More Questions, Thoughts on Museums and Customer Service

By now, you have heard it a few times.  In our research of over 30,000 Core Visitors to museums only one in ten think the staff really cares about them.  

 

Last week we hosted a Museum Conversation on customer service to delve into why customer service is important, and what we can do to better serve visitors to museums.  We were joined by two fantastic panelists:  Cindy Solomon, a customer service guru with Solomon and Associates, and Paul Orselli, Chief Instigator at POW!

 

(During the call, Cindy offered to share with listeners her myths on customer service, as well as additional questions.  Unfortunately, her spam blocker appears to have automatically deleted a handful of these e-mails.  If you did e-mail her, please try again as she does not want to be unresponsive!  Want a copy of her myths?  E-mail Cindy at cindy (at) cindysolomon (dot) com.)

 

We fielded a ton of questions on the call, and there were many excellent questions we did not get to.  To address them, we are including them below, and over the next few days we will tackle as many of them as we can.  And if you have some thoughts on any of the questions, feel free to click on “comments” at the bottom of this post and share what you do (for those of you reading this via e-mail subscription, please go to our blog at http://reachadvisors.typepad.com to add comments).

 

Staff:

• Please discuss the issue of museums shifting their thinking to consider themselves as service organizations.  How do you characterize the pressures to do this?  How do you see it manifesting?
• What are some recommendations for communicating museum guidelines and "rules" in a service-friendly way? What is an example of a mindset that can be communicated to security officers ... so instead of the job description being "protect the art" what should we communicate to protection officers their responsibility is so that they have that service in the forefront of their mind?
• I'm eager to know if volunteers were considered "staff" in regards to the survey.  Was there a difference in perception when it came to paid staff versus volunteers or did visitors view them both in the same light?
  
  • Response from Susie:  Generally, visitors do not distinguish between paid and unpaid staff when it comes to customer service.  If they are treated rudely by a volunteer, it makes just as much a difference to their experience as if it was a staff member.    
• What advice can you share for getting buy-in from the curatorial side of the museum?  What arguments are effective to explain how the content work of the museum relates to issues of customer service/visitor experience?  Can you share examples of how the frontline staff has enlisted the assistance of curatorial folks? 
• You mentioned on the call measures for evaluating job candidates re: customer service – specifically that some focus on the % of time the candidate smiles.  I once read that Biltmore will only hire guides who smile upon the first introduction. If the candidate does not, the interview politely continues but always ends in “no thanks.”  Any other ideas that you have?

Visitor amenities, perceptions, and motivations:

• How do the panelists assess service and evaluate the visitor/customer experience?  Are there any surprising or particularly powerful lessons that they have learned doing this?
• Can you speak more about the interesting parallel here with enthusiasm/passion and good customer service, and enthusiasm and the perception of authenticity.
• Any suggestions to help average parents enjoy their visit more, especially when their primary motivation is for their kids?  Could be as simple as extra benches for parents to rest, or as complex as trying to get parents more engaged in exhibits and science content.  We talk a lot about reaching adult audiences at ASTC ... I'd like to start with these visitors, who are after all, adults who just happen to be with their kids!
• How do the panelists understand and describe the way that service fits into the question of visitor satisfaction in the museum context?

Learning from others (or, not reinventing the wheel):

• I know that the non-profit world learns a lot from the commercial world re: service and satisfaction.  Is there anything that museums (npo's) can teach the private sector?
• Can the panelists recommend any research/articles on service and visitor satisfaction (their own or other's work)?
• What professional journals do the panelists feel do a good job of reporting on visitor/customer research as it relates to the service/experience industry (travel, attractions, museums, cultural sites, etc.)?
  

If you have any thoughts or questions on customer service, feel free to click on “comments,” below, and add to the conversation!

Comments

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There are a lot of factors why customer service is important not just for business people but for all of us as well. It is like love; it also makes our world go around. That is the reason why every business, organization and company has different tactics and strategies for them to improve their service to their clients. And I'm glad that unlike before, customer service has improved and even small businesses are making efforts on having good service for each of their customers.