Since mid-March when the Coronavirus crisis was beginning to escalate, the vast majority of museums and cultural organizations were forced to close their doors to visitors. By the end of April, International Council of Museums reported that between 93% and 95% of the world's museums were closed due to the coronavirus.
Now, as “stay at home” orders are being lifted, and countries and states gradually initiate reopenings, many cultural organizations are thinking through how they can ensure the safety of staff and visitors as they begin to welcome guests back.
Before these closures, the typical experience of wandering through a museum was not conducive to social distancing and filled with physical touchpoints from the moment guests entered. From in-person exchanges at the admissions and membership desks, using shared audio guides, headsets, and touchscreen interactives, to getting shoulder to shoulder with fellow patrons to read wall labels or view videos, the “pre-COVID-19” experience is no longer tenable. Moving forward, museums are reconsidering the entire customer experience to support social distancing and discourage the use of shared devices.
One effective way to support social distancing and facilitate a safe reopening at your museum is by adopting a mobile app visitors can use on their own device. Such an app can serve as an all-in-one place to communicate health and safety information, welcome visitors, provide audio and mixed media experiences, and assist in contactless revenue generation.
Read on to learn four ways a mobile app can help enable a safe reopening and assure the safety of your staff and visitors:
Communicating Health & Safety Information
As local and state guidelines continue to change and museums update their policies to comply with such safety regulations, it will be increasingly essential to communicate this fluctuating information with visitors to your museum.
A mobile app can be an enormous asset here – it can be used to provide real-time updates on all social distancing measures being taken by your institution, as well as offer a centralized place to communicate your institution's health and safety guidelines.
Helping your guests understand new policies before and when they arrive on-site will ensure they show up with the proper PPE and have a clear understanding of your new rules, such as requiring visitors to remain 6 feet apart, and limiting the total number of guests in each gallery. By featuring health and safety information in a dedicated space on your app, you can also demonstrate to your visitors that their well-being is top of mind. This will be critical to establishing trust during this unprecedented and challenging time.
Serving as the Official Welcome Guide
Before coronavirus, welcoming guests was essential to providing a high-quality customer experience. Upon entering your museum, guests may have been greeted by admissions and visitors services staff, and given the opportunity to ask questions and get the “lay of the land” at your museum. Now, such close physical interactions between visitors and staff pose heightened risks. That being said, being welcomed into a museum remains important to ensuring a seamless visitor experience.
That’s where a mobile app can come in. Your mobile app can provide a welcome guide on the home page, ensuring your visitors receive important information upon arrival. This welcome guide can offer a museum map, highlight special exhibitions, point the way to facilities and amenities, and more. This welcome guide can also include a video welcome from your director team, as well as direct visitors to hand-sanitizing stations and other new amenities of your space. And this is all without posing risks to visitors and staff!
Providing and Immersive (and Safe!) Audio & Mixed Media Experiences
Before COVID-19 shutdowns, many museums prided themselves on offering an array of interactive experiences to deepen visitor engagement. Top among these were audio tour guides, which often used shared devices and headphones.
Additionally, many museums offered immersive, mixed-media experiences throughout the galleries and exhibition halls. From touch-screen interactives, hands-on activities with artifacts and specimens, to film screening rooms where visitors might sit close together, the old museum experience was dependent on shared devices and close physical interactions.
As museums make efforts to attract visitors back on-site, being able to offer high-caliber and engaging experiences will be more important than ever. That being said, many traditional ways of doing this pose new risks. Indeed, as museums in Europe begin to reopen, many have banned shared audio guides and asked visitors to use their own devices and earphones. Similarly, the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame Museum announced that upon reopening, “all touch screens will be covered, and interactive exhibits, such as one where visitors can play musical instruments, will remain closed.”
That’s where a mobile app comes in! Instead of using an old, shared audio guide, a mobile app will allow visitors to access customized tours and immersive content from their own devices. A mobile app can provide visitors with more variety and autonomy, and allow them to personalize their experience. On a mobile app, you can offer tours of different lengths, catered to different audiences or demographics, or highlighting different objects and artworks. Additionally, a mobile app can include video experiences, special commentary from artists, and more.
A mobile app can be a key tool not only for eliminating the risks associated with shared devices, but also enhancing the visitor experience.
Further Reading: Going Beyond the Traditional Tour: 5 Ways Museums Can Deliver Creative Experiences
A mobile app can be equally useful in reducing interactions among visitors. Before COVID-19, museum patrons may have come close together to read the small print on wall labels or overcrowded popular galleries. With a mobile app, wall label information can be accessed from each visitor’s own mobile device. Additionally, an app can send visitors notifications if they try to approach a gallery that’s already at capacity, ensuring that social distance is maintained.
As museums and cultural institutions plan for reopening, it is more important than ever to rethink the visitor experience and the risks traditional technology poses. A mobile app can be a safe and user-friendly alternative that simultaneously takes the customer experience to a new level!
Enabling “Contactless” Revenue Generation
Prior to coronavirus closures, before visitors left your museum, many may have stopped off at the gift shop, or been so impressed they decided to visit the membership desk to sign-up. Both gift shop sales and on-site membership purchases have previously been vital sources of revenue for cultural organizations. However, like other aspects of the museum experience, both now pose new risks. Gift shops are filled with objects that may be touched or handled by other patrons, and buying a membership would typically involve a close exchange with a member of the staff.
Again, a mobile app can save the day here by providing integrated and contactless revenue generation opportunities. Your mobile app can make it easy for your visitors to become a member, make donations, and purchase items from your gift shop. As museums strategize on how to bounce back financially after COVID-19, every revenue dollar counts!
As organizations reimagine the visitor experience to facilitate social distancing and reduce contact with shared devices, a mobile app can be a key asset. From providing health and safety information, welcoming visitors, providing immersive audio tours, to enabling revenue generation, a mobile app is essential in helping museums and cultural institutions ensure a safe and successful reopening. We are so excited to see the incredible and innovative ways museums transform and enhance the visitor experience on the road to reopening.
Interested in learning more? Schedule a free consultation with Cuseum today.