In this episode, Amy invites listeners to see their museum through the eyes of its visitors, from the moment someone first hears about the museum to the moment they decide whether they’ll ever come back. She breaks down the difference between a visitor journey (the path people take before, during, and after a visit) and the visitor experience (how that path feels), and explains why museum teams need to understand both to grow attendance and create relationships with visitors so they will want to come back and bring a friend.

Links from the Episode:

1. Want to talk about your museum’s visitor journey? Book a Call.
2. Museum Digital Assessment

More Free Resources for Museums:

1. Getting Visitors Through Your Museum’s Doors: Building Connection in a Noisy World ebook
2. Museum Planning Calendar
3. Museum Metrics Template

About the host:

Amy Kehs is a brand strategist and communications expert for museums. She has owned Kehs Communications since 2000 and has worked for the most renowned and well-loved museums in Washington, D.C. Her goal is to ensure that museums thrive into the next century and she hopes people will come to love museums as much as she does. Her proven process sets up proactive communication habits for museums, cultivating relationships with visitors who will want to return and bring a friend. Want to talk more? Click this link to book a call.

when was the last time you really looked at your museum through

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your visitor's eyes from the moment

they think of you to the moment

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they decide if they'll come back.

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That's what we're talking about today.

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Let's get started.

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Hello and welcome to the

Love My Museum podcast.

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I'm your host, Amy Kehs

and I love museums.

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I'm also a brand strategist and

communications expert for museums, and

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I am so glad that you're here Today.

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We are going to talk about

something really important and do

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a little bit of a deep dive on it.

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I want you to think about the last time

you had an incredible day out somewhere.

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Maybe it was a museum.

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It could have been a theme park

or a garden, or even just a

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really well run coffee shop.

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From the moment you decided

to go to the moment you got

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home, it probably felt easy.

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Things made sense.

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You knew what their hours were,

you knew where to park, you knew

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where to go, what to do next.

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The people were kind.

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And you left thinking that was great.

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I would totally go back and I should

tell my friends about this place.

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Now compare that to a day where

everything felt harder than it had to be.

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You couldn't figure out where to park.

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You got there and they didn't

open for another half hour.

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Even though you checked before you left,

you weren't sure which door to use.

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The website said one thing, but

the signs said another inside.

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You couldn't tell where to start.

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There was nothing horrible, but there was

just enough friction that you thought,

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eh, I don't need to come back here.

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Those two days probably had

the same basic ingredients.

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Getting there, being there and leaving.

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But they added up to two

really different stories.

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That's what we're going to talk about

today, your visitor journey and why it

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matters so much for getting people in your

doors and just as importantly, getting

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them to come back and bring a friend.

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I know for the last few episodes we've

been talking about the Love My Museum

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Method, which is my three part external

communication strategy for museums.

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The three parts are brand messaging, your

visitor experience, and media relations.

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And we've touched a little bit

about each of these, uh, quite a

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few times, but today we are going to

talk about that visitor experience.

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Why it matters so much for getting

people in your doors and just

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as importantly, getting them to

come back and bring a friend.

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This is going to be a little more

detailed, a little more advanced.

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So if you've listened to earlier

episodes about visitor experience today,

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we're going to go a little bit deeper.

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So let's start by separating two

ideas that often get mushed together.

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Visitor journey and visitor experience.

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Now, when I say visitor

journey, I am talking about.

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The path that a visitor

takes with your museum.

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It's the sequence of stages

and steps that they go through.

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I separate this into three parts

before the visit, during the

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visit, and then after the visit.

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So their journey might start with

hearing about you from a friend,

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seeing a post on Instagram, Googling.

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Things to do with kids this weekend.

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Maybe they, they are

landing on your website.

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They're looking at your

hours, your admission prices.

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They're deciding whether

it's worth the drive.

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They're trying to figure out do

they need to buy tickets, figure out

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parking, planning snacks, or lunch.

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And then once they get there that during

the visit part of the journey kicks in.

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Arriving and finding the entrance,

navigating your lobby, your ticket desk.

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What if it's raining?

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Do you have a coat check?

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What if someone is in a wheelchair

or it's a family with a stroller?

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Is it handicap accessible?

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Possible?

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And then getting oriented?

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Where do we start?

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Moving through the exhibits, taking

breaks, using the restroom, maybe

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the cafe or a gift shop, and then

finally exiting and heading home.

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And then that after the visit part

of the journey starts talking about

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the visit on the ride home, sharing

photos on social media, getting a

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follow up email from your museum.

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Maybe leaving a Google Review or a review

on TripAdvisor, maybe, or maybe not

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deciding to come back and bring a friend.

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All of those steps from the very

first moment they think maybe we

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should go to the moment they decide,

oh yes, I would definitely come back.

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Are part of that visitor journey.

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Now the visitor experience is the

emotional and the mental layer that

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sits up on top of that journey.

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It's how that path feels.

