Museum compass 19.

The service providing museum

Edited by Ibolya Bereczki, Magdolna Nagy, Annamária Szu

The issue is downloadable here.

 

Introduction

The museum institution “serves the community, maintains public and active relationships with the communities and the town, it is established for a non-profit core activity, and provides broad and equal access to cultural resources”1 , that is, performs public functions. In line with the law governing museums, all museums operate as service providers as well, that is, they perform public cultural services. It follows that the term “service-providing museum” reflects an approach in which the museum focuses on the needs of stakeholders, particularly visitors, during its operation. As museum institutions serve the public, they pay special attention to their communities, identified as potential visitors, and to increasing their local (community) and social embeddedness.

This is in fact the basic principle of market-based enterprises, as their existence depends on being able to offer products and services for which there is solvent demand. However, a service provider’s mindset goes beyond providing the target audience with services they need: the organization’s entire approach shall be permeated by the belief that the level of satisfaction of the target audience has a great influence on effectiveness; therefore, the way of providing a service is at least as important as the service itself. But how does the principle defined in the law that a museum institution is “in the service of society” and it is “not created for economic gain” and an entrepreneurial approach fit together?

As a public service provider, a museum institution performs many of its activities free of charge, but this does not automatically mean that the target audience will use its services. Even in the case of free-of-charge service, its quality is hugely important, as people still sacrifice something for the museum: their free time.

In the competition for people’s time allocated for leisure, museums are also appearing as players in the cultural services market with their profit-oriented range of services. The competition there is much more intense, and it is harder to reach the target audience than with free programmemes. Museums need an even more service-minded approach in that role, as the target audience also spends money on the for-profit services.

Museums need to become familiar with the motivations of their target audiences, and the expectations of stakeholders other than visitors who have an influence on the result of the operation of the institution, in order to find the most effective means to reach them. Museum institutions should simultaneously strive to increase visitor numbers and establish a returning visitor base, establishing partnerships that function as an integral part of the local community as a lively community space, as is only in this way to meet the requirements of the Museum Act, that is, to maintain “a public and active relationship with the communities and the town”.

Volume 19 of the Museum Compass presents the current state of the museum services and how museums evaluate their services and partnerships, based on statistical data and the research results of the special project titled “Museum and Library Development for Everyone” with identification number EFOP-3.3.3-VEKOP-16-2016-00001. We provide methodological support for forming partnerships – especially lobbying, building closer relationships with visitors, strengthening collaboration with local communities, winning the support of profit-oriented companies, defining the role of museums in tourism, and unlocking the potential of networking. We will look at possible directions for museum development, how institutions can become “service providers”, and how a visitor-centeredapproach can provide a good basis for a quality-oriented museum operation and even for the introduction of a quality management system later.

The purpose of this volume is to provide professional support for the positive change in attitudes that has become increasingly evident from museum statistics and research in recent years, and to encourage Hungarian museum professionals to make further changes. We hope that this volume of the Museum Compass will be a useful read for all museum leaders and professionals who wish to put their institution in the service of society.

Magdolna Nagy