As museums and cultural attractions begin to re-open, or move into the next phases of their reopening plans, many are facing new challenges, managing shifting customer expectations, rethinking the visitor journey, and adapting to a future of contactless experiences. In light of these new circumstances, organizations are seeking out new solutions that can facilitate safe and engaging experiences for visitors and members. What steps can be taken to ensure your guests feel safe and satisfied as they're welcomed back to your museum, post-COVID? What tools and solutions are available to help address new challenges? These questions are top of mind for many.
Join Brendan Ciecko (CEO & Founder @ Cuseum) & Dan Sullivan (Head of Partnerships @ Cuseum) as they discuss the new visitor journey and how the museum experience can be optimized in light of this “new normal.” This webinar will examine ways to reduce physical touchpoints, introduce safe and engaging new service design, and leverage digital tools to ensure a comfortable and positive experience for visitors.
View the full recording or presentation slides here.
Read the full transcript below.
Brendan Ciecko:
Hello everyone. My name is Brendan Ciecko and I'm the founder and CEO of Cuseum. First off, I want to say thank you to everyone who is joining us today. Close to 3000 people have registered for today's conversation. And I look forward to sharing some thoughts about different challenges facing museums and cultural institutions during COVID and the "post COVID era", as well as some solutions, some ways we're thinking about these issues, some practical exercises and more.
And if you're joining us for the first time, welcome. And for those of you who have tuned in to any of our past webinars or think tanks or conversations, welcome back. It's always great to see you. Well back in the middle of March we hosted what was our very first webinar to support an open conversation about the ways museums and cultural institutions were addressing the pandemic, the closures, digital engagement and really all things in between. And at the same time, my colleague Dan. Say hi, Dan.
Dan Sullivan:
Hi, everybody.
Brendan Ciecko:
Dan started to host conversations every Monday specific to the needs of museums and nonprofit professionals working in the areas of membership and development.
Dan Sullivan:
And based on what we were seeing and hearing it became our goal to really keep our ear open to the most pressing and relevant topics and to bring together voices from museums, aquariums, zoos, gardens and all types of cultural organizations to talk about what they're experiencing and then how they're approaching these issues and start to share some best practices.
Brendan Ciecko:
Over the past few months, folks have asked us who we are and what we do. So we figured now would be an appropriate time to more formally introduce ourselves, share a bit of the things we've been hearing and seeing and thinking about and working on. And also our past webinars have been completely focused on talking heads and today we'll be doing something a little bit different.
I myself consider myself to be a visual learner, and according to the Social Science Research Network, over 65% are visual learners. So we're excited to share a visual presentation. Yes, we will have slides today. Yes, you'll have slides to share if interested, we have a presentation for you today.
Dan Sullivan:
I'm also a visual learner so I'm super excited. But without further ado, let's jump on in.
Brendan Ciecko:
Excellent. Well, today we're going to be focusing on reopening museums and cultural institutions, really looking at the digital tools and the digital components that are going into solving some of these problems, addressing some of the challenges and how you might be able to think about these things through what's possible. So I want to start off a little bit about what is informing a lot of what we do over here and the webinars at large.
At any given time between the webinars we've hosted, the conversations with customers and other trusted colleagues in the field, there's about 500 voices that are buzzing around that were looking for guidance and listening to and talking to and bouncing around ideas. So, always our ear is to the ground there. And also everything that we've recently been working on consists of thousands of hours of research.
We put out research fairly frequently. We've recently released some research in conjunction with a neuroscientist at MIT. But even things like that aside, there's thousands of hours of research that has gone into the creation of some of these things, the formation of some of these webinars and conversations. And so we're really dedicated to keeping a close ear and eye on what's happening inside the field and outside of the field.
Dan Sullivan:
I think this is one of the most incredible statements about bringing the community together over the last three or so months since Cuseum began just trying to put as many resources in front of the cultural space as possible to help them so we can all get through this together as a community. We've seen over 70,000 people tuning into our webinars, which has just been absolutely incredible. I know a lot of you are here today, so I just want to say thanks for being here. And hopefully you've been able to gain some great learnings and grow together through this process.
Brendan Ciecko:
Thank you. Other than that, in the back of the office, we've had the great fortune of launching over a hundred museum apps. I know there's a lot of conversation right now about the role mobile and apps will play in the reopening and in the years to come. So that's something that we've been looking at and iterating on since day one at the company.
And this is something that Dan's probably excited to talk about. For me, this is like seeing the sign as you approach a McDonald's that says how many burgers, even though I'm more of a Beyond Meat and Impossible burger type of person myself. Dan, do you want to talk a little bit about what's up there?
Dan Sullivan:
Yeah. I mean, experience is the best teacher. So it's one thing to theorize, but it's another thing to actually start, initiate and launch projects. So whether it's hundreds of apps or as you're looking at here, we're proud to have launched over 2 million digital membership cards through our partners, which is just an incredibly exciting milestone. All of those learnings come through experience.
Brendan Ciecko:
Yeah. And I think that's pre-Coronavirus.
Dan Sullivan:
I think it probably doubled at this point.
Brendan Ciecko:
Yeah. So talking again about who we are and what we've been up to, we've been dedicated to the museum and cultural space since the inception of the company in ways that the name of the company embodies that Cuseum, like museum curiosity curation, and to cue, to guide forward. So we've had the great fortune of being able to serve so many organizations around the globe, large and small ranging from your SFMOMAs on the large side, your White Houses, your Pérez Art Museums and your VMFAs, but also some of the smallest organizations, historical homes, small art museums and galleries and historic sites.
