Your
Visitors are Trying to Tell You Something...
Are You Listening?
The greatest
compliment that was ever paid me was when someone asked me what
I thought, and attended to my answer.
- Henry David Thoreau
The soda machine saga
I once worked at a museum where the main exhibit hall was the
size of two football fields. The space wasn't air conditioned
and during the summer months visitors emerged from it flushed
and perspiring, longing for cold drinks and a cool place to rest.
When they learned that their only refreshment options were a
child-height water bubbler in the lobby or a soda machine located
two football fields away -- in a corner of the inferno they had
just escaped from -- many of them didn't take the news too well.
I don't know how many summers the vending
machine had been in that location or how many thousands of people
had asked about refreshments over the years. But like clockwork,
by the middle of every July the museum had received enough questions
and complaints to launch its annual summer offensive: a small
hand-lettered sign slapped up near the building's entrance announcing
the lack of air conditioning or a cafe.
Hardly anyone ever noticed the sign,
of course, so the cold drink frustrations continued. And every
year as the summer wore on visitors grew thirstier, front line
personnel grew crankier and weekly staff meetings took on lots
of eye rolling about the public being "too dumb to read
and too stupid to know it's summer."
And through it all, nobody ever thought
of moving the soda machine or adding another one.
Someday
Like many financially strapped
institutions, this one bemoaned the lack of available funds to
conduct "real" market research -- all the while ignoring
the treasure trove of information passing through its midst every
day. Instead of listening, watching and acting on that information,
everything was deferred until "someday" -- someday
when a hefty grant would appear, someday when there would be
enough money to hire a consultant, someday when there would be
sufficient resources to conduct focus groups and design the perfect
questionnaire. In the meantime, research -- and the solution
to the soda machine problem -- would just have to wait.
Sound familiar?
If your organization is caught in the
someday trap -- or if you're putting all your effort into a once-a-year
survey and not listening to your visitors in between -- you're missing out on opportunities to gather
important marketing information every day. Your visitors are
constantly trying to tell you something. It's time to start listening.
Listen to your staff
Wal-Mart founder Sam Walton put it this
way: "The folks on the front lines -- the ones who
actually talk to the customer -- are the only ones who really
know what's going on out there. You'd better find out what they
know."
The questions and comments your front
liners receive from visitors all the time -- the things they've
heard so often that they can recite them in their sleep -- are
some of the most important marketing gauges you'll ever have.
They can tell you:
- What impresses people most about your
institution
- What they wish you had more of
- What services you're not providing
that you should be
- What you think you're doing right that,
in reality, isn't working and needs to be changed
The problem, however, is that staff
members who are in daily contact with visitors are usually the
very people left out of the marketing communication loop. Nobody
ever asks them what they know. Or worse, no one listens to their
answers. No wonder they get cranky.
Talk to your staff. Find out what they perceive to be your
institution's strengths and weaknesses. Find out what visitors
ask them for that frustrates them the most. Find out which policies
and procedures are too inflexible, tying their hands and preventing
them from satisfying visitor wants and needs. Find out if they
feel there's adequate communication between departments, if they
feel they receive mixed messages about their responsibilities
or the amount of initiative they're allowed to take, and if they
think they get enough information, training and support. And
ask them what the soda machine saga equivalent is at your museum.
I guarantee you that they know.
Listen to your visitors
Listening and responding appropriately
have become such rare occurrences these days that a study conducted
by TARP, a Virginia-based research firm, found that 96
percent of unhappy customers don't even bother trying to complain
to the offending organization. Instead, they tell 10 to 14 other
people about their bad experience. And the story of that experience
can continue to circulate for as long as 23.5 years!
It's clear, then, that you need to make it as easy and comfortable
as possible for visitors to speak their minds directly to you.
That can only happen, though, if they're
given ample opportunity to make requests, offer praise or get
something off their chests -- and if they believe they're
really being listened to when they do.
Comment cards
Comment cards -- and the way you respond to the feedback they
generate -- can be one means for accomplishing this. But
only if you avoid the common mistake of trying to turn those
cards into a visitor satisfaction survey. Instead, use them as
a listening device.
Why? Think about the times you yourself
have filled out a comment card at a restaurant, a store or any
other establishment. If you're like most of us, you've probably
only done it when you felt an urgent need to be heard.
Maybe you were thrilled with the excellent service you received.
Perhaps you were highly dissatisfied with the experience. Maybe
you had a brilliant suggestion to offer.
