There are many different ways that museums can carry out visitor surveys but some methods will get better responses than others.
The clipboard-wielding interviewer, politely accosting people by the exit door, may be the image that most readily springs to mind. But this has never been the only option for carrying out a survey, and the continuing spread of mobile devices into people’s daily lives means that the range of possibilities has now vastly increased.
Online survey tools such as Survey Monkey, SmartSurvey and Google Forms offer intuitive interfaces and provide at least basic functionality for free. These can act in a similar way to a face-to-face paper-based survey, with the interviewer using a tablet rather than a clipboard. And by directing people to a link or QR code, museums can also ask visitors to fill out surveys on site themselves, using their own devices.
These two uses of online surveys are analogous to how paper-based surveys can be deployed. But perhaps the key major difference with an online survey is that it makes it much simpler for questionnaires to be filled out off the premises. All the museum needs to do at the time of the visit is take email addresses – a link to the survey can be sent out later for people to complete at their convenience.
A museum can ask more questions in this way than it would be able to face to face, says museums and cultural consultant Laura Crossley.
“If it’s an exit survey, I don’t think people are really willing to spend more than five minutes at most answering questions. Online, people will spend 10 or 15 minutes, so you can get more in-depth data,” she says.
There are a number of other factors to consider, including likely response rates, staff and volunteer time, wifi availability, and how survey data will be stored. For example, online survey software pulls all the data together automatically, whereas with a paper survey it needs to be input manually. But whatever paper or digital format museums decide to use, there are typically three options: in person, on site but unsupervised, or off site. Some museums use a combination of all three.
Within these categories, however, it also pays to think carefully about the subtleties of how a survey is presented. For an in-person survey, friendly interviewers help – and for an unsupervised on-site survey, something as simple as drawing attention to surveys at the reception desk can encourage responses. For all surveys, an introduction explaining how the information will feed into the museum’s offer can go a long way.
“Why are you asking people to give up their time and what will it help you to do? If you say something like ‘your views are going to help us shape our new gallery’, it shows you are going to take what they say seriously,” says Crossley.
But there is no harm in appealing to less exalted motivations, and offering incentives can be particularly effective for online surveys. Offering respondents the chance to enter a draw to win a prize such as a voucher, visitor pass, or meal is an established technique. “Even offering a £20 shopping voucher gives people more of a reason to spend 15 minutes online filling in a survey,” says Crossley.
And although visitors want to feel that their input is valued, a sense of privacy can also encourage people to participate. Some museums feel that they can achieve this using touchscreen technology, such as CRT’s Viewpoint. Viewpoint is currently used by Oxford University Museums Partnership (OUMP) and Museum Development North West (MDNW).
The touchscreens can be mounted in a kiosk or stand, or placed on a table. MDNW’s 2015-16 annual report states that there are 79 Viewpoint machines in museums across the region. Data from Viewpoint has been used to inform a number of projects, including the development of a new £1.4m history gallery at Harris Museum and Art Gallery in Preston.
MDNW says that the familiarity of the touch screen and the sense of privacy and anonymity encourage people to use it. And OUMP reports that it collected more visitor responses in the first three months, after switching to Viewpoint, than it had in the previous twelve months.
On the other hand, some museums have had success by taking a very different approach that raises the profile of a survey to make it an appealing activity in itself.
As part of efforts to find out about potential audiences and their interests King’s Lynn Town Hall hosted a medieval experience day. As part of this event it created a survey in the style of a medieval scroll, and asked visitors to fill in the blanks.
“If people filled it out, they could then come back and collect a certificate saying they were a burgess of the town. We thought it would just be children coming back, but we got adults too,” says museum evaluation consultant Harriet Foster.
“We displayed all the surveys on the wall so that people could read them – we got a fantastic response rate, because it was seen as another activity that was part of the day,” says Foster.
She dubs this technique “survey by stealth” and says it works particularly well with family audiences. “People know what you’re doing, but it’s fun,” she explains.
As well as researching their audiences, it’s important for museums to find out more about non-visitors. Naturally, this can’t be done on site, so lateral thinking is required to target the right people.
“Thinking about who your target audience is, where they go and at what times and days can really help,” says Crossley.
“Last year I had a stall at a big Halloween event because we knew that a lot of families, who the museum wanted to target, would be there. If you are looking for visitors with a particular interest, you could do a survey after a specialist talk or tour,” she adds..
Shopping centres and cafes can be good places to target a general non-visitor audience. And local stakeholders like children’s centres, history groups and youth groups can help push out online surveys, she adds.
Ultimately, a combination of approaches may be the best way to get a comprehensive range of useful responses from both visitors and non-visitors.
Crossley recently conducted a consultation for Holkham Walled Garden in Norfolk. For visitors, this included on-site surveys and online surveys, promoted via the venue’s website and social media accounts.
Meanwhile, non-visitors were reached through local libraries and groups. “It’s all about thinking about who museums want to answer a survey, and what the best way to reach them is,” she says.
Of course, engaging with audiences does not end when a survey does. One of the benefits of surveys is to help a museum’s visitors and non-visitors feel empowered. If possible, says Crossley, respondents should be informed of what changes their feedback has led to.
“The sort of thing that supermarkets do, telling people what has been done as a result of their comments, can be really helpful,” she says.