I think that's something that I'm really passionate about as someone who grew up in a major city and really looks to the small organizations where things are struggling more than they ever are. So it's important to have democratic access and accessible access to different types of tools and solutions and information, regardless of if you're The Louvre or the Met or a small historic home right down the street. So it's something that's really important to us and we're really a product and reflection of those who've had the opportunity to speak to and work with over the years.
Dan Sullivan:
So much of that is woven into the foundation of the roots of why Cuseum was started, which is really just focused around making sure that powerful experiences could be achievable by the small organizations as well as large ones.
Brendan Ciecko:
Yes. Over the years we've gotten involved with a number of different initiatives. We're not just here to build one or two things. We really are committed to advancing conversations in the cultural sector, even in things that outside of our wheelhouse that we just know from looking outside of the field are having tremendous impact.
So whether it be artificial intelligence or immersive technology like AR and VR, we're naturally curious about the role that these things are playing. Even things like cryptocurrency, even though you have no hands on that, we're naturally curious about what the impact will be. So over the past five or six years, our projects, our collaborations and contributions have been covered, cited, featured internationally in over 50 different languages, presented at some of the premiere conferences.
So we've been really excited to have the opportunity to highlight some of our customers and to share some of the things that we think will be transformative in the cultural space. And that's obviously been impacted greatly by the reliance on digital due to COVID-19. Let’s talk a little bit about what we created here before we jump into today's topics.
Dan Sullivan:
Yeah, for sure. Cuseum is a museum engagement platform in general, but that takes a few different looks and feels. First of all, just being able to deliver high quality mobile engagement tour guide experiences for both onsite and virtual visitors. And so much of that is changing with everything going on with Coronavirus. So again, a lot of that revolves around addressing the changing needs of the onsite and the virtual visitor.
We talked a little bit about digital membership cards, which are so much more geared towards streamlining membership processes, saving time and money, being more environmentally friendly and getting a higher level of engagement out of members to increase their likelihood of renewal. And then obviously leveraging your existing platform of supporters and the network and the ecosystem that supports the organization, utilizing things like digital guest passes and digital ticketing and referral portals. So those are the three main pillars about the work that Cuseum is really focused on right now.
Brendan Ciecko:
Thank you. So, for the topics for today that we'll be diving into, we want to look a lot at what are the new challenges, what are the changing consumer expectations that have been driven by the onset of Coronavirus in addition to the new digital literacy and reliance on all types of digital tools and conveniences. And also we want to look stage by stage at the visitor journey. What are some of the different touch points that will take place from start to finish. We want to talk a little bit about contactless. We know that contactless is a big buzzword and we want to provide some examples of what we're seeing and then also talk about some of the solutions that are out there.
Dan Sullivan:
I think the biggest question that people have right now is how is Coronavirus or how is COVID-19 going to change the way that visitors, members and donors are engaging at museums and attractions? That's the biggest question people are wondering right now.
Brendan Ciecko:
And then how can museums and attractions prepare for an era of social distancing? There's the physical, there's the digital, there's the phygital, what lies between the physical and the digital. There's so many ways to approach social distancing and contact tracing and making sure that your staff and employees are safe. So we want to take some time trying to address that question to some extent.
Dan Sullivan:
Another one, how do we ensure in this new world or this new normal, whether we like it or not, how do we ensure that museums and attractions can really ensure the safety of both their visitors, so people who are coming on site, but also their employees? These are the things that historically we have had to think about, but it hasn't been so much under the microscope as it is now.
Brendan Ciecko:
A couple more questions here is what steps can be taken to ensure your guests feel safe and satisfied. We think that there's an important distinction to make between those two points is safety is going to be priority number one, but you also want to make sure your visitors are satisfied and comfortable as they're welcomed back to your museum post COVID.
I've heard some comparisons to the grocery store experience which is militarized and sterilized and all of that. And I know there is some hesitation around making sure you don't fall into that while making sure that people are safe. So focusing on what are those moments, those touch points of delight throughout the experience.
Dan Sullivan:
Yeah, I agree. And I think it's probably been maybe a hundred years or so since you had to think so hard about going to the grocery store, whether or not to go. I think the last question really is just what tools and solutions are available out there to help address these new challenges that are being posed by Coronavirus. And even now, the tools from six months ago, a year ago, next year, they're all shifting and the tools are going to change in accordance with the needs and those challenges being posed.
Brendan Ciecko:
Yes. And I think based on the things that people are going to see and experience outside of the museum space, there's going to be a lot of influence and impact from there, whether it be commercial office spaces, travel and tourism. I think those technologies which may be a little daunting today will become more affordable, more adaptable to the use case and needs of nonprofits and museums. So it's just a matter of time until that happens.
So let's think through, and talk through the visitor journey, step by step. I think that's going to be important. We're going to do this now and we're going to do this a little bit later as we break things down. So today's touchpoints. Dan, can you fill us in on some of today's touch points?
Dan Sullivan:
Yeah. Most of these things that you're going to see on this list are things that you never would have thought twice about. There're so many touch points that are at the museum or the garden or the zoo, starting from the ticketing kiosk. I'm buying my ticket, I'm tapping on a screen to credit card and cash payment terminals, handing over my membership card and my ID when I'm checking in - there's an exchange happening there.
Then there’s sharing, like with a rental audio device. And if we're following the lead of what we've seen in Europe, a lot of places have taken steps to even ban those or outlaw them temporarily. And then lastly, touchscreens and interactives. And this is particularly difficult as we start to explore, well, how do you create immersive and engaging experiences when you take away that hands on element or re-imagine that hands-on element.
