I made a long road trip in some Southeast states this month, and hit several museums of varying subjects.
I had two encounters* that I think are valuable lessons for visitors to any museum:

At one RR museum (just saw the sign for it as we were going down the highway, I had no idea it was there as I hadn't researched stuff in the area, I only stopped in out curiosity for a few minutes), I found it was really just a train ride and they weren't running anytime soon. Several volunteer/staff types were hanging around and while they were nice, one kept going on and on about all the stuff that will be happening long after I'm gone. I made it clear I was from the other side of the country, happened upon their operation, would be there for another couple of days and it was unlikely I'd ever be back that way again. Why he just kept going on and on about trips and events I clearly could never attend, sort of baffled me...

At another museum (not a RR museum but with some RR stuff on the property), I went to take pictures of a specific thing at the museum. I made that really clear to the guy up front (it must have been a very slow day for him) and that I didn't have much time on my hands as I was heading directly to the airport for the flight back home in a couple of hours (and the airport was pretty far from there). This guy wouldn't stop talking about all the other stuff there, even though several times I told him I was pressed for time. He pulled out a map and started pointing out everything on the property, with an obviously canned, 'one size fits all' word track. At one point I said, "Look, I don't want to sound rude, but I won't have time for any of this, I came specifically to take photos of [what I went there to see], can you just take my admission and let me in there?" He just kept going as if I didn't say anything. After a couple more minutes, I noticed how much admission was, I pulled that much out of my wallet, passed it over to him and thanked him for his service to the museum, and went on by. Thankfully I didn't have to pass him going out. I barely had enough time to walk down to what I went there to photograph. I'm convinced if I just didn't hand over the money and walk away, I'd still be listening to him right now...

In other words, pay attention to what your visitors say, and avoid the sales pitch to people you can't sell anything to.


*Please don't ask me where either were...

Yes, it happens. Valid point.

Sounds likes "Sales 101" to me. Listening is a skill that must be learned. While I've mastered the sales version my wife says I still need to master the husband version. :)

You might want to write to each museum about your experience there. Most museums would welcome the feedback and hopefully would do something constructive with it.

Not everybody suited to shop work is also suited to visitor interaction.

My first question is how the publicly available material aimed towards visitors did not include an accurate schedule of operation. This is truly 101 level stuff......anybody clicking on the web page (and everybody runing an attraction with regular operation has no business not having a web page these days) should be able to find an easy link to "when and where" information. Inexcusable.....

I'd hope that even with bad information a casual drop in visitor would be shown some form of hospitality, however, preferably by somebody suited to customer relations.

dave

I would say I was indeed shown hospitality in both cases. In neither case was anyone rude to me at all, they were all quite friendly. They just didn't seem to get I was there for a short period of time in either case.
I'm reminded of a museum I went to several years ago that had a film you HAD to watch before being released into the museum. It wasn't a guided tour or anything, but the people there would not let you into the museum until you watched their out of date and boring film first. I watched a family get up and leave because of that, and the stone-faced volunteer still wasn't having it.

The film reminds me of a great memory. We were all supposed to watch a certain museum's film, which is actually pretty nice. It was opening day and we were traveling with a five-year-old who had seen too much from the parking lot not to groan at the idea of waiting. One of the museum officers (who happens to frequent this site) noticed my son's sigh, grabbed his keys and said "Come on, you can look at the film later! Let's go play with trains!" We did. If we lived closer, son would be volunteering there. He doesn't remember a lot from when he was that small, but he remembers that glorious opening day.

Thanks, Scott. You got him hook, line and sinker :)