The challenge

Since 2015 we have worked with the Kennel Club to gather feedback from visitors to Crufts – the world’s largest dog show. Crufts is now in its 126th year – 882nd year to our four-legged friends. The research is mainly used to measure satisfaction and highlight ways in which the dogs’ and visitors’ experiences can be improved.

Objectives

Quite simply we want to highlight areas of the show which require attention and provide insight into various aspects of the show. More specifically we study:

• Visitor demographics
• Dog ownership
• Reasons for attending the show
• How long is spent at the show in total and in particular areas
• Key Performance Indicators and Net Promoter Scores
• Ratings of different aspects of the show, from trade stands to car parking
• Usage of other Kennel Club services
• Awareness of the main sponsor and other brands at Crufts

Our approach

This year, in 2017, the show attracted a huge 162,000 visitors. As we want the opinions and feedback from as many of the visitors as possible, the only realistic means of doing this is through an online quantitative survey.

This year 20,000 visitors were invited to take part. We designed the questionnaire in 2015 and it has remained much unchanged in order to maintain comparability. Changes are only made to reflect any new avenue that the Kennel Club might wish to explore.

Reminders were issued after a couple of weeks to those who hadn’t taken part which brought in another few hundred responses. Altogether we achieved a total of nearly 6500 responses for 2017.

Outcomes

This survey provides essential data on visitors to the show. This year an area of particular interest was the layout of the trade stands.

Results are always very interesting. We were delighted to be commissioned to continue running this survey in 2018 and 2019. Since 2015 we have completed more than 14,000 interviews and are looking forward to achieving many more!

“The Kennel Club has worked with PCP for approximately 5 years. PCP has supplied customer insight through online surveys for Crufts visitors and also facilitated a number of focus groups and delivered the output. Each time PCP has provided insightful, comprehensive reporting which has helped guide our services and products accordingly.  They are highly professional and a great team to work with.”

Helen Fox (Marketing Director)
The Kennel Club, based in Leeds.

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The challenge

Only a small proportion of residents and visitors to a seaside town were visiting the local art gallery and a museum. The local museums trust wanted to understand why the attractions were not being visited and what could be done to encourage more visitors.

Objectives

• To establish awareness and perceptions of the Museum and Art Gallery.To establish the how often the two attractions were visited.To assess reactions to what the venues offered and establish motivations to visit in the future.To identify ways to encourage more visits from either new or repeat visitors.

Our approach

We conducted research with three different target groups:

• Local residents.
• Visitors to the town, both those visiting for the day only and those staying overnight.
• Those living within 60 miles of the seaside town who visited other museums and / or art galleries.

We carried out qualitative and quantitative research. These involved:

• 300 telephone interviews with residents and 300 face-to-face interviews with visitors to the town during their stay. Both groups were asked about their awareness and perceptions of the different attractions in the town, their reasons for visiting or not visiting and their reaction when we described the facilities the attractions offered.
• We carried out an online survey with 300 people who lived within 60 miles of the seaside town and who visited other museums and art galleries. We asked which museums and art galleries they visited, what had motivated them to visit these attractions and what they knew about the attractions in the seaside town. They were asked how likely they would be to visit the town’s attractions after we described the facilities on offer.
• Four focus groups were held amongst both visitors and non-visitors to the attractions and amongst both residents and visitors to the town. We focused on finding out what stopped visits and what could be done to overcome these barriers. The aim was to identify actions and messages which would stimulate first-time visitors to attend and current visitors to return more often.

Outcomes

Some very clear conclusions emerged from the research. We found many visitors to the town and to nearby museums and art galleries were not aware of the existence of the town’s museum and art gallery. Once told about the attractions, many were very interested in visiting.

Residents who had visited the museum and the art gallery had enjoyed their visit and said they would like to return. Only a small proportion of them had actually done so though.

We also discovered the Art Gallery’s café served as a meeting point and often encouraged visits to the gallery. A café or tea shop in the museum could encourage more visits, particularly if it overlooked the sea.

Our other suggestions included:

• Highlighting the attractions’ educational value, particularly to children.
• Explaining that, as exhibits changed, a visitor has not seen everything there is to see after a first visit.
• Increasing advertising and promotion.
• Creating more interactive activities, particularly for children.
• Involving local schools.
• Establishing a “trail” on nearby pavements leading to the museum.
• Improving accessibility, particularly for the elderly or disabled.

The post Encouraging more visits to an Art Gallery and Museum appeared first on PCP Market Research.

The challenge

Understanding why people choose to visit a city is essential for the local economy, attractions and local government. We’ve conducted the prestigious visitor market research for York for more than a decade.

Objectives

• To understand why visitors chose to come to this tourist destination
• To understand levels of satisfaction with the facilities provided
• To evaluate awareness of and usage of attractions
• To determine length of stay
• To understand visitor requirements in terms of evening entertainment and feed relevant findings into
  designing marketing strategies to increase levels of satisfaction

Our approach

We interview 1,000 visitors face to face at ten locations in the city throughout the year. Questions range from asking why they choose to go there, how long they stayed and how much they spent. We record the sources of information they used and how satisfied they were with their experience.

In total, we completed more than 10,000 interviews during the course of this research.

Outcomes

The survey has been extended to incorporate an assessment of the economic impact of:

• Moving the Ascot race meeting to York when the Ascot course was being redeveloped
• Starting the Tour de France cycle race from York
• Running the Illuminating York festival, a celebration of the transformative power of light

This survey provides essential data on visitors to this city. Key statistics are the ratio of UK visitors to overseas visitors the length of their respective stays and the amount they spent.

The visitor market research results are enormously helpful for Make It York. This organisation is responsible for development of tourism in the region.

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