Brendan Ciecko:
Just based on what we've been hearing and seeing and reading across the magnitude of press that's coming out around reopening and how The Museum of Fine Arts Houston, being one of the first major encyclopedic museums to reopen, what steps they took. I think it was in the Wall Street Journal a month or so ago, looking at what LACMA was doing. And they were getting rid of wall labels and stuff like that.
So there are a lot of nos here that we're seeing in the news and the press and hearing circulating. Like no wall labels, because those cause people to congregate shoulder to shoulder or congregate in general. No wall texts, no guided tours because of the person to person, physical contact as that puts the docent or the guide at risk in addition to a group of people. No touch screens and no interactives.
No even printed maps, which are pretty basic, pretty simple printed materials, printed brochures - those being removed temporarily. And no exchange of physical materials or a major reduction of physical material. So there are a lot of nos. And when you hear a lot of nos, you scratch your head and you're like, "Well, what are, what are we going to do?" I want to think a little bit more about how we could safely introduce this one. So I know there are a lot of considerations around these “don't touch these moments” there.
Dan Sullivan:
Yeah, for sure. And if we start to look at some of the different risks and challenges, I think one of the first one that is really on the top of all of our minds is the biggest risk is this idea of spreading the virus due to encounters with whether it's physical equipment or devices. So shared, anything that is shared, anything that multiple people are touching, that's one of the most front and center risks and concerns that's top of mind.
Brendan Ciecko:
Yeah. And then the other one is obviously the spread of virus due to close proximity with others. And that's where the social distancing comes into play.
Dan Sullivan:
Sure. Never before has there been so much baseline level of anxiety amongst the general population of the country. So that's one thing. But anxiety and guest management challenges. So you've got crowded rooms, you've got galleries. We're talking about when do we get people through the door? I imagine many of you will be wondering about tools that are available around like timed ticketing and how do we manage this group where historically we would open the doors and hope that as many people flow in as possible. Now we're really starting to rethink that. And if anything, it's causing a lot of concern because you can't just open the doors and let them flow in. There really needs to be a lot of engineering behind that.
Brendan Ciecko:
Then I know we're getting into the dark and gloomy doom parts. So pardon me for a minute. But the other risks and challenges that maybe we don't think about as much just based on the fear or that's our CFO's responsibility or that's our COO's responsibility, but the financial and legal liability due to the risks that to guests and employees I think is a reality there, another thing to take into consideration.
Dan Sullivan:
I think lastly, one of the realities is that there's a certain portion or constituency of the population that just isn't going to be returning until a vaccine is in place. As a result of that, we're going to be seeing declines in attendance and as a result, declines in revenues. So gift shop purchases, onsite revenue, gate attendance, due to that lack of preparedness. And what this is going to breed is an increased need for efficiency. How can we be as efficient as possible with the resources that we have and how can we figure out unique and creative ways that we can address old challenges but be more effective with the resources at our disposal?
Brendan Ciecko:
Yeah. And just making sure that no shortcuts are taken. Because if you're not taking the necessary steps to ensure your visitors are safe and healthy, looking at the risk reward and looking at the risk being so incredibly high that one, infection or positive test that's traced back to someone being at the museum because of lack of preparedness. Those things can be monumental in their impact. So we just want to be cognizant of the high level and then dig deeper into some of the things.
Because for all of these things, at the end of the day, there is hope and the light at the end of the tunnel. A lot of these things are really straightforward to address. They might require extra work and extra funds, but they are an absolute necessity. And that's just the reality for approaching and addressing those risks. So talking a little bit about what we're seeing as well as what we're predicting will become more prevalent and pervasive and widespread.
We think that now is the time that physical touch points will be phased out in favor of digital mobile and bringing your own device solutions. So anything that the museum can do to make it easy for the visitor to get everything in the palm of their hand. It doesn't necessarily matter if it's a mobile app or a mobile website or a progressive web app, or just your website squeezed down into the screen, just making sure that all of those things that would have otherwise required a physical touch point can be brought to your visitor in some way, shape or form that doesn't involve tactile experience.
Dan Sullivan:
And so much of what you're talking about there is how do we break this down? So we'll talk a little bit about this in a bit, but how do we utilize a piece of technology as a mechanism to both fuel and prepare me for my visit and then give me a positive experience onsite and then post visit. So spanning that entire spectrum of the visitor journey, utilizing something that I've got in the palm of my hand that most people have with them.
There certainly is a contingency of people that don't carry a phone around, but far and away, the majority of visitors to museums are utilizing these devices. And one of the amazing things about that is it opens up opportunities for accessibility and just greater learning opportunities utilizing that device that they've already got with them.
Brendan Ciecko:
Then digital membership is obviously another element that has been catapulted forward. Not only based on the reality that the physicality of the card doesn't necessarily need to be there, credit cards, loyalty cards, everything has been going the way of digital and mobile first, but also the cost saving components. So Dan can speak a little bit more to that reality.
Dan Sullivan:
Yeah. The biggest things that we've been finding on the membership side of things for organizations that do have membership programs, they pretty quickly found themselves in a situation where they had less staff resources and less financial resources and more work to do. So same amount of work or more work, but less resources with which to do it. So many organizations have turned to digital memberships or digital ticketing, for example, as a mechanism to increase lines of communication with their members.
And some folks are mentioning there's no cell service. Things like digital membership cards can operate without wifi or data, they live locally, on your device. But other organizations, they went home one day thinking they'd be back a week, two weeks, a month later. And all of a sudden they found themselves doing a DIY membership fulfillment process in their living room or their kitchen, and that just wasn't working.
