We all might think we know our patrons, what they think, how they feel about us, and what is important to them.  But unless you ask them, you might not really be on target, and their answers might just surprise you.

There are lots of online tools now to make conducting surveys easy, and fast, including the reporting on the results.  Check out some such as surveymonkey.com, and now even google docs can be used to create your own survey for free!  You set up the survey, and then just email a link to your patrons.  Give them a deadline that’s not too far off… maybe a week. And offer something for free as a drawing of those who participate, such as a pair of free tickets, or season passes, as an incentive.  Try to keep the survey to a length that they can complete in maybe 5 minutes, and state this in the invite for the survey.

Things that you might consider asking your patrons… Make these multiple choice options as much as possible, so you can get statistical results, instead of open text answers where every patron might give a different type of response.  Also, be careful of asking questions regarding choice of material you present.  Instead, focus on the experience the patrons are getting, and what experience they want to get.

1. Age (range of options)
2. Gender
3. average household income (ranges – make this question optional)
4. zip code (open field for input)
5. How many performances have they attended (different number options)
6. overall satisfaction rating of the performances they’ve attended
7. questions regarding the experience of attending:  comfort of the theatre, convenience of parking, ease of finding information, ease of purchasing tickets, quality of the performance program, quality of the marketing materials, quality of the acting/dancing/etc, quality of production values, ticket price/value for the money, choice of play titles/etc
8. how far in advance do they usually purchase: I’m a season subscriber, very far (at least a month), a few days, at the door
9. how often do they attend OTHER types of events: pro theatre, community theatre, high sch performances, musicals, classical music, other music, dance, museums/galleries, pro sports, etc.
10. How important are specific factors: company I trust, titles I know, something new/unusual, convenient location, prices, good reviews, word of mouth, referral, appropriate for children/family, good seats, funny/amusing, thought provoking/emotional
11. What is the max amount they would pay: give $ thresholds
12. How do you hear about our company (all that apply): give various methods of communication you use
13. What publications do you read regularly: list local papers, mags, etc
14. For information on the internet, which do you rely on: list your website and others they might look to
15. Do you visit local area restaurants before/after attending our shows?
16. If we were able to provide you with discounts to area restaurants, would it make you more likely to to visit them?
17. What is the BEST thing about attending our show (open text field)
18. What is the ONE THING we could change to make your experience more enjoyable (open text field)
19. What 3 words come to mind when you think of “your company name”?
20. What, if anything, has made you decide to NOT attend a show we’ve presented in the past?

Other questions you might have?

A company I work with recently did a survey of the questions above.  We discovered that the vast majority of our patrons are NOT worried about our ticket price… in fact they’d be willing to pay more.  We were surprised that they are NOT concerned about our shows being family friendly or something to bring their kids to, and that having a restaurant to visit before/after is very important to them.  What’s important to YOUR patrons?

Patrick Spike – Director of Client Services, Ticket Turtle

Social Media overload!  So now we have Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, Blogs, YouTube, MySpace, StumbleUpon, Yelp, Digg, etc, etc, etc…  I don’t know about you, but it is starting to get a bit overwhelming.  Most of the time I take the stance that I’m just going to focus on the one or two that I find useful and easy to use… but then you start to wonder, am I missing out on important cute moments of my friends dogs or their shopping excursions?!?!

So how much social media is too much… and do we really need them all?

Here’s some other online posts about the flood of social media:

http://www.socialmediatoday.com/smc/208998

http://izea.com/social-media-when-is-sharing-too-much/

http://mashable.com/2009/07/30/social-networking-overload/

http://blogs.forbes.com/marketshare/2010/05/11/social-media-too-much-can-damage-your-brand/

What do you think?