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So at each step of the journey, the

visitor's thinking and feeling something,

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it might be, oh, I'm really curious.

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Oh, I'm super excited.

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Oh, I feel really overwhelmed

and I don't know where to start.

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Oh, I'm really confused.

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Do I go in the side door

or in this front door?

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Relieved.

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Oh, thank goodness.

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They allow strollers.

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I wasn't sure.

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Welcomed.

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Oh, that person at the front was

so nice or maybe a little annoyed.

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The same journey step can create

a very different experience

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depending on how it's designed.

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Two people can walk the very same.

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Path that very same journey, but have

very different emotional experiences.

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So a simple example, the journey

step is buy tickets online.

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That's just the path.

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But the experience might be,

oh my gosh, that was so easy.

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This museum is super organized.

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Or why is this so confusing?

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I don't know what time slot to choose.

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The prices aren't clear.

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I'm starting to regret this already.

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Maybe we just won't go.

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Maybe we'll just skip it.

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The journey is what happens.

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The experience is how it feels.

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And here's where it gets

a little more advanced.

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You don't have just one visitor journey.

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You probably have several.

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You might have a local member

who visits three times a year.

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You may have a teacher

trying to book a field trip.

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Uh, you may have parents with

young children who are looking for

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something to do on a rainy Saturday.

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It could be out of town tourists who may

only ever come once, but they are still

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going to take that information back to

their hometown and tell friends who are

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planning a visit to your destination.

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You might have a college student coming

to a night event with friends, the

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visitor who needs accessible roots

with clear signage or extra support.

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Each of these people moves through

slightly different journeys,

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and each one has different

expectations and pain points.

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So when we talk about your

visitor journey, we're really

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talking about a set of journeys.

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And today, your goal is to

just start noticing them.

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Now, why should we bother

mapping all of this out?

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Museums are busy, resources are tight,

and it can sound like just one more

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abstract strategy project that's

going to go into a digital folder,

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never to see the light of day again.

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But here's the truth.

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Your visitors are not just

giving you money, a ticket sale.

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They're giving you their most

precious resource, their time.

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And if you can turn that one

time visitor into a lifelong

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fan, they will be your champions.

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They're comparing you, whether

consciously or not to every other way.

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They could spend their free afternoon,

they could stay at home, they could

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watch a movie, they could take

the kids to the playground, they

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could go to another attraction.

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If any part of the journey feels too

confusing or too tiring or too risky.

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What if the kids are bored?

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What if it's not worth the ticket price?

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They're likely to choose something else.

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Mapping the journey forces you to zoom

out and look at the full story from

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the visitor's point of view, not just

your exhibits, not just your marketing.

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Everything.

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And when you map the journey, you start

to see places where people can get stuck

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or confused before they ever arrive.

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Steps that feel intimidating,

little moments that might.

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Either build trust and excitement

or the opposite, chip it away.

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Sometimes the issues are exactly

at the seams between departments.

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The website says one thing,

but the front of house says

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another marketing is promising.

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One type of experience that operations

either doesn't even know about or

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they can't consistently deliver.

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Education might be designing amazing

programs, but visitors can't find

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them on the calendar, on the website,

when you see the journey, you realize,

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oh, visitors don't experience our.

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Org chart, they experience one

continuous story and we have to ensure

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we have to fill in those gaps so that

it is that one visitor experience.

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I.

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So that all of the bits and pieces that

the different departments are responsible

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for actually fit together into a puzzle.

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That's where that internal

communications piece comes in, and

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that story deeply influences whether

they have a good time and they wanna

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come back, So let's talk about that

visitor journey map and actually.

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What it might look like in practice.

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You don't need any fancy

software to start doing this.

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A whiteboard, sticky notes

are just a piece of paper

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So first we'll start with

these three bigger phases.

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Before the visit, during the visit, after

the visit, and with each phase, you're

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going to map out what is the visitor

doing, how are they interacting with you?

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what might they be feeling or needing.

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So let's walk through those phases

So before the visit, this starts,

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the moment the idea of your museum

has popped into somebody's mind.

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You, you might list steps like they

hear about you from a friend, or

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they see a post on social media.

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they click on your website

or a Google listing.

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They're coming to your website

to check hours and prices and

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parking and accessibility.

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Maybe they're going to your Facebook

page to look for that information.

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They decide whether it works for

their family, their schedule, their.

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Budget.

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They're looking to see do we need tickets?

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Are the tickets free?

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Is there anything else that we

need to reserve or buy tickets for?

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Before we come?

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At each of those steps,

ask, how easy is this?

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What might they be feeling?

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Where might they hesitate?

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So the second part, the second

phase is the, during the visit,

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and this begins as they physically

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are trying to get to your building

or your venue steps might include,

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is there a clear sign on the highway?

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how did they find parking or.

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Using public transportation, what's

the nearest transit stop and how

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do I get there after I get off

the bus, the train, the subway?

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How do I find the entrance?

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Is there security?

