Increasing your Patron Data Collection

We all know that keeping a patron is easier and more profitable than trying to obtain a new patron; however, in most of the art organizations that I work with there is not a definite process in place to grow their patron data. Visitors to the museum for daily admission are very rarely asked for additional information outside of their zip code, so there is no way to track patrons to see if they are new or repeat visitors. Without this information it becomes difficult to track trends and what patrons are interested in outside of looking at sales numbers for particular programs and events. Establishing a process to obtain patron data opens up a whole new avenue to track sales order history, track interest, and market to these patrons to turn them into a repeat patron.

One of the questions that I get asked a lot during implementations is "How do we collect patron data during the sales process?". I always answer this question with the same response, “You will create a patron record and collect name, address, phone number and email.” This response is normally met with “There is no way we can do that!” To be perfectly honest, collecting that data on every sale on busy days will slow the lines and lead to patrons becoming upset and having poor visitor experiences. Which leads to the question of how can I have my cake and eat it too. There are many ways that we can grow our patron database without having a negative impact on lines. Below, I have outlined a few of these processes.

Increasing Online Sales

One of the best ways to collect patron data (plus keep lines smaller) is encouraging your patrons to register for programs online. Online sales through Altru are automatically connected to a patron record so you are guaranteed to gather the information that allows you to market to this customer in the future. There are many ways to increase online sales to collect this data, and I have outlined three options below:

• 
  
• Early On-Sale: Altru allows you to create on-sale dates for sales methods. If you allow web forms to go live before all other sales methods this encourages patrons to go online for their purchase.
  
• Avoiding the Lines: One of the benefits of selling program tickets online is the ability for patrons to use the eTicket option. With this functionally the patron can skip the ticket sales  lines and go right into the facility. Now this might require a change in how patrons are allowed into the facility but for the information that you are gathering it’s worth the change. Scanning tickets for programs also allows you to collect the number of tickets sold vs. the actual attendance.
  
• Online Discounts: Not all program sales will benefit from an early on-sale so another option is to have promo codes that only work online that will provide a discount to patrons that register on the web.
  

Increasing your online sales should be the goal of every organization, as there are cost savings with this type of transaction and improvements in the ease of use for the patron. Implementing some of the above options will not only help decrease the cost of selling a ticket, but it will increase the number of patrons in your database to help increase attendance in the future.

Increasing Patron data collection internally

The ability to collect patron data at the visitor services desk is not always practical on busy days of the week. However, we should not just dismiss the idea that we should be asking for the information from the patron when they attend your facility. The goal of every organization should be to continue to grow their patron database, as these can be future members and donors. So we need to become creative and make it a goal for everyone at your organization to help build that patron database. Below I have outlined a couple processes I have recommended to clients to help grow their patron database:

• 
  
• Collect data during slower times: On the busy days of the week we know we cannot slow down lines and create a patron record. However, we also know that we are not always busy, and during those less busy times users should be asking if patrons want to sign up for newsletters or marketing information about your organization. A patron record can be created with as little as First Name, Last Name, and email address. Once this record is added to the databases it can be added easily to sales orders in the future. Also if a user goes online and uses the same email address, whatever address and phone number is used during the online transaction will be attached to that record through the constituent matching process.
  
• Engage your Patrons while onsite: One of the things I see a lot around the country is employees or volunteers that interact with the patrons as they move through exhibits. As these interactions are happening and patrons are showing interest in a particular topic, ask the question “Would you like to sign up to know more about exhibits like this in the future?” Altru can be access on tablets and users could not only add the patron into the database but then assign an interest to the record that could be used for marketing purposes in the future.
  
• Survey Patrons: Another option is to survey patrons as they attend a particular program, exhibit, or experience. On the survey, ask for information that will allow you to follow up with a client and provide them the option to opt in to receive future information from your organization. In this case you are getting direct feedback from your customers about your offerings, but also might pick up patron data along the way.
  

One of the ways to help increase the patron database using the three options above is to create incentive programs for internal users and patrons to complete these tasks. Award internal users for the number of patrons created in a month and you can even create a contest with daily stats updates provided through query. This not only builds your database but also keeps employees engaged in the process. It’s important to train users as to why this data is important to the organization so they buy into the process. Here is a screenshot of a sample query that will allow you to total constituents added by user:
Create a raffle for patrons that complete a survey, which provides them a reason to interact with your organization. Maybe the prize is free admission or a free membership, but with the increase in patron data we collect that free membership might turn into more paid memberships in the future.

Hopefully the above ideas will provide you some ways to increase your patron database and eventually lead to increased attendance, memberships, and donations.