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Surveying Audiences Post-Pandemic: Our Lessons Learned

January 2023

In 2022, ABA introduced surveys as part of its regular membership offerings.  Just like our custom research projects, we will now design and deploy a survey for our members.  Most commonly this is an audience or subscriber survey, but we have also designed staff engagement and return-to-work surveys.

While each survey has its own purpose and target of collection, we’ve learned a few trends from the requests we get as well as the responses audiences give.  So far, most of our surveys have been for performing arts, so the trends below are most applicable to those genres.  (We offer a few sample charts here: they are typically representative of overall feedback across our surveys but we are not including the organization name to preserve anonymity.)

Here are five trends from the surveys we have conducted:

1. Plans to attend have decreased, and older audiences in particular are not returning

In one survey we asked attendees how frequently they plan to attend performances as compared to pre-pandemic, and the statistics were alarming:

  • While the most common response was “about the same” it accounted for only 36% - 48% for each generation

  • A roughly equal percent said they planned to attend less

  • Nearly a third (27%) of 77+ year olds said they would attend “much less often than before the pandemic.” 

 
 

Similarly, in one survey when we asked why lapsed buyers had not yet purchased tickets or a subscription, over a third (35%) of the 1172 respondents said “Making plans in advance is more difficult than it used to be.” 

 
 

2. Generally, feedback is very high for NPS, welcoming and belonging

When we use the Net Promoter Score (NPS) question to understand patron experience, the feedback is generally very strong. This is a good sign for patron loyalty – it means that while we may have lost many patrons because of pandemic disruption, those who came back are likely to keep coming.  One organization had a net promoter score of 87, another 77.  In contrast, a typical retail net promoter score is 61, or 38 for healthcare.

Similarly, we see strong responses to questions about whether patrons feel welcome and feel like they belong.  Typically we’ll see slightly lower responses to ‘belonging’ vs ‘welcoming’ but no significant difference.

Typical response for belonging and welcoming

 
 
 

3. For subscribers, keeping your seat is still the most valued benefit

Many members have asked us to conduct subscriber surveys, hoping to get a deeper understanding of why subscriber numbers in particular have declined, and what might entice lapsed subscribers to return.

Unfortunately, it appears that the most-valued subscriber benefits are those that are already strongly embedded in subscription programs: seats and discounts.  There is a strong drop off after those two value propositions.

 
 

While there is interest in subscriber-only events (in one case, over 70% of 394 respondents said they were interested in them), these events were also not highly valued by subscribers (only 4% chose that as something they valued most).

However, there does seem to be an opportunity in communicating that the subscription supports the institution – 14% of respondents chose that as what they value most, over seats or discounts.

4. There are not big differences in motivations, reactions or satisfaction by ethnicity

Most organizations we work with are hoping to increase audience diversity.  However, race or ethnicity does not seem to be an important factor in how audience members perceive the experience.  To be sure, attracting new diverse audiences may require different programming There are some indications that different types of content and innovations to the experience are likely needed to attract new audiences, but once they join they do not seem to evaluate the experience differently.  (For more about building diverse audiences, we have an extensive report created for a performing arts center client.)

One common question we ask is around motivation to attend, for example: “contribute to this community’s cultural vibrancy” or “see a performance executed at the highest quality level.”  With the exception of “celebrate my cultural heritage,” which is a motivation more often chosen by BIPOC respondents, the others follow roughly the same pattern no matter the race or ethnicity of the respondent.  The first choice is almost always “see a performance executed at the highest quality level.”

5. However, new patrons vs long-time patrons do seem to have different motivations to attend

When we looked at those same motivations by frequency of attendance in one survey, we saw a big difference in what people were looking for.

  • New patrons are most often looking to “experience something new and different” or “enhance my knowledge and understanding of” the genre.”  Unlike the other attendees, they are not looking to “see a performance at the highest quality level.”

  • Those who only go occasionally are more likely looking for “an entertaining escape.”

  • Those who go most often are most likely to want to “see a performance executed at the highest level” or “connect with something I’m passionate about.”  Interestingly, they are also most likely to want to contribute to a community’s cultural vibrancy.

 
 

This has big implications for how we market to potential attendees, depending on whether we think they are likely to be new audience members or experienced concert-goers.

Interested in gaining more insight on your own audiences? Contact your member advisor or reach out to info@advisoryarts.com.