This document discusses improving patron experience at arts organizations. It argues that while the performance or show is important, mediocre customer service can negatively impact perceptions of the experience. Good customer service is controllable through hiring and training friendly staff to ensure queries are promptly answered. In contrast, customer reactions to performances are not fully controllable. The document outlines a customer service management cycle and frameworks for understanding customer needs, wants, and experiences in order to improve satisfaction and loyalty.

1. Improving Patron
Experience
E i
I. Understanding
Philippe Ravanas
Professor
Columbia College Chicago
1

2. 2
If work is Theater,
why does Theater feels like work?
y
“Work is theatre. Whenever employees work in front of
customers,
customers an act of theatre occurs. Every action contributes
occurs
to the total experience being staged. Business performances
must rival those featured on Broadway. With theatre as the
model, even mundane tasks engage customers in a
dl d k
memorable way.”
Added value: the experience (ex: birthday party)
 Ironically, by focusing all energies on the art on stage
or on the walls and by neglecting all other aspects of
customer service, many arts organizations
make theatre feel like work.

3. 3
The show is not enough
 Risk: Mediocre customer service affects our
perception of the show (Ex: McDonald’s )
 Audience abuse: Arrogance of staff toward the
customer, inflexibility of ticket exchange policies,
unannounced seasons, last minute changes in
g
schedules, ticket issuing mistakes…
 Customer service is controllable: hire and train
customer f i dl staff, make sure that queries are
friendly ff k h i
answered promptly, etc.
 …the reaction of the audience to
the show is not.

4. 4 Cost of bad customer service
 C ruin the overall customer experience, d
Can i h ll i decrease their
h i
satisfaction and tarnish your image.
 Dissatisfied customers tell as many as 12 other people
about a negative experience.
 It costs 6 times more to attract a new customer than to
keep an existing customer.
 Only 1 out of 25 dissatisfied customers will express
di i f i to you. Th 24 others will j not come
dissatisfaction The h ill just
back.
20% % Treatment*
Reasons for 15% 65% Product
Defection:
Other
*attitude of indifference by the company or a specific individual

5. 5 Rewards of good customer service
 Good customer service can set a company apart
from the competition and enhance customer
loyalty.
loyalty
 Happy customers tell at least 4 others of a positive
experience.
 2 % increase in customer retention has the same
effect on profits as cutting costs by 10%.
 The customer profitability rate tends
to increase over the life of a retained customer.

6. 6
Customer Service Management Cycle
Customer Service Customer Service
Where it is now Where you want it to be
Stage 1 Stage 5
Understand the service Provide proactive
p
seekers Problem solving
Stage 2
Design experience Stage 4
S
& Set Standards Check up regularly
Stage 3
Build & train a
winning team
Ultimate goal: Understand how to move patrons along the value
continuum, from single ticket buyers, to subscribers and to donors

7. What are we talking about?
 Customer experience encompasses ALL
aspects of the end-user's interaction with the
company,
company its services, and its products
services
 Customer Satisfaction is the customer’s
perception of the actual service received as
compared to the service they expected.
 What does it mean for your organization?
“Customer satisfaction lives at the intersection of reality and expectations.” Ron
Customer expectations
Muns, 2006 Founder, Help Desk Institute

8. 8
Customer Experience framework

9. 9
Quality
Product features & characteristics influencing its
ability to satisfy customer as perceived by him
If it doesn t show, it doesn t exist!
doesn’t show doesn’t
3 types of qualities:
1.
1 Search Qualities: Expected a priori. Easy to assess
priori assess.
Found mostly in goods Ex: good food in a restaurant
2.Experience Q
p Qualities: Require use to assess. Found in
q
combined categories. Ex: good ambiance in a restaurant
3.Credence Qualities: Require trust. Nearly impossible to
assess. F
Found in services E no bacteria in a restaurant
di i Ex: b
“Quality in a service or product is not what you put
Quality
into it. It is what the customer gets out of it.”
Peter Drucker

10. 10
Good & Service Continuum
Pure
good
Pure
service
Where is your organization on this chart?

11. 11
You are in the service business
An idea, k
A id task, experience, or activity that can b
i i i h be
exchanged for value to satisfy consumers.
The 4 I’s of service:
1. Intangibility: Cannot be seen, tasted, heard, felt or
smelled before purchase (hard to sample & evaluate)
2.Inconsistency: Quality depends of who provides it and
when, where & how (“moment of truth” = Service encounter. Pb. for
( moment truth
quality control)
3.Involvement: of customers in production process. (Other
clients may be part of the experience)
4.Inventory: ephemeral and cannot be stored for later sale
or use (Hi h fixed cost to maintain ability to deliver it)
(High fi d i i bili d li i )

