Open Forum

One of the greatest potential losses for any museum is not being able to capture contact information from first-time visitors. Unattended kiosks rarely do the trick.  And it's a bit cumbersome at the point of sale.  Has anyone come up with a good motivation or incentive to encourage people to sign up and to trust that the Museum really won't share their information.  

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George Wachtel
President
Audience Research & Analysis
New York NY
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Yes. We are working with Newport Mansions in RI to set this up using multimedia tour guides on Apple and Android apps. Our software platform allows to create your own private label apps without any programming or upfront costs. The apps require people to login with Facebook Profile or Email login. In turn, they capture name, email, age, gender and location. We also offer analytic tools for data mining. You have to offer "terms of service and privacy" link on the login page that talks about keeping the data private. We do not have exact numbers yet as we have just started testing this. (In-fact, we are looking for 5 more beta sites beyond Newport Mansions if anyone is interested. www.actionshowapp.com.)

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Snehal Shah
Action Data Systems, LLC
Barrington RI
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Original Message:
Sent: 04-20-2015 05:31 PM
From: George Wachtel
Subject: Capturing Contact Info from First-time Visitors

One of the greatest potential losses for any museum is not being able to capture contact information from first-time visitors. Unattended kiosks rarely do the trick.  And it's a bit cumbersome at the point of sale.  Has anyone come up with a good motivation or incentive to encourage people to sign up and to trust that the Museum really won't share their information.  

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George Wachtel
President
Audience Research & Analysis
New York NY
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I'm really curious as to how people handle this...

Though I will have to confess that I am one of those people that avoids giving person identifying information at any cost to any retail or point of sale. I do things like give my UK postcode (which most American systems don't understand) or a fake phone number, or just a fake address (usually my UK address with an American postcode) too. Anything that doesn't require my actual billing address, I give a fake address and fake e-mail (well, a real email, but an email that I've designated to receive the stuff I don't want to receive but can't get out of without giving an email).

I understand why companies do this, and you're absolutely right that it is a super critical part of doing visitor monitoring and planning, but perhaps this is a sign of my generation- I already get so much email and so much direct mail (so, so much direct mail...) and the options to unsubscribe or get unhooked from these things is just painful. Plus, I don't fully trust the "we don't sell your data" disclosures. 

 The companies I've given my personal data to have made it a values proposition. For example, I'm a member of the REI co-op, because in exchange for the membership fee and my data, they give you back things like a dividend, receipt-less returns, purchasing history (important if you bought that tent 4 years ago and you need to buy a replacement pole), discounts, etc. When a store or other company just asks for my data, all I think is "All I'm going to get is more spam and offers for things I don't want or don't have time to read and calls to donate money." And that...that's a hard sell. 

 

-Tracey 

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Tracey Berg-Fulton
Collections Database Associate
Carnegie Museum of Art
Pittsburgh PA
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Original Message:
Sent: 04-20-2015 05:31 PM
From: George Wachtel
Subject: Capturing Contact Info from First-time Visitors

One of the greatest potential losses for any museum is not being able to capture contact information from first-time visitors. Unattended kiosks rarely do the trick.  And it's a bit cumbersome at the point of sale.  Has anyone come up with a good motivation or incentive to encourage people to sign up and to trust that the Museum really won't share their information.  

------------------------------
George Wachtel
President
Audience Research & Analysis
New York NY
------------------------------

Original Message------

One of the greatest potential losses for any museum is not being able to capture contact information from first-time visitors. Unattended kiosks rarely do the trick.  And it's a bit cumbersome at the point of sale.  Has anyone come up with a good motivation or incentive to encourage people to sign up and to trust that the Museum really won't share their information.  

------------------------------
George Wachtel
President
Audience Research & Analysis
New York NY
------------------------------

On another related topic, I am interested in the idea of a photo booth. We are thinking of having one as part of an upcoming exhibition where we use a backgound image of one of the paintings in the exhibit that people can take selfies in front of.  I would love to hear if others do something similar and how it works.

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Sharon Steckline
Head of Rergistration
Asian Art Museum of San Francisco
San Francisco CA
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Original Message:
Sent: 04-21-2015 03:53 PM
From: Barbara Palley
Subject: Capturing Contact Info from First-time Visitors

Hi George,

I recently visited the Children's Museum of Manhattan that had a fun interactive in their exhibit on Japan, that was in essence a thematic photobooth (in the actual exhibit, related to Japanese pop culture exhibit themes). In it, you could have the photos emailed to you. CMOM did not  use this as a way to collect email addresses (to my knowledge), but I imagine that with some disclaimers, one could do it. It was relatively low tech (computer touch screen with web cam, encased in a "booth"). Had a cool program of different Japanese pop motifs, backgrounds, etc. that made it very inviting to take part. Obviously, this won't work for every setting. But I think it's a great example of how to offer an experience or reward (photo with backdrop) that drew visitors into giving their addresses.

I know some museum's collection kiosks (MoMA, US Postal Museum) have an option to send a virtual postcard. I have no idea what the participation rate are, or if they use it to collect addresses, but it is another possible way to draw people to unmanned kiosks.

