5 Components of a Memorable Museum Visitor Experience

First-time visitors visiting a museum will leave with new knowledge and stunning visual memories that will inspire them to learn and create. Challenge: create museum visitor experiences that will also inspire them to return.  A visit to your museum should leave a lasting impression that may also spark conversations with friends and family or on social media about their museum visitor experience, which can help direct even more people to your door.

So how do you turn your museum into a must-see attraction with regular visitors? Here are five ideas you can use to orchestrate museum visitor experiences that help you achieve that goal and how you can measure the effectiveness of your efforts with people counting technology.

Make Your Museum Visitor Experience Welcoming

You need more than an entrance point and “Welcome” sign. From the moment your guests cross the threshold of visiting a museum, they should be engaged and have a clear idea of what you have to offer. Some ways to achieve this when enhancing the museum visitor experience are…

• Have well-trained and friendly docents available to greet your visitors and provide information and enhance the museum visitor experience.
• Provide clear signage or video monitors that display the highlights of what you have to offer. Strategically place easy-to-read floor plans and suggested starting points to give visitors the choice of how they want their experience to unfold.
• Become a center for discussion by providing floor space or meeting rooms to promote educational topics, community diversity support, or quiet meditative environments.
• Vary museums hours to make it accessible to a wider variety of people. Many potential visitors may work during the day, so providing an evening opportunity can open the way for more foot traffic at your facility.

Make Your Museum Space Interactive

A museum visitor experience can be greatly enhanced through modern interactive technology. Motion sensor and touchscreen interactivity have been around for some time and are still effective display tools. Imagine, however, an interactive display that can respond to questions in your native language or a robot that responds to your commands or queries. How about visitors being able to immerse themselves into a prehistoric setting using a VR headset? Combining older technology with advanced artificial intelligence tools and virtual reality can take the museum visitor experience to a whole new level and elevate your museum to can’t-miss-destination status.

Utilize Social Media to Engage Museum Visitors

Let’s face it, younger audiences, especially millennials and Gen Z, use social media as a form of communication. Use it to your advantage:

• Use social platforms such as Snapchat and Instagram to attract young visitors to your facility’s offerings.
• Video segments that show your feature attractions or a Facebook Live tour hosted by a curator can be engaging and encourage all types of audiences to visit.
• Visitors love to take selfies when vacationing, so why not create spaces in your museum to encourage this activity to enhance the museum visitor experience? Provide them with hashtags for this purpose and watch your museum attractions reach an even larger audience.

Take Advantage of Digital Technology for Museums

Nearly all your visitors carry smartphones or tablets with them wherever they go. The museum visitor experience can be even more fun and engaging if you provide free downloadable apps that they can use to find more information on exhibits while touring your facility. Site maps, exhibit information, and digital galleries can also help compliment their journey and make it a more memorable visit.

On the operations side, invest in technology to count the people coming into your space so you have an accurate view of visitor numbers. You can even take that a step further by choosing a technology like ceiling mounted video-based sensors. This type of people counting technology gives you the ability to differentiate between and adults and children, taking your visitor statistics to a new, more in-depth level.

Control Museum Traffic Flow With People Counters

Whether your museum has a directional, one-way route or multiple ways for visitors to wander, it is vital to have proper signage that can help them navigate. Controlling the flow of foot traffic helps prevent congestion, which can detract from the museum visitor experience.

Using people counters at strategic entry and exit points can help pinpoint areas prone to traffic jams. This data gives you an opportunity to make improvements in crowd flow and can help determine the success of new exhibits.

Crafting a memorable and enjoyable museum visitor experience is very important to your museum’s reputation and future success. Initiating these five strategies can help you build an environment that invites people to return. Your facility will become more valued by the community—and benefactors—once the word spreads about all the great experiences visiting a museum has to offer.

If you’ve decided it’s time to start counting the adults and children who visit your museum each day with people counting technology like a video-based overhead sensor, contact Traf-Sys for a quote.

First-time visitors to your museum will leave with new knowledge and stunning visual memories that will inspire them to learn and create. Challenge: create museum visitor experiences that will also inspire them to return.  A visit to your museum should leave a lasting impression that may also spark conversations with friends and family or on social media, which can help direct even more people to your door.

Start improving your museum experience with people counters from Traf-Sys. Get a free quote today!