Satisfaction survey, audience survey, reporting… The director of the Ixelles Museum tells us about the use of the digital guestbook before “Last Call”, the closing party before the expansion of the museum.
“CAN YOU PRESENT YOURSELF IN A NUTSHELL?
My name is Claire Leblanc, I am the director of the Ixelles Museum – second art museum in Brussels and in Belgium – since 2006. Holder of a PHd in Art History, my career has been exclusively in museum since 20 years.
I usually say that I am an “orchestra woman”, because as a director I am responsible for 10 employees for which I coordinate different projects: creation of exhibitions, communication, visitors’ reception and mediation, or acquisition programs for example.
CAN YOU PRESENT THE IXELLES MUSEUM?
The Ixelles museum is a fine art museum opened in 1892 thanks to the donation of many pieces of arts from the painter and collector Edmond de Pratere. The museum has around 12,000 pieces of arts within its collections which makes it the second biggest public collection in Brussels and Belgium – after the Musées Royaux des Beaux-Arts of course.
Collections represent a wide variety of periods and disciplines of Belgium art. Indeed, constitutional pieces of arts of our collections illustrate all disciplines of fine arts and cover uniformly all periods from the XIXe century until today. We also have in our collections what I call “happy accidents”, meaning donations and legacies from great masters such as Picasso, Miro or Picabio giving us a gateway for Belgium art internationally.
The development of our museum is long lasting because our collections are constantly being enriched by acquisitions to adapt to its time. The museum has a biannual budget of 180,000€ for acquisitions to complete some historical lacks and to buy new pieces from emerging young contemporary artists.
In addition to permanent exhibitions, visitors can visit during the year 3 big exhibitions as well as 3 smaller exhibitions. The Ixelles Museum offers a rich and original experience. The openness dynamic of the museum appeals to a large audience – this corroborate with the need of Guestviews’ digital guestbook.
THE IXELLES MUSEUM WILL SOON CLOSE ITS DOORS DURING 3 YEARS FOR RENOVATION. CAN YOU TELL US ABOUT THE RENOVATION AND THE CLOSURE EVENTS TO COME.
The last season finished last February and it was a real success! We are now entering the renovation phase, the common thread is the improvement of quality of services for our visitors. At this occasion we are building new services at the museum: educational workshops, cafeteria, conference room…
These construction works are a great opportunities for the museum, we are lucky to have the possibility to expand the museum while other urban museums have had to delocalise.
Next weekend – form the 2nd until the 4th of March – we will celebrate the closure of the museum before the expansion work and to say goodbye. Its everything but a funeral! We want to celebrate – all the more so the big exhibition room used to be a town hall. We have planned a dancing party, a popular ball and also guided and singing visits of permanent collections and an information meeting on the expansion and renovation project.
WHY DID YOU CHOSE THE GUESTVIEWS APP?
Initially, we did not have any ad hoc tools to evaluate visitors’ satisfaction; there are between 60,000 and 70,000 visitors each year. To fix this lack we have chosen the GuestViews’ guestbook that we use since 2 years already. For GuestViews, it was the first Belgium and international contract! And the beginning of a great collaboration.
We have collected a great deal of information which enabled us to measure with precision satisfaction as well as to confirm our perception of our audience – perception that was, until then, rather empirical.
WHAT’S THE USE OF A DIGITAL GUESTBOOK?
We wanted at first to use the digital guestbook like a classic guestbook in order to collect comments from visitors. Secondly, we have used a tool that completed our audience survey: from what region of the country do they come from? Flanders? Wallonia? Brussels? How old are they? etc.
In terms of use, the digital guestbook gives us some reliable indications, which has smoothened relationship between the museum and the administration: the museum is placed under the guardianship of the Commune d’Ixelles particularly concerned about hosting a diverse audience.
ACCORDING TO YOU, WHAT ARE THE BENEFITS FOR THE VISITORS?
For visitors, I think that a digital guestbook is more appealing. In my opinion, it is eaiser to use a digital tool such as this one than to write a comment on paper with a pen… The digital app makes the exercise more fun.
The fact that the museum invites its visitors to share their experience is also an important aspect: they appreciate that the museum care to know about them to serve them better. Offering to our audience a space where they can express themselves is also indispensable: the traditional guestbook does not offer to share experiences on social media, which is complementary, in my opinion.
WHAT WOULD BE THE 3 REASONS WHY YOU WOULD RECOMMEND GUESTVIEWS?
I recommand GuestViews:
• First for its impeccable customers service: it is very reactive and pleasant, even in case of emergency.
• Then, for the quality of its user experience: the design of the application is very aesthestic and makes the guestbook more ergonomic
• Finally, for the flexibility of the application: the guestbook adapts to our needs.”
Discover all the details of the programme of “Last Call”, the closure party before the expansion of the Ixelles Museum. You want to know more about the Guestbook solution? Test it for free here.