Sunday morning experience."

Over 40 churches have used Faith Perceptions to better understand what a first time visitor thinks and feels when they attend a church service. There are fifteen measurement criteria that are evaluated on each visit and over 400 visits have been made. Now that a sufficient number of churches have participated, Faith Perceptions is debuting its Consolidated Index that aggregates all the data that have been compiled to date. This Index has also been segmented by congregation size so that each church can compare itself against a peer group.

Faith Perceptions is administered through the Faith Perceptions website. Nearly 1,000 individuals have registered to make undercover visits. Faith Perceptions generally uses "unchurched" applicants that do not attend church on a regular basis thus ensuring an unbiased opinion.

Hendrickson Business Advisors is a management and marketing consulting firm based in Cape Girardeau, Missouri. They work with businesses and churches throughout the United States.