"I love Stephanie's book
Creating Great Visitor Experiences, and my students love it, too. I use it in my Tourism Experience course to supplement the more theoretical readings. Stephanie provides a hands-on, practical guide. I highly recommend it."
- Ulrike Gretzel, Assistant Professor, Texas A & M University
"
Creating Great Visitor Experiences
should be shared with all your staff and volunteers. It is useful for planning or reviewing marketing strategies for your museum, and can be read again when inspiration is needed to accomplish your daily work.
"
- Jeanne Mance Cormier, Curator, Musée acadien de l'Université de Moncton
" This book asks many good questions and draws attention to issues that site managers too often overlook. Even if a reader came away inspired to do a few of the exercises... the site would likely be more visitor-focused and successful. "
- VISITOR STUDIES
"
A small oversight can ruin a visitor’s tour of even the most treasured institutions, whether it’s shoddy customer service or dirty restrooms. Author Stephanie Weaver translates corporate successes in creating outstanding visitor experiences–such as those at Disney and Starbucks–to the nonprofit field. Her eight-step process outlines how to evaluate guests’ experiences from the time they walk in until they’re purchasing mementos in the museum shop."
- American Association of Museums, Museum Magazine
"
I highly recommend this book. Not that I could fully mine its wisdom in the short time I've owned it, but I think it is excellent. It is simple and direct, and does not take years and years of customer service training to understand. It is grounded in sound theory about how museums, zoos, and other attractions actually work and how guests interact with those places (and each other in those places). Most importantly, the author approaches the entire work from the viewpoint of guests. I know that sounds simple, but her approach disarms some of the traditional barriers to building great guest service by framing the entire book the way she does. The book is oriented toward action, versus often unfruitful and empty intellectual exercises. It is by far one of the best works on the subject I've seen. "
- Ken Bubp, Chief Operating Officer, Conner Prairie Museum, Fishers, IN
"Overall,
Creating Great Visitor Experiences offers terrific practical advice with myriad illustrations ranging from the Holocaust Museum to Starbucks to the South Bark Dog Wash. This is a wonderful book that will inspire you to more intentionally create vivid, meaningful, and rewarding visitor experiences. Your visitors will be grateful for changes you make, and your organization will benefit through increased popularity of your site and increased revenue generation."
- Larry Beck, Ph.D., The Interpreter
"
Creating Great Visitor Experiences is essential reading for those tasked with keeping their visiting public satisfied and engaged. It distills the principles of marketing, communication, and museum planning and presents this information through case studies, tips, and thought-provoking exercises. This book belongs on the bookshelf of every nonprofit institution—better yet, it belongs in the staff meeting room, next to a pad of chart paper, and ready to be put to use. "
- Jennifer Rigby, Director, The Acorn Group and Acorn Naturalists
"
A practical system for nonprofit organizations and governmental
agencies to integrate remarkable and unique visitor experiences--from
first impression to final memories."
- Tom Richter, Chief, Interpretation and Education, National Park Service, Omaha
"
Working in the Museum industry today as a Development Director
and as a past Membership and Events Director and consultant for a
Museum cable access TV station, I find Stephanie Weaver's book to be
insightful, succinct and full of great "big picture" ideas for
organizations of all sizes. She captures the essence of the visitor
experience and analyzes it from a variety of perspectives—all critical
to successful customer relations. This is a book that you can return to
again and again—a "must read" for capturing and increasing audiences.
"
- Marie Andersen, San Diego Archaeological Center
"
I thoroughly enjoyed reading Creating Great Visitor Experiences!
I especially liked how Weaver mixed in terrific non-museum examples—a
few even I didn't know about—with the museum examples in a way that
both could be applied by the reader.
"
- B. Joseph Pine II, author, The Experience Economy
"
Thank you for writing such a wonderful, holistic approach to
the museum experience. I really appreciate your framing of the
experience as starting the moment a person decides to “do something” to
the moment that they leave a site following their visit. It is such an
inclusive vision, and absolutely necessary to create effective and
engaging experiences. Your work is inspiring. After passing along the
book to my colleagues, we are ordering 25 copies for all of our senior
staff, and hope to have a staff seminar using the book. It is
particularly poignant in that it engages the entire staff, not just the
upper-tier management or exhibit designers. I think that it will really
bring us together."
- Kevin M. Bartoy, Director of Archaeology, The Hermitage
"
Stephanie Weaver has created a practical guide to help readers
systematically assess and support the visitor experience-prior to them
walking through the front door and after they leave. She also tackles
the museum field's million dollar question-how to get visitors to
return."
- Lynn Dierking, Institute for Learning Innovation
"
Building on years of experience in the field as well as cutting
edge economic and customer research, Stephanie Weaver has crafted
a practical, friendly process to help institutions improve their
visitors' experiences. This book is valuable for training emerging
professionals and students on the importance of the visitor experience.
Every public service professional who cares about doing a better
job should keep a copy of this book handy. "
- Marjorie Schwarzer, Museum Studies, JFK Univ.