And lastly, with so many budgets under the microscope organ, organizations have really been forced to analyze each line item of their expenses. Are there ways that we can save more human time? Are there ways that we can use less physical resources to be able to capitalize on this? And a great example just on the digital memberships. Some folks that have approached us and said, "By switching to digital, it saves us two hours a day of fulfillment. So postage and mailing and responding to simple inquiries. And that saves me 40 hours a month of human time." You realize what I can do with another 40 hours a month. And we've really seen that be the biggest driver during these times.
Brendan Ciecko:
Well, because of so many individuals working in membership and development, they want to have personal human touch. And so if you can reduce the amount of mundane or things that could otherwise be made more efficient or automated, that gives you those moments back where then you can be on the front lines or interacting with members or sending them more personalized outreach. So it's been something that's been really interesting, exciting to see.
And then more recently, and it's been like an obvious thing if you've been to a sporting event or even movies or on an airplane. Not recently, but over the last couple of years, chances are, you've encountered some sort of a digital ticket or a digital boarding pass. And then just based on all of the things that I'm hearing and the things that I'm subscribed to, I'm seeing, and especially in professional sports, the complete elimination of the physical ticket because of the risk involved and just because it doesn't necessarily need to exist.
So I know that professional sports as well as airlines have eliminated physical tickets. And there's really not much reason that those need to exist. If anything, there's more opportunities for conversion and for engagement by bringing all of these things that have historically been printed or physical or sent through postal mail or printed out on the fly into someone's own device.
Dan Sullivan:
Brendan and something else that's interesting about that idea is historically, you take a membership card or a ticket, just a piece of paper. And when I'm done with that, I throw it away, it's got a little bit of information on it. But what if we could use a piece of technology and instead of that just being a ticket, now it lives on my phone and it pops a message up when I'm walking by my favorite work of art. Or it pops a message up as I walk out the door. This is my ticket, pops up a message that says, “Hey, why don't you think about becoming a member before you leave? We've got an amazing Basquiat exhibition coming in.”
Brendan Ciecko:
Yeah, I thought you were going to go down the environmental path which is obviously a major consideration for our organizations that have in their mission statement their commitment to the environment. But I think that's become such a widespread ambition of how can we do right by our environment? How can we be a good social citizen, good to our people, our workers, our communities as well as the environment? Something that also keeps in mind around some of those elements.
And then lastly, to something that we've been thinking a lot about and researching and putting out into the field is just the power, the untapped power of the referral network as it relates to bringing more people through your door who can potentially be members or be donors or make a purchase. So how do you facilitate that? And I look back to my own personal experiences as a member of many museums and organizations where I get these guest passes in the mail, and that would just end up on the fridge or in the recycling bin and how that's essentially positioned as a great tool for peer to peer evangelizing of an organization.
And if that person goes and they had a great experience, that increases the value of my membership, it increases the value of theirs. So those are the things that we're also thinking a lot about. And those will be critical as you need to rebuild your audience and rebuild your attendance numbers.
Dan Sullivan:
Absolutely. Let's start to talk a little bit about some of the projections and solutions. First of all, this idea Brendan, you talked about earlier being contactless being a buzzword, but a lot of people are talking about contactless. And in many ways the forcing function of this entire Coronavirus epidemic is going to force us to change the way that we historically have done things. And that's not always a bad thing, many things are going to be improved for the long term for the better.
So the first component of that is the rise of contactless experiences, payments in technology are going to be huge. If there's ways to create, whether they're member fast lanes, or opportunities for me to just come in and do everything right there on my own device, that's the way that things are moving. Whether I purchase my food and beverage or buy my ticket, or I check in, I do my research, I can all do that right there on my device. And that's really what we're seeing as organizations seek to eliminate at least temporarily some of that face to face contact and avoid touchpoints.
Brendan Ciecko:
I think that opens up a lot of opportunities for new types of interfaces. I think that voice has become something that we've only maybe interacted with through Siri and Alexa and other such things where to be able to go up and maybe purchase your tickets by saying, "I need two tickets for adults and one for my grandma and one for my, for my daughter," the ability for it to process that and understand that without you ever needing to touch button.
I know we have folks tuning in from all over the world from cities and towns and places, but if you've ever been to New York City or a city like New York and you've used the subway, how many times have you needed to sweat, try to swipe that card, it just didn't work? And then compare that to other places where you're just tapping a card and then boom, you're in, the contactless experience that we're heading towards.
So that analogy is how I'm thinking through things. But now there's the voice as an interface element where you're able to facilitate some of these actions gesturally or with your voice or things that don't involve hand-to-hand contact or tactile experience with screens. and then also that supports accessibility to be able to do something in a multimodal way. I think that's the key here, is it's multi-modal, just as one way or the other there's multiple avenues for engaging in or transacting.
Dan Sullivan:
And one thing I think that's worth putting out there too, is from an accessibility perspective, the smartphones and devices have great built in accessibility functions for visitors who are low vision, hard of hearing, physically unable to visit spaces. So there's some great benefits that are available to them and those that don't now, don't have access to those devices when we get to a safer time, let's say it's a year from now, bringing back into the fold that idea of a borrowed device could be on the table again as well.
Brendan Ciecko:
I think all of this is going to end in or be iterated with new types of service design that encourage and enforce social distancing and reduction of touch. I think that's almost a redundant point by now because I think that's something we've all been talking about and thinking about. But I think there will be a major re-imagining of the experience.
