Post-visit survey

Hey Isabella,

1) Response rate. Rather than tracking response rates based on the number of completed questionnaires as a percentage of post-visit emails sent, we actually track our response rates as a percentage of the total number of visitors to our museums. Our response rates vary quite a lot by museum:

Science Museum, London - 3%,
National Railway Museum, York - 8%,
National Science and Media Museum, Bradford - 4%,
Science and Industry Museum, Manchester - 3%.

2) We have the same length basic questionnaire at each site (40 questions including several grid-style questions and 3 open-responses), but each site also has 'sidestreets' of questions. If, for example, a visitor tells us they visited a particular exhibition they get sent down a short 'sidestreet' of additional questions specific to that particular exhibition (usually around six or seven extra questions).

Let me know if it would be useful to share a copy of our questionnaire

Hope that's helpful

Grae

Thanks Grae that's really helpful!

Hi Isabella

We have about 50 questions in our post-visit survey.  Like Grae, people will have slightly different selections of questions depending on their answers.

best wishes

Alison

Thanks Alison!

Hey Isabella,

I've done some digging on this as response rate is not a metric we usually track (but will be from now on!).

Our 'Rolling Research' post-visit survey is conducted throughout the year on two main channels, on-site by fieldworkers, and online where it is sent to anyone who books a ticket specifically for Gallery Entry (this is not mandatory so does not go to all visitors). We also send out exhibition-specific post-visit surveys to those who attend exhibitions. These are shorter and have different levels of engagement. Do let me know if you would like detail on these too.

As Alison already mentioned, the General post-visit survey consists of approximately 50 questions (some conditional on other responses, e.g. we only ask for your region if you respond that you are from the UK), and takes approximately 12-15 minutes to complete.

The on-site fieldwork is conducted by an external agency and they estimate that the refusal rate for the survey is ~67%. i.e. about 33% of on-site visitors who are asked to complete the survey, do so.

As for the online completes, since April 2023, the response rate has been 9.4% (Survey completes divided by survey sends).

Happy to help with any more information if you need!

Best,
Stefano

Hey guys,
In regards to post show emails, I wondered if any of you have ever had any insights / feedback RE matinee vs evening shows at all?  Like if a customer prefers afternoons because of transport / walking home in the dark etc?  Cheers, Mark

Interesting to hear you're using an agency to do on site fieldwork - we're wanting to increase the representation within survey results for groups that are less willing to complete self-completion emailed surveys.  Would be interested to know who you use / if anyone else out there is using an agency.  However it may not be as cost-effective for us as there's a 15 minute exodus window at the end of the performance. I imagine it works well for exhibitions but perhaps more tricky for live events. 

Would be interested to hear more on this if you can spare a moment!

Thanks Stefano! Interesting to hear the on site and online response rates, thanks for sharing. Isabella

We send post-show surveys to all bookers by email incentivised via entry into a biannual prize drawer to win a £50 high street shopping voucher. (generic prize so as not to skew the sample) We receive a response rate of 12-15% of bookers by this approach.

The number of questions varies on the respondent's answers, which in turn depend on what they do while on-site. (e.g. if you tell us you visited bars you'll get a series of questions about your experience at the bars, if you visited the gift shop some questions about that, and if you did both you'll be asked about one or the other) I'd guesstimate that respondents are asked 20-25 questions, including all the arts engagement and demographic questions at the end which are the same for everyone.

Thanks Lawrence! Great to hear what you're doing and the response rate you're getting from that survey.