Finally, is there any research that says people increase their rate of sign-up if they have a choice as to what they are subscribing to and what frequency they want to receive emails? (e.g. choose which of these things you'd like information about in the future: family programs; film; after-hours events; etc. Would you like daily, weekly, or annual emails?). 

Please share back what you learn!

best,

Barbara

--

Barbara Palley
Director of Education

Cool Culture
80 Hanson Place
Brooklyn, NY 11217

718.230.4186 x304
Website // Facebook // Twitter

We've started bringing in a photo booth for some of our special events and visitors really seem to enjoy it. We cover the expense for each visitor to get a strip of photos and they're branded with our logo at the bottom. We also get a CD of all the photos afterwards that we can use later on for promotional purposes. 

Our special events team provides props that are appropriate both for the occasion and our organization (lots of tree puns!) and the vendor brings some generic stuff as well (hats, frames, sunglasses, etc). For our 10K race we laminated some blank posters that visitors could write their own messages on and that went over really well. We could erase them and use them over and over again, plus they were branded with our logo and hashtag at the bottom.

Overall, it's been a great way to inject some fun into our events and we're planning to increase the number of times we bring it out.

Hope that all helps!

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Anna Cosner
Head of Visitor Services
The Morton Arboretum
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Original Message:
Sent: 04-22-2015 12:09 PM
From: Sharon Steckline
Subject: Capturing Contact Info from First-time Visitors

On another related topic, I am interested in the idea of a photo booth. We are thinking of having one as part of an upcoming exhibition where we use a backgound image of one of the paintings in the exhibit that people can take selfies in front of.  I would love to hear if others do something similar and how it works.

------------------------------
Sharon Steckline
Head of Rergistration
Asian Art Museum of San Francisco
San Francisco CA
------------------------------


Original Message:
Sent: 04-21-2015 03:53 PM
From: Barbara Palley
Subject: Capturing Contact Info from First-time Visitors

Hi George,

I recently visited the Children's Museum of Manhattan that had a fun interactive in their exhibit on Japan, that was in essence a thematic photobooth (in the actual exhibit, related to Japanese pop culture exhibit themes). In it, you could have the photos emailed to you. CMOM did not  use this as a way to collect email addresses (to my knowledge), but I imagine that with some disclaimers, one could do it. It was relatively low tech (computer touch screen with web cam, encased in a "booth"). Had a cool program of different Japanese pop motifs, backgrounds, etc. that made it very inviting to take part. Obviously, this won't work for every setting. But I think it's a great example of how to offer an experience or reward (photo with backdrop) that drew visitors into giving their addresses.

I know some museum's collection kiosks (MoMA, US Postal Museum) have an option to send a virtual postcard. I have no idea what the participation rate are, or if they use it to collect addresses, but it is another possible way to draw people to unmanned kiosks.

Finally, is there any research that says people increase their rate of sign-up if they have a choice as to what they are subscribing to and what frequency they want to receive emails? (e.g. choose which of these things you'd like information about in the future: family programs; film; after-hours events; etc. Would you like daily, weekly, or annual emails?). 

Please share back what you learn!

best,

Barbara

--

Barbara Palley
Director of Education

Cool Culture
80 Hanson Place
Brooklyn, NY 11217

718.230.4186 x304
Website // Facebook // Twitter

We use a 2D bar code scanner to capture name, address, city, state and zip off your driver's license. 26 states issue driver license's with 2D bar codes which encapsulates all the information that appears on the front of your driver's license. Both Honeywell & Motorola have 2D scanners that come with programmable software that allow you to choose the data you want, i.e. name & address not weight or height...THANK GOODNESS! I hope this helps :) ------------------------------ Tim Simons BDM POS Highway Chesapeake VA ------------------------------
Original Message: Sent: 04-20-2015 05:31 PM From: George Wachtel Subject: Capturing Contact Info from First-time Visitors One of the greatest potential losses for any museum is not being able to capture contact information from first-time visitors. Unattended kiosks rarely do the trick. And it's a bit cumbersome at the point of sale. Has anyone come up with a good motivation or incentive to encourage people to sign up and to trust that the Museum really won't share their information. ------------------------------ George Wachtel President Audience Research & Analysis New York NY ------------------------------

Late in on this discussion, but looking for some concrete suggestion regarding capturing contact info. We recently took part in an evening with other museums in our area offering free admission. While every visitor had to check in to get a "ticket" it was too cumbersome for our VS staff to ask for email et al given the volume of people attending.  Any ideas for how we could have attempted to capture contact info for those willing to give it? Thinking about having staff with iPads available speaking with visitors next year. 

Thanks,

Alice

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Alice Rubin
Director of Special Projects 
Museum of Jewish Heritage
New York NY
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Original Message:
Sent: 04-20-2015 05:31 PM
From: George Wachtel
Subject: Capturing Contact Info from First-time Visitors

One of the greatest potential losses for any museum is not being able to capture contact information from first-time visitors. Unattended kiosks rarely do the trick.  And it's a bit cumbersome at the point of sale.  Has anyone come up with a good motivation or incentive to encourage people to sign up and to trust that the Museum really won't share their information.  

------------------------------
George Wachtel
President
Audience Research & Analysis
New York NY
------------------------------