What if the best way to market an exhibition — wasn't marketing?

What do we need to do better to help visitors find us in the first place? When they do, how do we engage them? When visitors arrive at our institutions, do they know where to go? What happens to the visitor's experience when we haven't thought enough about the restrooms, the stairs, or the endless line to get something to eat? Why do cultural institutions struggle with following up with visitors after they visit?

Visitor experience expert Samir Bitar (The Art of Consulting) joins host Jonathan Alger (C&G Partners) to discuss The Visitor Engagement Lifecycle. Along the way: empathy training, why our technology ideas might not be what our visitors want, and how every project could use a visitors' advocate. (And the answer to that question about marketing.)

Talking Points:

Five main phases occur, spread along a journey before, during and after a visit.
 
For a visual, think of these phases arranged along a circle, not a straight line. 
 
Phase 5 leads back to Phase 1, in a continuous cycle.

Pre-Visit:

1. Discover: Visitor is gathering information.

2. Engage: Visitor is actively planning a visit, getting tickets, calling ahead.

During Visit:

3. Arrive: Visitor arrives on site, looking for orientation and direction.

4. Experience: Visitor does the experience, uses amenities, makes purchases.

Post-Visit:

5. Followup: Visitor signs up for emails, gives feedback, becomes a member.

Phase 5 now leads back to Phase 1.

Guest Bio:
 

Samir Bitar is a customer experience advisor, lecturer, and keynote speaker who helps organizations focus on the experiences of the people they serve. As the inaugural Director of Visitor Experience for the Smithsonian Institution he led a revitalization of the visitor experience across galleries, museums, and a zoo. In doing so, he helped transform an organization’s relationship with its visitors. During his tenure, Samir pioneered the use of visitor journey mapping in museum planning and design, published a watershed study of visitors' museum experience, and produced the award-winning Hirshhorn Eye mobile app. In 2018, Samir stepped down from his position to open the National Veterans Memorial and Museum, and in 2019, founded The Art of Consulting. Through his firm, Samir works with organizations to embed new capacities that lead to a customer experience transformation.

About:

Making the Museum is hosted (podcast) and written (newsletter) by Jonathan Alger. 

This podcast is a project of C&G Partners | Design for Culture. Learn about the firm's creative work at:
http://www.cgpartnersllc.com

Show Links:

Samir’s Website:
http://theartofconsulting.org

Samir’s Email:

[email protected]

Show Contact:

https://www.makingthemuseum.com/contact

https://www.linkedin.com/in/jonathanalger

[email protected]

https://www.cgpartnersllc.com

Newsletter:

Like the episode? Subscribe to the newsletter! (It’s the best way to know when a new podcast episode goes live.) Making the Museum is also a very short daily newsletter on exhibition planning for museum leaders, exhibition teams and visitor experience professionals. Subscribe here:
www.makingthemuseum.com