{"id":4523,"date":"2016-04-20T02:00:39","date_gmt":"2016-04-20T06:00:39","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/engage\/?p=4523"},"modified":"2016-05-31T15:12:24","modified_gmt":"2016-05-31T19:12:24","slug":"client-customer-collaborator-a-roadmap","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/engage\/2016\/04\/client-customer-collaborator-a-roadmap\/","title":{"rendered":"Client, Customer, Collaborator: A Roadmap"},"content":{"rendered":"<p style=\"text-align: center;\"><strong>by Amelia Northrup-Simpson<\/strong><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\"><em>This post is part of a series in conjunction with TRG Arts on developing relationships with both new communities and existing stakeholders through artistic programming, marketing and fundraising, community engagement, and public policy. (Cross-post can be found at <\/em><a href=\"http:\/\/www.trgarts.com\/Blog.aspx\" target=\"_blank\"><em>Analysis from TRG Arts<\/em><\/a><em>.) <\/em><\/p>\n<p>Do you treat arts patrons like customers, clients, or collaborators?<\/p>\n<p>In the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/engage\/2016\/04\/customer-client-collaborator\/\" target=\"_blank\">first post in this series<\/a>, Doug Borwick laid out this important question. Let\u2019s re-cap the definitions of each:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><strong>The exchange with a customer is largely arms-length. We provide something, they buy it.<\/strong> End of story.<\/li>\n<li style=\"text-align: justify;\"><strong>With a client there is a relationship, but they still come to us for the &#8220;product&#8221; we create and are selling.<\/strong> We may tailor it to their particular interests but we are in charge of the &#8220;supply.&#8221;<\/li>\n<li><strong>A collaborator is a partner<\/strong>, suggesting mutual benefit and participation.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">If our job as arts managers is to bring artists and audiences together, these definitions become very important. The spectrum from customer to collaborator indicates how deeply we allow the connection to artists to go.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">It also brings up the <a href=\"http:\/\/www.trgarts.com\/Blog\/BlogPost\/tabid\/136\/ArticleId\/359\/Both-sides-now-short-term-income-vs-long-term-engagement-in-the-arts.aspx\" target=\"_blank\">polarity<\/a> between new and existing audiences. How do we include new audiences and welcome them in as collaborators? How do we deepen relationships with existing stakeholders and move them beyond \u201ccustomer\u201d status? Is it possible to do either with our current business model? If it is possible, how do we balance the wants and needs of new and existing constituencies?<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">This polarity and the ways we can engage new and existing audiences has inspired this blog series, which is designed around the following questions:<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\"><em>How does the need to deepen relationships with current stakeholders and build relationships with new audiences and new communities affect your work in the arts? What future changes in your work might be necessary\/helpful due to that need?<\/em><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">TRG is looking forward to promoting new voices on this blog, including our own clients and TRG Council members, as well as other movers and shakers in the field.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">Among these different voices, there\u2019s not one \u201cright\u201d way to address the new vs. existing polarity. We discussed the ways that organizations tackle this issue and identified 4 categories of initiatives:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>programming<\/li>\n<li>marketing\/fundraising<\/li>\n<li>community engagement<\/li>\n<li>public policy<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">Each post in this series addresses one or more of these categories. Underlying each category is the tension between new and existing. There are things that we do in each area that serve new communities, existing patrons, or both. I\u2019ve visualized it in the diagram below, which serves as a sort of roadmap for the series:<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-4524 aligncenter\" src=\"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/engage\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/04\/community-engagement-conversation-map-e1461006366868.gif\" alt=\"community-engagement-conversation-map\" width=\"334\" height=\"300\" \/><\/p>\n<h2>&#8212;&#8212;&#8212;&#8212;&#8212;&#8212;&#8212;&#8212;&#8212;&#8212;&#8212;&#8212;&#8212;&#8212;&#8212;&#8212;&#8212;&#8212;&#8212;-<\/h2>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-4311 alignleft\" src=\"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/engage\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/10\/amelianorthrup_165x165-cc.jpg\" alt=\"amelianorthrup_165x165-cc\" width=\"165\" height=\"165\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/engage\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/10\/amelianorthrup_165x165-cc.jpg 165w, https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/engage\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/10\/amelianorthrup_165x165-cc-150x150.jpg 150w, https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/engage\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/10\/amelianorthrup_165x165-cc-100x100.jpg 100w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 165px) 100vw, 165px\" \/>Amelia Northrup-Simpson has devoted her career to bringing audiences and artists together. As frequent writer and speaker on building sustainable arts organizations, developing and engaging arts audiences, and patron technology expectations, she helps arts managers cut through noise and distractions to focus on the most effective marketing and technology strategies for their organization.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">Currently, Amelia is the Director of Strategic Communications at TRG Arts, a consulting firm which focuses on getting audience development and revenue results from loyalty, pricing, and data strategies. She serves as an editor and writer for the firm\u2019s consulting and research analytics projects, presentations and webinars, case studies, and the TRG blog Analysis from TRG Arts. She also serves as TRG\u2019s in-house marketing technologist and user interface advisor. She has presented conference panels, workshops, and webinars for Americans for the Arts, Theatre Communications Group, Do Good Data, Chorus America, and Colorado Creative Industries, among others. She is a member of the artsmarketing.org Advisory Committee and serves as adjunct faculty at University of Denver&#8217;s Arts Development and Program Management master&#8217;s degree program.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Roadmap to the Customer, Client, Collaborator blog series sponsored by Engaging Matters\/ArtsEngaged and TRG Arts.