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Making Connections with Your Visitor |
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If a tree falls in the forest...and nobody takes note, it's not an important event to humans. If a visitor comes to your lobby, do you know who they were, what they were interested in, how you can help? |
As much as your lobby is a chance for you to communicate your good works to the public, it is a golden opportunity for you to: - Find out who your public is (or at least who visits your lobby)
- Find out what they already knew about you
- Find out what they learned while they were there, and
- Keep in touch with a growing community of interested people.
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Some of this has been done for years with a guest book. A guest book will still work to get a collection of names of people who were willing to enter their information, but - You have to be able to read their writing
- You have to enter what they have written into your database
- It doesn't really give them a chance to react to their experience.
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| Perhaps a more effective way would be through a simple web form at your computer kiosk. Any .html programmer should be able to create a brief form which can not only collect people's contact information but get their reactions. The information that comes in is already "entered" as digital data, and if you have somebody on staff who is adept with web server scripts, it can even be fed directly into your database. Soon you'll not only be able to document how many people came to your lobby, but why they came, what they learned, and what they want to know. You can use this information to adapt your Learning Lobby to your visitors needs and improve exhibits, posters, etc. |
| Probably every organization needs to know who its friends are. With a guestbook or computer kiosk registration form, you gradually build up a list of people who at least know where and who you are. You can quickly and inexpensively send them e-mail newsletters, event notices, seminar schedules and other information about your ongoing activities. |
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