Hi Lauren,
I am the visitor experience manager for the Swaner Preserve and EcoCenter here in Park City, UT. We are also a free nature center and we collect data from every guest. We use a quick qualtrics survey at the front desk with a few questions that help us with grant writing and marketing.
We don't ask for names or email addresses in this survey because we have found that people have no problem giving you their zip code and how they heard about you, it's sharing contact info that they are weary of. We keep a separate signup sheet at the desk for our mailing list. For guest tracking, we find that the most valuable information for us is where people are coming from (zip code), how many are in their party (kids and adults), and how they heard about us (we give them a multiple choice option for this).
Most at of the time, our front desk staff will fill out the survey for people by just asking them questions when they come in. We have a sign at the door that asks people to "Please check in at the front desk".
Collecting this data and knowing that we are getting it from almost every guest has been a game changer for us. It helps hugely with grant writing and also in where, when, and how, to market our programming and exhibits.
I would be happy to share our questions/survey with you if you are interested.
-Hunter
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Hunter Klingensmith
Visitor Experience coordinator
Swaner Preserve and EcoCenter
Park City UT
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Original Message:
Sent: 07-26-2019 09:37 AM
From: Lauren Gilbert
Subject: collecting visitor data/contact info
Hello. Our museum has free admission, and has generally not collected any visitor data for those coming to see exhibits. (We scan ID for researchers to the library/archives, but we do not use that info for marketing purposes.) Program registration is all online, so anyone who attends a program has shared their email, but this doesn't cover walk-in museum visitors. Recently Visitor Services has begun asking people to sign a clipboard with their name and email address, so that they can be added to our mailing list, but not requiring them to provide their email if they prefer not to, of course. How have other free institutions handled data collection and/or email gathering? Do you have a sign-in process? Is there any software you use for this purpose?
Thanks,
Lauren Gilbert
Senior Manager for Public Services
Center for Jewish History
15 West 16th Street
New York, New York 10011
212.294.8301 x1049