And I think what will be learned from this reopening period, many of you have already reopened, many of you are planning your reopening. There's a lot of ideas flowing around in different initiatives. I think that so much will be learned from this that ultimately creates a better and more healthy and more conscientious visitor experience for everybody.
Dan Sullivan:
For sure. And I think the next question is like why should we be doing this now? Why is now the time? And the first thing is audiences have never looked for more instruction and been more receptive to that now than ever. And don't get me wrong, there are certainly going to be people and there are people that don't want instruction and there are those contrarians. But far and away, people are looking for guidance and they're looking to you as the cultural organizations to guide them through the process of how can I prepare, what can I do while I'm there? And what's the best way that I can ensure my safety and the safety of my family as I come to enjoy my favorite organization?
Brendan Ciecko:
Exactly. I mean, they're new protocols, there's the expectation where anywhere I go there's going to be new protocols. So the ears are open, the eyes are open. People are looking for that direction. So that's a great time to introduce something fairly new 'cause we know change is hard. Change is hard internally and it's also hard for audiences, but now people are expecting it to be a little bit different when they go back.
Dan Sullivan:
And then the other component of that is consumer expectations and digital literacy have really changed. I mean, even in the last three months, how many 70, 80, 90 year olds are there on FaceTime or Zoom or that are ordering their groceries on Instacart? Again, this forcing function of this entire scenario has really thrust people into a position of needing to utilize those technologies. And that has really pushed forward digital literacy in so many ways.
Brendan Ciecko:
For sure. I can't remember if it's IDEO or some other major design group, but there's this concept of 8 and 80 or 8 to 80, something like that, the tools that you introduce and the expectations that you create and expectations of your end user should be as easy and accessible for someone who's 8 years old and someone who is 80. And I think Zoom has probably been the shining star example where it's become used by families to reconnect.
It's so easy to use for people of different age groups and demographics, but also it's used by school students, K through 12. I also know they try to Zoom for my daughter's daycare. Digital literacy has been drastically changed over the last couple of months and digital aptitude or the propensity to do things that some people love grocery shopping, but they've now warmed up to the idea that they can order things and the safety of them and their immediate family are dependent on that.
All of that said, people are expecting new things and then Apple and Google are obviously making announcements left and right about new tools and capabilities. This past week has been the worldwide developer conference for Apple. We were just talking about some appearances in the community recently and just even reading the things that they're doing on Apple Watch and on the phone that will help with social distancing and even reminding you how long you should wash your hands. Think about how that is going to change the experience of your visitors or rather the expectations of your visitor.
Dan Sullivan:
For sure. With my 17 month old, trying to get him to watch a Zoom class with daycare, wow. You want to talk about a Herculean effort, wow. So Brendan, you want to talk a little bit about content?
Brendan Ciecko:
Content has always been the thing. Like we've said forever, we mean like everybody, it's almost cliche now, content is king, content is queen, content is everything. And content has also been a major hindrance to some of these things. I think over the last couple of months, what the closures due to the pandemic have forced organizations to do is just ramp up on digital content production, whether you're a small organization or a large organization, the importance of social media, the importance of building content that can be delivered for remote audiences puts you in a better position to then reuse that content for the return phase or the reopening.
So over the years we've seen the challenges around content creation, but I don't have audio for that. Chances are now you have audio or video or text or some sort of form of content that can be repurposed. So we're big fans of the idea of repurposing and slicing and dicing content to suit multiple avenues and multiple channels wherever you're seeing the most engagement or wherever you need to fill those gaps.
But also this idea of minimum viable content, what is the least amount of content I can get out there to provide value to the visitors? And if I can condense that into something they can have, while they're, while they're planning or while they're on site or after, more power to you and more power and knowledge to your visitor.
Dan Sullivan:
Absolutely. So let's start to conceptualize this visitor journey into three segments. So there's the pre visit, there's the onsite and the post visit.
Brendan Ciecko:
And we realize that this is probably more condensed to some of the visitor journey mapping that's out there. I know there's been a lot of research, a lot of different approaches, but we just wanted to condense things to the most simplistic or minimal segments of the journey as it relates to the different things, to take into consideration. So let's talk about the pre-visit. Dan, take us away.
Dan Sullivan:
Yeah, well I think even now more so than ever, people are doing much more research than they've ever done before they even set foot in the galleries. And for a lot of organizations there's going to be a lot of learnings when you first open your doors and those first few weeks or months. The reality is people need to plan a lot more now than they have. So what set, safety precautions can I take, or what safety precautions is the organization taking to ensure my safety, as we talked about before?
Secondly, this is a hot topic right now, is the attendance or is the visitation altered in any way? So do I need to think about buying a ticket or taking on a time ticketing or is the organization utilizing time ticketing? And then lastly, more so now than ever the truth is out there in the sense that people are taking their opinions public on TripAdvisor, on Facebook, on Google reviews, on Yelp.
They're posting their thoughts and their opinions on the way that organizations have handled different things. So this really creates an environment where each individual cultural organization really needs to be honed in on this at risk of that information going public. And it takes a long time to build up a reputation of safety and security, but it doesn't take very long to lose it. So, ensuring that safety of your visitors is going to be a huge component of this pre-visit.
Brendan Ciecko:
Yeah. And I think some action items, I imagine many of you have already taken these, but if not, I mean, from the pre planning experience, your website and any of your channels, the first thing I should see when I arrive there, if you are optimizing for the revisit, the reopening period is the banner on the top of your website or your channels with all of those informations, those assurances, what practices you have in place, what protocols you have in place.
