Visitor survey work: Who are our visitors? (2 of 3)

In our first discussion, we looked at the National Museum of the Marine Corps’ first experiment with visitor tracking within one of its exhibit galleries. Now we look at data collected during a quick exit survey and the Museum’s participation in a more formal program. In 2007-08, the Marine Corps Museum signed up for what is now called “Visitors Count!” with the American Association for State and Local History. Their survey has been used by a wide range of museums across the country during recent years; the instrument is tried and true, statistically proven, and allows for museums to compare their results with other organizations in their field or region. Participants have the option to include a few questions of their own, specific to their needs, but the instrument is provided by AASLH, the results are analyzed by AASLH’s statistical partner, and AASLH provides very specific guidelines on its execution. Institutional members get a discount on the survey program’s fees.

Our third major initiative was to use Survey Monkey, inviting our visitors to go to our web site upon their return home and answer some questions about their recent visit. We used an attractive keepsake-quality 5x7 postcard as our invitation, which we handed out to visitors either as they entered or as they exited. Most of the questions were similar to our earlier survey work; others were tailored to help our foundation partner gather data about visitor satisfaction in the museum store and food venues. We added a question about family income for the first time at the suggestion of our development team, who kept seeing that question come up on grant applications. And we ran the survey for a full year (June 2009-May 2010) to see if there were seasonal differences (there were not many). And we looked at zip code information gathered by the store. We learned a lot!

Male:female visitor ratio ave = 64:36 (for the on-line survey it was 67:33).

Of visitors surveyed on-line, 22% were in the 26-45 age group, 47% were 46-65, 17% were 66-75. While the age categories were slightly different, this data coincided with that collected during the AASLH survey: 34% were age 19-34, 25% 35-54, and 25% 55+. Surveys generally did not include the large numbers of active duty Marines, who are generally younger than 26, nor organized school and youth groups. These percentages reflected the general adult visitor population.

Overwhelming percentage of our visitors was white (89%). Again, surveys generally did not include the large numbers of active duty Marines and school groups, whose ethnic backgrounds are more diverse than our general adult visitor population.

Many of our visitors hailed from VA (21%), followed in decreasing order by PA, MD, FL, NC, NY, CA, NJ, and TX. Most of our visitors traveled from nearby Mid-Atlantic states and from those states with the largest overall populations and largest populations of retirees. These numbers coincided with zip code data collected by the Museum Store.

Of the visitors surveyed, 36% reported being Marines, past or present. Again, surveys generally did not include the large numbers of active duty Marines who visit the Museum in organized groups. Slightly fewer visitors reported being Marines during the first half of the year.

In 2009-10, 41% of visitors reported staying in area hotels and campgrounds; in 2007-08, the number was 22%, a marked change.

Our visitors were generally equally distributed across all income levels, with a small increase of visitors reporting an annual income of $46-75K in January-June and a slight increase of those reporting $100k+ in September-December.

Our visitors spend several hours at the Museum: 1% was here less than 1 hour; 21% spent 1-2 hours; 34% spent 2-3 hours; 25% spent 3-4 hours; and 19% were at the Museum for 4+ hours!

In 2009-10, 64% of our visitors were first-timers. (The reported number in 2007-08 was 79%; we would expect this number to be highest shortly after opening and decrease thereafter if the Museum is attracting repeat visitors.) In 2009, 16% of those surveyed were on their 2d visit; 11% on 3d visit; and 10% reported having been at the Museum 4 times or more!

61% of visitors surveyed indicated that they had visited NMMC’s web site.

37% of visitors surveyed indicated that they had eaten in one of the restaurants on their visit, and 70% reported buying something from the Museum Store. Both these numbers are significantly higher than the reported capture rates reported by both revenue-generating venues; capture rates are based on total visitation, to include Marines, students, and other populations not surveyed.

You’ll recall from my first blog that we first used a quick 6-question exit interview. Of our 6 questions, we wasted one. Obviously, having just opened, most visitors would be there for their first time. No need to ask that one. Age ranges differed a bit from survey to survey. We recommend using the AASLH breakdown so that all data meshes; they came up with this breakdown based on years of research; no need for us to try something different. Our interns should have been trained more thoroughly; a mix of older docents working with the interns may have also netted us more validity with our older visitors, some of whom seemed not to take them seriously. And we believe that we could have gone up to 10 questions and still remained within most subjects’ comfort zone with a stand-up interview.

For the AASLH survey, we needed a relatively quiet space where our visitors could take this longer, more complex survey. Randomly selected guests fill out this multi-page questionnaire themselves; it takes several minutes of careful reading; many of the questions require a sliding scale answer; some questions are asked more than once from a different perspective. We chose to use one of our restaurants for the survey site; about 25% of our visitors visit one of the two restaurants on the second deck. Visitors, especially during the first 18 months or so perceived the Mess Hall to be over-priced. By conducting our survey upstairs, we biased the results toward visitors who could afford the prices and the time to eat at the Museum. It was also hard to be completely random, and we may have gravitated to visitors who seemed more receptive and friendly. It’s hard not to, because you’re asking for a valuable commodity: their time. If they appear cool or unhappy, you believe your chances of success are not good. We will repeat this survey next year, and we’ll find another physical place for the interviews and work on our objectivity. And our little appreciation gift—a laminated bookmark—is definitely a gift not appropriate for all age groups. This survey was also executed on weekends and weekdays, primarily mid-day, over two seasons.

Who has exit survey experiences they would like to share? Check out AASLH’s site for more information on “Visitors Count.” Next blog will look at how we measured visitor satisfaction and the National Museum of the Marine Corps’ experiences with an on-line survey.

—Lin Ezell, Director, NMMC, and VAM Council Member.