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Are there things I'm not allowed to bring?

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What are the most common

questions that visitors ask?

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And How can you make that easier?

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How do people move through your exhibits?

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How do they attend your programs?

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What does it look like if

people need to take a break?

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Is there a bench?

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What are the restrooms like?

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Do you have a cafe?

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Is there seating?

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Do you have a gift shop?

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Are they allowed to exit and

go across the street to a cafe?

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Can they come back if

they've bought a ticket?

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again for each step, what are they doing?

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What do they see, hear, feel,

what might be confusing?

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What might cause stress or frustration?

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And then the third phase is after

the visit, we often forget this part,

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But it is huge for getting people

to come back to your museum.

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And some of the ways that we set

this up could be in the previous

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phase, so steps might include.

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Asking them to get on your

email list before they leave.

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What are things that you can give them

to encourage collecting that information

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How do you deliver a membership offer?

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How do you begin asking for feedback

if you've listened to this podcast

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for a while and you've already mapped

out your visitor journey, here's

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how you can go a little bit deeper.

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Pick the personas that we talked about

at the beginning, the specific types of

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visitors, and map out their journeys.

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Some examples might be an overwhelmed

parent who has two kids under 10 and they

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come to your museum on a rainy Saturday.

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it could be an out of town

tourist What are the highlights?

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What are the things that they should see?

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Maybe It's a, a teacher

bringing a group of 30 students.

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If you map out the journey for each

of these, you'll see different pain

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points and different opportunities.

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And then second, you can map out

multiple channels on the same journey.

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So at.

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Different points.

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The visitor might be looking for

information in different places, so

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a visitor might go to your website

to plan their visit, but they also

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might check out your Facebook page.

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They might be clicking on a

third party ticketing site.

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They might be checking a Google listing.

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They might be reading a

review on another platform.

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How do you get them to one spot?

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Or how do you share the same

information in in each channel?

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That's all part of the same journey,

so make sure that your information.

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Your messaging is consistent and

repeatable in all of those places.

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The third thing you can do if you

wanna kind of level up this, this, uh,

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assignment, is to add some real data.

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Once you've sketched the journey,

look at what you already knew.

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Like I said, what are the most common

questions people ask your front desk.

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So I know one of my kids volunteers

at a front desk at a museum and

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probably 50 times a day he's

asked where the bathrooms are.

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Maybe you need better signage

for where your bathrooms are.

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Probably the other 50 times a

day he's asked, this is my first

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time here, I only have an hour.

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What are the highlights?

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What should I go see?

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You also might want to think about

where do complaints tend to cluster?

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Looking at feedback, hopefully

you're collecting feedback or

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looking at analyzing Google

reviews or things on TripAdvisor.

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Where are people frustrated?

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Don't look at that

frustration as a bad thing.

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Use it as somebody trying to help

you improve your visitor experience.

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Do you have website analytics showing

which pages people are bouncing from?

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What are visitors saying in reviews?

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Positive and negative.

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So layer those onto your map.

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You might realize, wow, our pre-visit

stage is where we are losing

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people, or most of our frustration

is happening when people arrive.

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And then finally connect the

journey to decision making.

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The point of mapping isn't

just to have a pretty diagram,

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it's to make better choices.

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So ask yourself, ask your team what?

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Moments matter the most for

whether someone recommends us.

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Where can we have a small improvement

that will make a bigger impact?

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And if we can only fix three things this

year, which three of these things on this

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map would change the experience the most?

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And that's where journey mapping becomes

strategic instead of theoretical.

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That journey map and that to-do list

is a working document that everybody

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should be working on together because we

do not want to have departmental silos.

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Everyone is working towards the same goal,

which is to get visitors in your doors.

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So let's do a quick recap.

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The visitor journey is the path

that people take with your museum

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before, during, and after the visit.

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The visitor experience is how that

journey feels, and you have multiple

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journeys for different kinds of visitors.

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Mapping those journeys helps you see

hidden barriers, emotional highs and

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lows and opportunities to really get

people excited and really help people

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have an amazing experience so that

they come back and bring a friend.

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So your assignment should

you choose to accept it.

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A little homework until our next

episode airs if you're up for

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it, is this pick just one visitor

persona that we talked about today.

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Grab a piece of paper and draw a rough

journey from thinking about the visit

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to deciding whether to come back.

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Don't overthink it.

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Just write the steps, jot down

how they might feel at each one.

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And in the next episode, we're

going to zoom in on the touch

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points inside that visitor journey.

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The.

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Specific moments where visitors interact

with you, and I'll share some concrete

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examples of how museums can improve those

touch points in really practical ways.

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Thank you so much for

spending time with me today.

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If this episode sparked any

thoughts, any ideas, any questions,

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I would love to hear from you.

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And if you would like to book a call with

me to talk about how we can improve your.

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Visitor journey.

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The link is in the show notes.

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Thanks so much for listening.

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I'll see you next time.