I think that's vital to do. And I've seen some great examples that we'll probably post after this webinar that are good examples, good frameworks to work off of. On the ticket purchase, I imagine just based on the chat dialogue of our past webinars for the past couple of weeks, we could probably do a webinar specifically about timed ticketing, we might do that. Just bringing voices from the field that can share what went into it, the staff requirements, the changes, the process, what tools are available to do that.
And then on the social review side, just to underscore the importance of the sentiment of those reviews is you control the narrative on your website. You control that information, there's no question about that. But we live in an environment where the authority has shifted outside of our hands. The authority is social. So if I'm planning on going to a restaurant or a hotel or a public attraction, a museum, a historical site, chances are, I'm going to go on one of these websites, especially if I'm anxious about what precautions they have taken because they might tell me one thing, but the people and the masses will tell me another.
So if you've ever booked a trip online, chances are you've used TripAdvisor or one of these social reviewing sites to see how the attention to cleanliness at that hotel in Midtown Manhattan has bed bugs. True story, Dan. All kidding aside, like take into consideration the importance of those platforms. I know that a couple organizations have mined the sentiment data to uncover things that they never knew were impacting their net promoter score.
I think it was the BNA or the British museum that learned about the importance of cleanliness of their bathrooms and this was pre COVID-19. So we'll be sure to post that. I imagine over the weeks and months to come, we will see some incredible insights and outcomes from similar things, just reviewing what people are saying on these social channels.
Dan Sullivan:
Yeah. And then that experience. Okay, so we've done all the pre-research and now we're onsite. So first of all, that's going to start with entry and registration. So as we start to almost audit in a way these different touch points, the next one is virtual queuing, moving towards some type of mechanism where instead of waiting in a physical line, I go and I get my ticket at some type of possibly unmanned kiosk or something along those lines.
There's the general orientation components. So how do I quickly familiarize myself with the space, understand exactly where it is for me to go. I've got a toddler with me or I only have 30 minutes or I only have 60 minutes, these are the types of things I need to know for my visit. And then guests flow, so knowing exactly where to go. For smaller organizations, maybe less of a concern, but for larger organizations that you could spend three days in, how do I make the most of that time while I'm on site?
And then there's the component of content and engagement. So how do we make the most of this educational experience as well so I can learn a lot more about the subject matter? We talked a little bit about it before. We're seeing a lot of the organizations that we work with moving their content off of walls and out letting it to some type of mobile platform so people aren't congregating around walls, text and panels and things like that. And then lastly, commerce and conversion. So once I've had that great experience on site, it then shifts to engagement. How do we get me to come back for an event, make a donation, become a member, and support the institution? That all should be happening in that self contained experience.
Brendan Ciecko:
Just to add to a couple of these points, I mean your guest flow can be addressed digitally and physically. I've seen some examples out there as simple as spray paint, for outdoor places that have spray painted directional arrows and had taped off areas to guide people throughout. We were involved in a bunch of digital initiatives that use the mobile guide, the mobile app to guide people using different instructions, visual and text, and otherwise to keep things unidirectional and also help people get around in general.
And on the content and engagement side, I just want to underscore that right now because of the changes, people you want to make sure that your visitor doesn't feel like they're getting a lesser museum experience or like a lighter version of the museum experience. So that's where we think it's critical to really amp up and highlight some of the great content that you've been producing for your virtual audiences, layering that in, keeping it exciting, keeping different touch points there that, that help elevate the experience and do things that you couldn't otherwise do on your own walls or in your own spaces.
Dan talking about commerce and conversion, we can't forget about how hard budgets are getting hit and layoffs and furloughs, other such impacts there that it's vital too. And I know this is something that's been, some organizations don't liken themselves to being business minded or business forward. But now is the time where thinking about those new revenue streams and thinking about ways in which you can make it easier for someone to make a donation or easier for someone to make, be a member, easier for them to make a purchase.
I know that there's going to be a lot of emphasis on those points as people look at their balance sheets and they look for ways to optimize that pipeline and optimize that funnel. Those are the things that play into the big picture, but onsite is where it all goes down in real life.
Dan Sullivan:
Yeah. And there's the post visit. Now one of the biggest challenges is initiating some type of action after the fact. After I've left, how do we now get a review? We talked about this as being a huge component of people's research before they come to the space, how do we get them to recommend us and create that referral network? In so many ways. So Brendan and I live in the Boston area, it's a very tight knit network of museums.
One person has a great experience at a museum, they tell five people who tell five people and you can see how that really can expand and create a groundswell of support for an institution. So in this post Corona world, there's going to be much more of a focus on the general community support of that organization. Brendan, do you want to talk a little bit about the loyalty loop?
Brendan Ciecko:
Let me just jump on some of the points. I think it's important to consider what is, again, what is in your control and what is out of your control. Follow up, that is within your control. Whether you've gathered information that you're able to email a followup or you're able to re-target to keep your brand front and center, those are all in your control. Things are out, that are out of your control are the review and the recommendation.
And that's why it is so important to make sure that you're thinking through all phases of the funnel, especially the onsite. Because again, it goes back to that TripAdvisor view. You want your TripAdvisor page or whatever channels that are most popular in your community to be evangelizing your organization, the experience, but you also want them commenting, at least for the next couple of months, about how clean it was, how organized it was.
You do not want to see the word confused. I was confused when I got onsite, I didn't know where to go, how to get around. I didn't know if I needed to wear a mask or not. Like all of those things you want to try your best to mitigate and eliminate because those platforms are going to be quite popular as people are, are an edge in their interest and they want to go, but they want to support you and they want to go but obviously they want to make sure that they understand what it has been like for others.
