Boscobel is in the midst of a visitor survey organized for us (at a price) by Marist College. It is north of us, in Poughkeepsie, and one of our trustees teaches there. it is the first time I have been able to conduct a professional visitor survey and I am very pleased with how it is going. Rather than make it an extensive demographic inquiry, we focus on the quality of the visiting experience. The two prime questions I have are: why did you come here; how did you hear about us?
The bulk of the questions were generated in-house but the folks at Marist helped finess the format, and, keep it relatively brief! They are well-known for their political polling. To help make it as "neutral" as possible, the survey is conducted by volunteers. Every 5th visitor is asked when they arrive at the admission desk if they would take the survey when they are about to leave. Most agree. The questionaire is on two iPads...which work most of the time. There is a hard copy option for those preferring that. We also distribute business cards with the address to go to to do it on-line. You can visit this and see what we have:
Boscobel's Visitor Survey
We started last year and are continuing it this year. So far we have about 300 responses. We in do it on weekdays as well as weekends. The scope of the project depends on volunteer availability.
Regards,
Steve.
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Steven Miller
Executive Director
Boscobel House and Gardens
Garrison NY
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Original Message:
Sent: 04-14-2017 09:50 AM
From: Margit Hotchkiss
Subject: Collecting information about visitor interests
Hi Christine!
Hope it's going well since our last chat. I can't recall if I outlined what visitor info we collect... but here's the gamut:
- small survey kiosk (run on an old computer); offers "choose your gift" - 3 popular offerings from the gift shop; name drawn randomly 1x/month; we ask basic demographics, marketing questions, and visit-related questions. We get approx 2% participation.
- comment cards also used; some visitors prefer those, smaller percentage collected, but great info and commentary
- social media: we observe/collect/share feedback from our various channels; not really formal or structured, but useful
We would also like to get some surveys going to our e-news subscribers and members; just a matter of finding time slots to prepare/execute/analyze. Would love to hear about others success in this area.
All the best,
Margit
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Margit Hotchkiss
Deputy Director of Audience and Business Development
Norman Rockwell Museum
Stockbridge MA
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Original Message:
Sent: 04-13-2017 05:16 PM
From: Christine Triantos
Subject: Collecting information about visitor interests
Hello, everyone! I have found this forum this to be such a valuable resource, but this is my first posting.
We are interested in collecting more information from our visitors about their specific art and program interests (from Pennsylvania Impressionism to jazz music to photography and beyond). The goal of this effort is to build programs and special events with community interests in mind. I'd welcome recommendations about tools to accomplish this data collection smoothly and efficiently. We have or are planning the following:
- a kiosk survey in our lobby
- an online survey that we will invite our e-newsletter subscribers to complete
- a simple printed card that we will offer to visitors in the hope they will share their general impressions, emails, and interests (checked boxes) before leaving
Currently our front desk staff collects only zip codes. Because of time and lack of technology, I'm not sure they are able to collect more than that.
Are there any other tools/approaches you have found to be successful? Do you have any lessons learned?
Thanks in advance for any input!
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Christine Hensel Triantos
Associate Director of Marketing and Communications
James A. Michener Art Museum
Doylestown PA
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