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":4524,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","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":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"Client, Customer, Collaborator: A Roadmap for the blog series.","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[61,62],"tags":[12,13,45,27,43,16],"class_list":{"0":"post-4523","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-customer-client-collaborator-series","8":"category-guest-post","9":"tag-arts","10":"tag-community-engagement","11":"tag-fundraising","12":"tag-marketing","13":"tag-programming","14":"tag-public-policy","15":"entry"},"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/engage\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/04\/community-engagement-conversation-map-e1461006366868.gif","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p1G6h9-1aX","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":4467,"url":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/engage\/2016\/04\/customer-client-collaborator\/","url_meta":{"origin":4523,"position":0},"title":"Customer, Client, Collaborator?","author":"Doug Borwick","date":"April 13, 2016","format":false,"excerpt":"Successful community engagement is a partnership entered into for mutual benefit, based on mutual respect, and honoring the expertise of both parties. Ditto fundraising, marketing, public policy, etc.","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Customer-Client-Collaborator Series&quot;","block_context":{"text":"Customer-Client-Collaborator Series","link":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/engage\/category\/customer-client-collaborator-series\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"Customer","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.artsjournal.com\/engage\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/03\/Customer.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":4266,"url":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/engage\/2015\/11\/fracking-and-arts-marketing\/","url_meta":{"origin":4523,"position":1},"title":"Fracking and Arts Marketing","author":"Doug Borwick","date":"November 11, 2015","format":false,"excerpt":"While we are developing the relationships that will support us in the long term, better marketing is a great way to help us get from here to there.","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Customer-Client-Collaborator Series&quot;","block_context":{"text":"Customer-Client-Collaborator Series","link":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/engage\/category\/customer-client-collaborator-series\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"FrackingRig","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.artsjournal.com\/engage\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/07\/FrackingRig-e1438015074754.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":4339,"url":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/engage\/2015\/12\/relationships-all-the-way-down\/","url_meta":{"origin":4523,"position":2},"title":"Relationships All the Way Down","author":"Doug Borwick","date":"December 2, 2015","format":false,"excerpt":"The first principle in and foundation for everything is engagement; \u201cit\u2019s relationships all the way down.\u201d Arts organizations need to address the questions, \u201cHow can we help?\u201d and \u201cHow can we nurture relationships?\u201d","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Customer-Client-Collaborator Series&quot;","block_context":{"text":"Customer-Client-Collaborator Series","link":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/engage\/category\/customer-client-collaborator-series\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"StackedTurtles","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.artsjournal.com\/engage\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/10\/StackedTurtles.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":4279,"url":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/engage\/2015\/10\/marketing-and-development-terminology\/","url_meta":{"origin":4523,"position":3},"title":"Marketing and Development Terminology","author":"Doug Borwick","date":"October 14, 2015","format":false,"excerpt":"Differentiating among development, marketing, sales, and community engagement,","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Customer-Client-Collaborator Series&quot;","block_context":{"text":"Customer-Client-Collaborator Series","link":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/engage\/category\/customer-client-collaborator-series\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"Dictionary","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.artsjournal.com\/engage\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/08\/Dictionary.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":4309,"url":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/engage\/2015\/10\/inside-out-vs-outside-in\/","url_meta":{"origin":4523,"position":4},"title":"Inside Out vs. Outside In","author":"Doug Borwick","date":"October 7, 2015","format":false,"excerpt":"Inside Out vs. Outside In: community engagement and loyalty building work together","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Customer-Client-Collaborator Series&quot;","block_context":{"text":"Customer-Client-Collaborator Series","link":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/engage\/category\/customer-client-collaborator-series\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"cinnamon_roll_inside_out","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.artsjournal.com\/engage\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/10\/cinnamon_roll_inside_out.gif?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":4499,"url":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/engage\/2016\/04\/relationships-and-public-policy\/","url_meta":{"origin":4523,"position":5},"title":"Relationships and Public Policy","author":"Doug Borwick","date":"April 27, 2016","format":false,"excerpt":"by Karen Gahl-Mills This post is part of a series in conjunction with TRG Arts on developing relationships with both new communities and existing stakeholders through artistic programming, marketing and fundraising, community engagement, and public policy. (Cross-post can be found at Analysis from TRG Arts.) I had an interesting conversation\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Customer-Client-Collaborator Series&quot;","block_context":{"text":"Customer-Client-Collaborator Series","link":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/engage\/category\/customer-client-collaborator-series\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"GahlMillsHeadshot","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.artsjournal.com\/engage\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/04\/GahlMillsHeadshot-e1459779165968.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/engage\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4523","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/engage\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/engage\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/engage\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/engage\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4523"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/engage\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4523\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4528,"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/engage\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4523\/revisions\/4528"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/engage\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/4524"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/engage\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4523"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/engage\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4523"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/engage\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4523"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}