So keep an eye on that and try to encourage people to leave positive reviews if possible. And then talking about recommendations. We keep our eyes on Forrester reports, Gardner reports, McKinsey reports, Deloitte reports, all of these nerdy management consulting reports that come out about the changing tides and the future of technology and business and organization and digital transformation. Now I'm just rattling out buzz terms, probably seems.
But actually I learned about the Loyalty Loop at AAM. I think in St. Louis a couple of years ago, there was a panel with Kaywin Feldman, the director, former director of the Minneapolis Institute of Art, current director of the National Gallery in DC. And one of their board members in Minneapolis was a consultant from, I think it was McKinsey. And one of the concepts that McKinsey pioneered was this idea of the Loyalty Loop.
It's not just an end to end funnel, but you have the opportunity to turn your, your customer or your visitor into an evangelist, into an advocate, which then brings more people into that loop. There's a lot of information online. And I imagine that session from AAM is online. I love it. I thought it was really interesting to think about how they re-imagine their member experience, their visitor experience through this idea of the Loyalty Loop.
Bonus points, if you're able to incorporate any of your museum from home content after the fact for people to experience remotely, and we just want to share something. I'm a huge nerd and so is most of my team, not only the ways in which we can help cultural institutions, but also the new types of tools and methods that are available and have become available to support and to accelerate some elements of museum from home.
So as this was all happening, we were obviously looking for ways to further support the organizations that we work with and other organizations. And so this idea of being able to bring these works, these highlights and reflection into your visitors' home while your doors were closed or while capacity was reduced, led us to say, "Hey, we've been building out some of these components for research. Why don't we roll them out for people to experience?"
And so that was something we were really proud to roll out where people can enjoy your masterpieces from your collection. It isn't just paintings. If you want penguins, we got penguins. If you want lions, you got lions. Ways to bring your visual culture into the homes of the visitors so that it feels more personalized. They're not just looking at a Zoom, presentation or something static.
They're actually able to see how that Van Gogh or that Monet looks in their kitchen and walk up to it and see the great details in a really new way with no risk involved. So that received a lot of great response and feedback and was covered in USA Today and Fast Company and a bunch of other publications. So I was really excited to introduce a new component to the Museum at Home.
Dan Sullivan:
Brendan, I think one of the nice ideas about that concept is throughout this whole process where people are really forced into not visiting or not able to visit, or maybe they just don't feel safe doing so, bridging the four walls of the cultural organization has been a topic for years.
How do we get our content into the homes of people who either don't feel comfortable visiting or are not visiting under their own volition or physically unable to visit?
So I think this is really opening up a great door that allows cultural organizations to bring that cultural experience, transcend their building and get into the homes of people who maybe they wouldn't have had their eyes on that subject model in the first place.
Brendan Ciecko:
We've been talking about the distributed museum for quite some time and the implications of being able to have your organization be omnipresent in a number of different forms. And I think augmented reality, virtual reality definitely play a role in that. And as those become more approachable and accessible, I think we'll start to see more things like that. And the reality is the snozberries taste just like snozberries.
You get really close to the detail in a way that maybe you wouldn't be able to, I, we know that nothing's ever going to replace the onsite experience. But it is a nice way to have as many new avenues to make sure that your collection and your artwork, and if we're talking about your living collection is available to people.
Cool. So let's talk about, I was starting to get into the snapshots in these last moments, but let's talk about some of the final considerations and some tips and tricks. So go for it, Mr. Dan.
Dan Sullivan:
I think the biggest one is just safety. Everybody is thinking about safety, the museums, the zoos, the gardens, the aquariums, they're thinking about the safety of their staff, the safety of their visitors. But me as a visitor, I'm also thinking about the safety of my family. So what steps do I need to take? What steps are they taking to communicate that commitment to me? So I know that I want to keep my family safe, but if an organization has not articulated the steps that they are taking to ensure the safety of those visitors, that's a missed opportunity to make people feel more comfortable.
Brendan Ciecko:
Like I honestly think about in any major city, when you see that department of health, a review of a restaurant and all of these other elements, I think when you go places and you see the physical and the digital signage and representation of all of the steps that have been taken and the things that you need to do or should do to ensure your own safety and the safety of others, that is key. So communicating that commitment, communicating those assurances, online and offline, I think are absolutely critical.
Dan Sullivan:
Lastly, what are the new opportunities that have emerged from challenges and from the challenges that we faced over the last three months? Brendan, you and I talk about this a lot, and we fundamentally believe that cultural organizations are going to be the ones that make it through this. They're going to be better off in the long run. They'll be stronger, they'll be more effective. And there's a lot of growing opportunities that are going to come out of this. So that's going to be one of the huge components. What can we learn from this? What can we take away? And what opportunities has this given birth to?
Brendan Ciecko:
So let's do some really quick tips. I know that we have about eight minutes left. So this one is honestly the first thing that we heard about and the first thing that became abundantly clear as an urgent item. So I'm hoping that 99.9% of you have already started a task force, but if not, absolutely do it. Because the consideration and the focus that are required to succeed in this moment and beyond really rely on that focus, rely on the frequency of meetings specific to these topics.
So this was something that was on the first webinar that we ever hosted on the topic. And I think the first webinar ever that we hosted we had Scott Stulen, the director and CEO of the Philbrook Museum. And he said that's the first thing, absolutely first thing you need to do. It's fundamental to make sure that you have the dedication to that topic. So if you haven't, please form a task force focused on these specific topics.
