(Left) The Bee Area of Market Hall Museum, Warwick, showing refurbishment work carried out following the mystery shopper project including low level interpretation and interactives. © Lisa Moore/Warwickshire Museums Service
Museum news update: West Midlands museums adopt the mystery shopper approach to making your museum visit experience even better.
A group of museums in the West Midlands ran a family-friendly mystery shopper project in 2009 to evaluate their visitor experience.
The 2009 project, funded by Renaissance in the Regions, was led Shropshire Council in partnership with 5 other Local Authorities (Herefordshire, Staffordshire, Warwickshire, Worcestershire and Wolverhampton). It also provided opportunities for staff from different venues across the region to work together and share their experience.
The approach drew on an earlier libraries project led by Shropshire Council. Much of the criteria was inspired by the 2009 Manifesto and aims of Kids in Museums to promote family-friendly policies and attitudes.
Staff anonymously visited other museums using the mystery shopper toolkit. A total of 22 local authority museums and art galleries and 15 independent museums were visited. Areas covered included: pre-visit information as well as the actual visit, promotional material, websites, finding the attraction, retail, exhibition/interpretation, and toilets. After the visits feedback was given to the venues.
All staff felt that it had been a valuable experience and many said it had increased their confidence, skills and understanding.
Lisa Moore, Visitor Services Team Leader, Warwickshire County Council, said, "Being a mystery shopper allowed you to evaluate other museums for both the positive aspects and the areas in need of improvement. This experience was very valuable for reflecting on our own service and being more objective in looking at our family friendly provision. The project is just as valuable to your own museum as it is to the museum you are mystery shopping."
For more information about Market Hall Museum, please visit the Warwickshire Museum Service website.
Museum evaluation
Evaluation is a vital part of a school visit to a museum, gallery, science centre or heritage site. The comments you feed back to the museum education team help them to improve the experience for school groups and greater support for your curriculum needs.
Museums go the extra mile for schools
As part of improving their offer to schools, museums also positively encourage pre-visits from teachers as well as working together on the focus of the visit itself and the particular requirements of your group. Many venues will even tailor-make sessions just for you. For cultural venues near you, why not check out our Culture24 Places to Go section?