Whatever the case, you had a point to
make and you wanted to make it. And chances are that at that
moment you didn't give a hoot about little check boxes asking
you to rate restroom cleanliness on a scale of one to five. You
had something to say. And you wanted more space than those
few little "additional comments" lines squeezed in
at the bottom in which to say it.
Well-designed comment cards can be a valuable listening tool.
If you're not already providing them to your visitors on a regular
basis, or if the cards you currently use do nothing but gather
dust on a shelf once they're returned, visit Kenesis-cem.com.
They offer some excellent tips on comment card design and response
management.
Phone Calls
Want instant marketing insights? Pay attention to the kinds
of questions people ask when they call your institution. What
kinds of information do they request most often? What are they
asking about now that they didn't ask about last year?
Phone calls contain a gold mine of marketing information and
possibilities, yet they're a resource that's almost always overlooked.
Have your receptionist keep a record of the types and frequency
of questions being asked, then periodically circulate that report
among your staff. Knowing what callers are actually asking for
is an important key to understanding where your museum is hitting
-- and missing -- the marketing bullseye.
See (and listen) for yourself
Watching what happens when visitors come into personal contact
with your organization can be an eye-opening experience. And
it's one that needs to be repeated often. But
how long has it been since you've actually played the role of
visitor, calling for information or spending at least half of
a typical day out on your own front lines? Be honest now. For
most of us, it's probably been longer than we care to admit.
Some things to be on the lookout for:
How are visitors greeted? Are they met with an enthusiastic
"Welcome!" -- or with an awkward stare or a suspicious-sounding
"May I help you?" Do all staff members, regardless
of department, make eye contact and smile when they encounter
a visitor? Do they take the initiative to offer help if someone
looks lost or confused? Or do they hurry about their own business,
head down, trying to look invisible?
Who's visiting your museum? Families,
groups, couples, singles, older adults? Is the mix the same or
different than it was a few months ago?
How's the traffic flow? How long are the lines? Are the policies
and procedures you've established to facilitate these things
actually working? Are they enhancing the visitor experience or
impeding it?
Are visitors picking up the handouts
you provide? Reading the signs? Do they look confused as to which
direction to travel in next? Do they appear weary and in need
of a place to sit? Do visitors of different ages and types react
differently, or are there noticeable commonalties from
segment to segment?
What are visitors saying -- to you and to each other?
And what are they not saying? What kinds of questions
are they asking? What are they looking for that they can't find?
Are they making any new comments or requests that you haven't
often heard before?
Experiencing your own institution from
the visitor's point of view can tell you just as much or more
than technology, focus groups or questionnaires ever can. And
all that's required to gather this valuable information is getting
out there and really paying attention.
Putting it all together
Finally, as important as listening and observing are, they
mean nothing if you don't act on what you learn. Here are some
tips for doing that more effectively:
- Don't keep the information a secret. Share it with your staff,
your volunteers and your board. Do it every chance you get --
at regular meetings, through memos and in-house newsletters and
in casual conversation. It's important for everyone to be aware
of current visitor concerns. Besides, you never know who might
come up with exactly the solution you've been searching for.
- Whenever you make changes in response to the information
you've gathered, be certain that everyone in your organization
knows about them before they're implemented, not after.
Buy-in and acceptance are much easier to achieve when people
know why things are being done and what part they'll be expected
to play.
- Allow staff members to take a major role in creating the
changes that will impact their departments. They're the ones
closest to the situation and the ones who'll have to live with
the results every day. Don't be afraid to let them participate.
Chances are they've already given a lot more thought to workable
solutions than you think they have.
- Assume the best. Contrary to what we sometimes believe, most
visitors are not out to take undue advantage of us. And most
employees can be trusted to make the right decisions. Despite
the way it sometimes appears, your staff wants to help
ensure a positive visitor experience. They want to know
they're playing an important role. And they want you to realize
it too.
Copyright © 2002 Katherine Khalife
All rights reserved.
For reprint permission, please e-mail kkhalife@museummarketingtips.com
Katherine Khalife is a freelance writer and
publisher of the MuseumMarketingTips.com website, used every
month by thousands of cultural institutions and other nonprofits
seeking practical tips to improve their marketing and customer
service. Her marketing and customer service articles have also
appeared in History News, Museum Store, Vijesti, Product News
and Management Insight, on a number of websites,
and in association and convention and visitors bureau publications
worldwide.