Dan Sullivan:
And one of the big aspects of that is if you've got too many people that are responsible for contributing ideas, no one will take responsibility. So you really need to have a core group of people that are going to jump on that. Secondly, invest in training. This is the hospitality business now, and you could argue that it's always been the hospitality business. But more so now than ever, there are going to be so many new opportunities and new challenges that arise with interacting with guests.
So make sure you invest in training, whether it's deescalation training. You're probably going to have some folks that are maybe not going to agree with the rules that you've set in place, possibly around PPE. We're hearing a lot about this. Maybe people are not wanting to wear their masks or disagreeing with the rules that you've set out.
But making sure that your staff, specifically the ones that are interacting on the front lines are totally prepared to work with an upset customer, maybe even more upset than they historically would be, but also just understand how to handle different situations. Maybe people are feeling uncomfortable or making sure that you can still deliver a great, powerful experience while at the same time ensuring the safety of all your visitors.
Brendan Ciecko:
I think there's another important aspect here. And this really became apparent through the voice of Atiba Edwards who's the chief operating officer at the Brooklyn Children's Museum who was saying that you want to make sure that your staff is completely united about your protocols and about your commitment to your visitors and commitment to one another.
And so he said that, but he also cited the hospitality business. They're looking at what restaurants are doing, they're looking at what resorts, hotels and other attractions are doing. So honestly, and I know this sounds wild, like I think your general admission ticket, whether it's $10 or $12 should feel like that visitor, you want them to feel like they are a patron or a donor or a trustee.
You want everybody to feel special when they're coming through. So I think that should be the mindset. And I think people who have that mindset, that everybody is this equal great importance who walks through, and we want to delight you and go above and beyond. Those are going to yield positive reviews, those are going to yield word of mouth. Oh, they treated me so well there. I knew exactly where to go. They went above and beyond for me. And those moments are really valuable. So if you have the means to do that, if you have the staff to do that, please by all means do it. But that takes some investment in training, which is ultimately just time and dedication to that.
Dan Sullivan:
I think a big point that you're hitting on too is the value of what someone else says about you holds substantially more weight than what you say about yourself. So those are reviews on Google while or Yelp or TripAdvisor, while they may just seem like one review, it holds a lot of weight for people that are reviewing that as opposed to the voice that you are presenting yourself.
So another quick tip here, unusual times call for creative solutions. It has been so amazing really to see the ideas that people have come up with, whether it's for virtual events or engagement opportunities. And I mean, to be honest, and someone's talking about it right now, this has been a really difficult time for most of us who work in this space, but also your visitors.
The statistics around the folks that live in the US but also internationally, whether it's dealing with mental health challenges or just feeling a sense of anxiety or isolation, this has been really hard for a lot of people. And certainly we in the industry have not escaped it in any way. So finding these creative solutions to bring that experience home and to bring your content, to give those folks that really like and support you, an opportunity to take their mind off some things has been so amazing. And that's why unusual times really do call for creative solutions and thinking outside the box.
Brendan Ciecko:
Thank you. I think all of this should be looked at as incremental and that you should constantly be taking small steps. So with everything, don't get overwhelmed by the big picture, although it is important to have a vision for all that, you're going to take a lot of small steps to get to where you're going.
So think big, but you've got to start small. And you've got to start somewhere and you need to continue to learn and pivot and modify your way of going about things. Because I think all of the planning in the world isn't going to set you up for an absolutely perfect execution. You're going to learn things that no one knew or no one could've predicted and no one could have anticipated. So it's all about being incremental and iterating.
Dan Sullivan:
That's right. and that's what we always say to the organizations that we work with is when you approach a technology project or any project, take an iterative approach. Make sure that you start small, don't spend all this money and jump right into it. Start with something that's basic, prove out the concept, tweak the knobs a little bit and then iterate from there, build upon that. Because if you go a little bit too all in, you might miss what people really are wanting. But if you take that iterative approach, it allows you to adjust and be agile to the changing needs.
Lastly, never stop learning. This goes in life, it goes in business, it goes in anything. You always want to be improving yourself every day. If you can be 1% better than you were yesterday, whether it's with your best practices, whether it's with the value that you're bringing culture, to your visitors, never give up learning opportunities and never stop doing that.
Brendan Ciecko:
I think the fact that you're here, the fact that you're participating in this dialogue shows a level of commitment and investment and interest. And you're looking for resources, you're looking for others in the field that have ideas and best practices to contribute, to share, to bounce around ideas. So I think that is vital and it's been an incredibly beautiful thing to see the support of the museum community passing along ideas and sharing difficulties and sharing issues and sharing solutions and ideas and also hope. So really grateful that we work and live and thrive in such a tight knit supportive community.
So we only have like a minute left to go. So I want to give a quick thanks to everybody for joining us today. I hope this was helpful and instructive, hopefully a little bit inspiring as well. Thanks for taking an hour out of your day to join us. If you have any questions or if you need anything, we have a lot of resources online, a lot of articles that we've put out over the last couple of weeks.
We're trying to hold up a mirror to the space and find areas where we can help contribute guidance and advice and pull together voices that can help with that. And lastly, we'd love to hear from you. If there's anything that we can help with, if you have a question, feel free to give us, send us a message. brendan@cuseum.com, dan@cuseum.com. We're here for you, we want to help you.
And, also if we don't have the answer, chances are we know someone who might. So feel free to give us a shout. And more than anything, thank you so much for your attention, for your interest and for trusting us to help guide and help navigate through these really difficult times. If there's anything we can do to help, or if there are voices you want to hear or topics that you want to hear about, please let us know.
Dan Sullivan:
Thanks everybody. Stay safe.
Brendan Ciecko:
Thank you. Stay safe. Stay well. Bye.
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