{"id":773,"date":"2005-09-27T00:24:50","date_gmt":"2005-09-27T07:24:50","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/artfulmanager\/wp\/2005\/09\/alternate_measures\/"},"modified":"2005-09-27T00:24:50","modified_gmt":"2005-09-27T07:24:50","slug":"alternate_measures","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/artfulmanager\/main\/alternate_measures.php","title":{"rendered":"Alternate measures"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>I&#8217;m still reconstructing my keynote from the Arts Alive conference in New Jersey. I was inspired to rewrite the whole darn thing just hours before, so I have to rework my original draft. My thanks to the organizers for inviting me. And stay tuned for a posted version of my comments.<\/p>\n<p>In the meanwhile, I thought I&#8217;d throw out some &#8221;alternate measures&#8221; that popped up throughout the speech (and some I forgot to mention), used by some innovative arts organizations to get useful feedback on their impact. If you know of others, please <a href=\"http:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/artfulmanager\/main\/006019.php#comments\">post them as a comment<\/a>:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><b>Manning the perimeter<\/b><br \/>\nOne associate in marketing at a major theater determined the exact distance from the building that groups of audience members would start discussing the show and their experience. They wouldn&#8217;t talk in the lobby. They wouldn&#8217;t talk in the first 100 feet or so, walking toward their cars. There was a seemingly magic distance from the theater that most groups would finally start chatting. And that&#8217;s where my associate scattered minions and work study students to listen in and report back.<\/p>\n<li><b>Ask a Cabbie<\/b><br \/>\nAnother associate serving as an Executive Director would travel extensively, and on every trip home he would hop in a cab at the airport and ask some random questions: &#8221;Do you know of a good museum in town? Have you ever been? What&#8217;s the buzz on the best place to visit to see art?&#8221; He would do the same in the cities he visited, to see how his organization fared against others in the country.<\/p>\n<li><b>The One-Question Intercept Interview<\/b><br \/>\nDisney is famous for its feedback systems. If you ever visit, you see at least one of them: the one-question survey. As you are guided onto a monorail or served a soda, staff is trained to ask a question: &#8221;Where are you folks from?&#8221; &#8221;How are you enjoying the day?&#8221; I&#8217;ve known arts organizations that use similar techniques, encouraging staff to ask one of a list of simple questions, and make note of the responses. Just think if each box office operator or teller asked a single question with every transaction how much you could learn (and they could learn about listening).<br \/>\nSome organizations I know even set a measure to beat: at one lunch break a week, stop someone on the street and ask directions to your facility. Keep a tally to see if you&#8217;re doing better week to week.<\/p>\n<li><b>View from the Duck Blind<\/b><br \/>\nYou can also learn volumes about your building and its patrons by simply watching with a critical eye. Observe an hour&#8217;s worth of visitors as they enter, for example, to see where they wander first, where their eyes go when they&#8217;re looking for their way. If more than a few look the same direction, be sure there&#8217;s something there to guide future visitors.<\/p>\n<li><b>Instant Focus Group<\/b><br \/>\nIf you&#8217;re working on a new promotional piece, bring a mock-up home to the kids or the neighbors. Throw it down and ask them what they&#8217;d do if they wanted to buy a ticket or reserve a spot for the event. If it takes them more than three seconds to answer you&#8230;you&#8217;re dead.\n<\/ul>\n<p>Tiny steps, to be sure. But such is how journeys begin.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>I&#8217;m still reconstructing my keynote from the Arts Alive conference in New Jersey. I was inspired to rewrite the whole darn thing just hours before, so I have to rework my original draft. My thanks to the organizers for inviting me. And stay tuned for a posted version of my comments. In the meanwhile, I [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_genesis_hide_title":false,"_genesis_hide_breadcrumbs":false,"_genesis_hide_singular_image":false,"_genesis_hide_footer_widgets":false,"_genesis_custom_body_class":"","_genesis_custom_post_class":"","_genesis_layout":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-773","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","6":"category-main","7":"entry"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/artfulmanager\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/773","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/artfulmanager\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/artfulmanager\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/artfulmanager\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/artfulmanager\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=773"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/artfulmanager\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/773\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/artfulmanager\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=773"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/artfulmanager\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=773"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/artfulmanager\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=773"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}