Service (Guides + Tours) Synopsis Overall Utilization Based on the data collected, at least 30%-40% of guests attending the

museum utilize audio guides and at least 20% take public docent tours. Overall, 50-60% of all guests visiting the museum use at least one or both of these provided services. Weather changes often cause attendance and usage anomalies to occur. For instance, on Wednesday the 29th of January, there was a substantial increase in museum attendance which lead to much higher usage of guides and tours than the previous week; this was most likely in correlation to the 60 degree rainy weather that occurred that day as opposed to the sunny weather from the previous week. A similar instance was observed Thursday Jan 30th. Fifty degree, rainy weather lead to higher museum attendance then the following week. However, these services on any average day are still being used by at least half of visiting guests.

Percentage of Total Averages Sun-Sat

334, 34%

394, 41% Audio Guide Count Total # people at tour end No Services 238, 25%

Effectiveness of Tour and Guide Usage & Staffing

Daily Tour Averages Start/End

90 80 70 60 50 40 30 20 10 0 10:3 10:3 0 0 a.m. a.m. Beg End Monday Tuesday Thursday Friday Saturday Sunday

Averages

3 11:3 12:3 12:3 11:3 12 12 1 1:30 1:30 2 2 2:30 2:30 p.m 3 3:30 3:30 5:30 5:30 6:30 6:30 1 0 0 0 0 p.m p.m p.m p.m p.m p.m p.m p.m p.m . p.m p.m p.m p.m p.m p.m p.m p.m p.m p.m pm. a.m. . . . . . . . . . Begi . . . . . . . End . . . Beg Beg End Beg Beg End Beg End Beg End nni End Beg End Beg End Beg End End Beg End ng 25 25 10 13 26 31 34 40 29 36

21 24 48 50 37 39 31 31 21 22 22 25 20 26 28 29 39 41 28 37 19 15 23 32 15 14 17 18 15 24 50 53 50 43 43 47 22 23 50 54 63 55 48 52 41 42 50 50 78 74 45 50

Wednesday 40 35 50 50 27 22 44 48 37 40 21 38 19 25 35 38

43 30 26 40 30 34 26 20 35 38 30 35 18 45 30 36 35 38 36 46 27 28 29 28 54 55

The data collected shows that tours and those stationed to hand out guides should be planned with the forecasted weather in consideration. With that said, Mondays and Tuesdays are the slowest days this year, while Wednesday-Sunday saw the most total attendance as well as tour and guide usage. The busiest tours on any given day seem to be the 11:30 through the 1:30 p.m. tours, especially on days of bad weather which experienced higher guest volume than warm and sunny days. It may be beneficial to have tours at 15 minute intervals instead of 30 minute intervals at the 11:30, 12, and 12:30 Wednesday-Saturday. This is because these are the busiest tour times as reflected by the data. Having the tours at this interval could help decrease the massive volume of people per tour, which would in turn create less crowding, and more walking space

in the gallery. In addition, smaller tour sizes will allow docents to speak at more comfortable levels, and make it easier for guests to hear their docents. Friday has tours an hour apart. According to the data, this seems inefficient based on volume. It would be beneficial to have tours every 30 minutes from 12:30-3 P.M. as on other days. Thursday had the most tour volume than any other day at 10:30 averaging at around 50 which is an overly large group of people attempting to crowd around each painting the docent explains. Thursday the 6th of February at 10:30, had the largest tour volume than any other day. The tour included around 60 guests and this was due to two senior groups, totaling at 50 all together, attending the museum that took the public, rather than a private, tour. This anomaly can occur any day and should be taken into consideration. It could be beneficial to push audio guides or a private tour for such groups to ensure a more positive experience for other guests. Recommendation to improve public docent tours: -From Wednesday through Saturday provide docent lead tours every 15 minutes starting at 11:30 and ending by 1:00. To do this, add the appropriate tour opportunities to Volgistics so that docents may choose which days and times they prefer. Then message the docents explaining the change and that the new opportunities have been made available. -For days that are scheduled to receive large groups, have staff recommend audio guides or private tours. Explaining to the group that these two options would provide the optimum experience, as opposed to attempting to join already large public tours, could be the best way to avoid occurrences similar to Thursday the 6th.

Audio Guide Avergaes per Hour

450 400 350 300 250 200 150 100 50 0 11:00 AM 54 41 54 63 58 47 12:00 PM 54 50 419 70 77 110 1:00 PM 2:00 PM 3:00 PM 4:00 PM 5:00 PM 6:00 PM 7:00 PM 8:00 PM 57 48 75 69 79 148 129 39 40 124 60 91 63 129 19 41 60 62 305 67 52 16 19 37 78 41 49 49 3 4 12 34 18 7 22 66 33 8 0

Averages
Friday

Monday Tuesday Wednesday Thursday Saturday Sunday

The busiest times for audio guide distribution on any given day appears to be from 12:00-4:00 p.m., especially on days of inclement weather. It would be beneficial to plan ahead for bad weather and staff accordingly. Mondays and Tuesdays do not show an overwhelming number of guides handed out, and 12:00-2:00 p.m. on these days are the only hours that may benefit from an extra volunteer . However, Wednesday through Sunday have very overwhelming numbers for just one or two volunteers. For example, Wednesday the 29 th at around noon experienced over 500 guests requesting guides and Saturday and Sunday average in the 100s from noon to 2 p.m. Having 3-4 volunteers, depending on forecasted weather, on Wednesday-Sunday from noon to 2 p.m., would make distributing guides more efficient, cause less stress on volunteers, and could also lead to less guest frustration with wait times to receive or return guides. Recommendations to improve audio guide distribution: On days with inclement weather, have an extra volunteer available to distribute guides from 12:00 to 4:00 P.M. on Wednesday-Sunday. To do this, on Monday of every week check any weather website for the ten day forecast. On days that are forecasted to be rainy or heavily clouded, add an extra spot for audio guide distribution in Volgistics. Send email to all volunteers informing them of new opportunity and why it is being added. This will ensure volunteers know this is a variable opportunity that relies on weather conditions and will not be permanent.

If no volunteer is available to assist or signs up for the spot a staff member or intern will need to be available to assist. An email should be sent out, or staff should be informed during the morning meeting, that someone may be needed to assist with guide distribution due to inclement weather. Pilot: For this week of February 19, we have added an opening for Friday the 21 st as it is forecasted to rain that day. We will be checking the 10 day forecast every Sunday in order to prepare each the week. An email will also be sent out to the volunteers notifying them of the extra openings that are scheduled due to forecasted inclement weather. This trial will take place for about 3 weeks to insure the effectiveness of the aforementioned requirments.