Page 19 - November 2018 inLeague with Resource Guide - Thank You Version

Using Data-Driven Decision

Making for Improved

Patron Experience

Submitted by Lila Honaker, Director of Marketing & Outreach
Historic Tennessee Theatre Foundation, Knoxville, TN

Data-driven decision making is a deep subject with many arms. There are countless articles, seminars,
presentations, and workshops on the subject. As the Director of Marketing and Outreach for the Tennessee
Theatre, a large portion of my job is
to capture and analyze data and make
recommendations to improve patron
experience. I want to share some of my
learnings with you, in hope that you
may learn a few new strategies to help
your own efforts in improving patron
experience.

Data, Patron Experience, & The Arts

First, I’d like to share a little bit about
my theatre. The Tennessee Theatre
opened in Knoxville in 1928 as a 1,996-
seat movie palace. In 2005, the theatre
reopened after a nearly $30 million
restoration and construction of a new,
larger stage house to accommodate
larger shows, including touring
Broadway. In an effort to benchmark
and understand patron satisfaction, we have looked at data around patron experience for the past four years
to help us identify ways in which we can improve through data-driven decision making.

You may be asking yourself - what exactly does data-driven decision-making look like? At its simplest, it’s
having information to back-up WHY you make the decisions you do and feeling good about those decisions.
When making decisions that could change a patron’s experience, it’s easy to focus solely on the experience
while in/at the venue. However, patron experience starts long before they arrive and goes far beyond the
theatre walls. If their visit to your theatre is memorable, whether positive or negative, it will last long beyond
the event they attended. Patron experience exists ANYWHERE they interact with your brand.

Understanding the full context of the patron experience is much more complex than you may think. It involves
seeking out the answers to questions like:
• What marketing tactics reach them?

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Resource Guide & Directory November 2018 INLEAGUE | PAGE 17