12. 12
Quality relative to competition
Faster Better Cheaper
Availability Performance Price
Convenience Features
Company Conformance
Delivers Aesthetics
Perceived
Quality
Reliability
Responsiveness Security
S i Affordability
Access Competence
Customer Credibility
Empathy
Desires Services
Style
… and relative to price

13. 13
Let your customers define what counts
…And ask your non-consumer too!
(ex: Disney)

14. 14
A focus group goes a long way

15. Value mapping
high
Cleanliness
staff
Customer Performance
service
Reputation
value Online
transactions
Valet
parking
Bar
low
l satisfaction
ti f ti n high
hi h

16. 16
… But do they really know what they want?
“If I had asked my customers what they
wanted, they would have said a faster horse”
Henri Ford
“You should not ask consumers questions
they are not qualified to answer!”
Barry Dill
B Diller
“I give my clients what they need, not
what they want.”
Frank Lloyd Wright

17. 17
Needs & Wants
 Need: Fundamental requirement the meeting
of which is the ultimate goal of the behavior
 Want: A specific form of consumption
desired to satisfy a need

18. 18
Maslow’s hierarchy of needs
5: B i
5 Being needs: B
d Become
5. Self stronger as we “feed” them
Actualization
A
(Fulfillment & enrichment)
4. Esteem
R
(Pr ti status, respect)
Prestige, t t r p t)
Abraham Maslow
1908-1970 3. Love & Belonging
T
(
(Friendship & acceptance)
p p )
2. Safety
(Security, protection, stability
(Security protection stability, freedom from fear )
1. Physiological
(Food, Shelter, Reproduction)
1 to 4: Deficit needs If you don’t have enough of it, you feel it, fulfill it,
then forget about it

19. 19
Why go to the Dallas Symphony?
 25% of ticket buyers answered: to have a romantic
f i k b d h i
evening out (Love & belonging)
 21% : for social display (Esteem)
 16%: for the music (Self Actualization)
 Exploring what truly motivates your audience i
l i h l i di in
visiting you might be a sobering experience, but an
essential one to understand how to retain their
clientele
“He who does not sees the world as it is but as he would like it
to be will commit a thousand mistakes”
Niccolò Machiavelli

20. 20
Metaneeds for self actualization
 Truth, not dishonesty  Meaningfulness, not
 Goodness, not evil
, senselessness
 Beauty, not ugliness or  Richness, not environ-
vulgarity -mental impoverishment
CCompletion, not
l  Al
Aliveness, not d d
deadness or
incompleteness the mechanization of life
 Uniqueness not bland
Uniqueness,  Simplicity not unnecessary
Simplicity,
uniformity complexity
 Playfulness, not grim,  TRANSFORMATION
humorless, drudgery
“Most men lead lives of quiet desperation and go
to the grave with the song still in them.”
Henry David Thoreau

21. 21
Maslow applied to the Arts
What is transformative in the arts? Source: Chip Conley
g
1. Ability to see the world in a new, meaningful
way
2. Expand capacity for empathy for the other:
heightened
h i ht d perception of oneness
ti f
3. A deeper recognition of yourself & your passion
& capabilities
4. An opening up & awareness of your own
“emotional well”
5. An appreciation for the purity & power of
beauty

22. 22
Maslow applied to the Arts
Need Quest Source: Chip Conley
Self Transform
actualization me
g
(Meaning)
Esteem + Move me
Belonging (emotion)
Safety + Ph i l i l
S f Physiological Entertain me ( l
E i (pleasure)
)

23. 23
Maslow applied to the Arts
Action Result Source: Chip Conley
Meet un-
recognized Evangelism
needs
Meet desire Commitment
Meet
M expectation
i Satisfaction
S i f i

24. 24
Any questions?
Let’s have a break!

25. 25
Profiling your customer
Identify one specific customer, representative of your
customer
audience
Geo-demographics:
Geo demographics: where
does she/ he lives & who is Lifestyle:
she/he ? how does she/he live, spend
(gender, age / generation, income,
education, social class, occupation , her/his h i
h /hi their money, and hd how
race / ethnicity, religion , family life they allocate her/his time?
cycle …)
Attitude:
Values: what does she/he say about you
what does she/he believe in? when you’re not in the room?
(right
( i ht & wrong)
) Preferences Expectations
Pr f r n / E p t ti n

26. 26
Building the pyramid
For
F each Need category:
hN d
Transformation 1. Identify 5 Wants
(“Its part 2. Rank their importance
of my life”) 3. Describe your performance
compared to industry standards
4. Define future action
5. Identify proof
Desires
(I had a great time”)
h d i ”)
Example:
Want: Clean bathrooms
Importance: high
Basic expectations Perf.: Terrible
(“Ok, I’ll go”) Action: hire cleaning
Proof: look & sent

27. 27
Any questions?
Thanks!
Read for next week:
Met, CSO & Steppenwolf cases