The clipboard-wielding interviewer, politely accosting people by the exit door, may be the image that most readily springs to mind. But this has never been the only option for carrying out a survey, and the continuing spread of mobile devices into people’s daily lives means that the range of possibilities has now vastly increased.
Online survey tools such as Survey Monkey, SmartSurvey and Google Forms offer intuitive interfaces and provide at least basic functionality for free. These can act in a similar way to a face-to-face paper-based survey, with the interviewer using a tablet rather than a clipboard. And by directing people to a link or QR code, museums can also ask visitors to fill out surveys on site themselves, using their own devices.
These two uses of online surveys are analogous to how paper-based surveys can be deployed. But perhaps the key major difference with an online survey is that it makes it much simpler for questionnaires to be filled out off the premises. All the museum needs to do at the time of the visit is take email addresses – a link to the survey can be sent out later for people to complete at their convenience.
A museum can ask more questions in this way than it would be able to face to face, says museums and cultural consultant Laura Crossley.
“If it’s an exit survey, I don’t think people are really willing to spend more than five minutes at most answering questions. Online, people will spend 10 or 15 minutes, so you can get more in-depth data,” she says.
There are a number of other factors to consider, including likely response rates, staff and volunteer time, wifi availability, and how survey data will be stored. For example, online survey software pulls all the data together automatically, whereas with a paper survey it needs to be input manually. But whatever paper or digital format museums decide to use, there are typically three options: in person, on site but unsupervised, or off site. Some museums use a combination of all three.
Within these categories, however, it also pays to think carefully about the subtleties of how a survey is presented. For an in-person survey, friendly interviewers help – and for an unsupervised on-site survey, something as simple as drawing attention to surveys at the reception desk can encourage responses. For all surveys, an introduction explaining how the information will feed into the museum’s offer can go a long way.
“Why are you asking people to give up their time and what will it help you to do? If you say something like ‘your views are going to help us shape our new gallery’, it shows you are going to take what they say seriously,” says Crossley.
But there is no harm in appealing to less exalted motivations, and offering incentives can be particularly effective for online surveys. Offering respondents the chance to enter a draw to win a prize such as a voucher, visitor pass, or meal is an established technique. “Even offering a £20 shopping voucher gives people more of a reason to spend 15 minutes online filling in a survey,” says Crossley.
And although visitors want to feel that their input is valued, a sense of privacy can also encourage people to participate. Some museums feel that they can achieve this using touchscreen technology, such as CRT’s Viewpoint. Viewpoint is currently used by Oxford University Museums Partnership (OUMP) and Museum Development North West (MDNW).
The touchscreens can be mounted in a kiosk or stand, or placed on a table. MDNW’s 2015-16 annual report states that there are 79 Viewpoint machines in museums across the region. Data from Viewpoint has been used to inform a number of projects, including the development of a new £1.4m history gallery at Harris Museum and Art Gallery in Preston.
MDNW says that the familiarity of the touch screen and the sense of privacy and anonymity encourage people to use it. And OUMP reports that it collected more visitor responses in the first three months, after switching to Viewpoint, than it had in the previous twelve months.
On the other hand, some museums have had success by taking a very different approach that raises the profile of a survey to make it an appealing activity in itself.
As part of efforts to find out about potential audiences and their interests King’s Lynn Town Hall hosted a medieval experience day. As part of this event it created a survey in the style of a medieval scroll, and asked visitors to fill in the blanks.
“If people filled it out, they could then come back and collect a certificate saying they were a burgess of the town. We thought it would just be children coming back, but we got adults too,” says museum evaluation consultant Harriet Foster.
“We displayed all the surveys on the wall so that people could read them – we got a fantastic response rate, because it was seen as another activity that was part of the day,” says Foster.
She dubs this technique “survey by stealth” and says it works particularly well with family audiences. “People know what you’re doing, but it’s fun,” she explains.
As well as researching their audiences, it’s important for museums to find out more about non-visitors. Naturally, this can’t be done on site, so lateral thinking is required to target the right people.
“Thinking about who your target audience is, where they go and at what times and days can really help,” says Crossley.
“Last year I had a stall at a big Halloween event because we knew that a lot of families, who the museum wanted to target, would be there. If you are looking for visitors with a particular interest, you could do a survey after a specialist talk or tour,” she adds..
Shopping centres and cafes can be good places to target a general non-visitor audience. And local stakeholders like children’s centres, history groups and youth groups can help push out online surveys, she adds.
Ultimately, a combination of approaches may be the best way to get a comprehensive range of useful responses from both visitors and non-visitors.
Crossley recently conducted a consultation for Holkham Walled Garden in Norfolk. For visitors, this included on-site surveys and online surveys, promoted via the venue’s website and social media accounts.
Meanwhile, non-visitors were reached through local libraries and groups. “It’s all about thinking about who museums want to answer a survey, and what the best way to reach them is,” she says.
Of course, engaging with audiences does not end when a survey does. One of the benefits of surveys is to help a museum’s visitors and non-visitors feel empowered. If possible, says Crossley, respondents should be informed of what changes their feedback has led to.
“The sort of thing that supermarkets do, telling people what has been done as a result of their comments, can be really helpful,” she says.
