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Data-Driven:

• What were the main influences of their
ticket purchase?
• What are their perceptions?
• How did their experience meet
expectations?

In addition to knowing the answers to these
questions, it’s equally important to uncover why
patrons return/don’t return, who is endorsing your
theatre, and what type of social equity your venue
has in the community. Having accurate data on these
items is invaluable. While your intuition about these
factors is likely accurate on an aggregate level, it’s
more than likely not precise on a targeted/segmented
level.

Best Practices for Obtaining Data

There is a myriad of data available to us and we can
use it in many ways. These sources of data include:
surveys, ticketing information, social media analytics,
website analytics, and local offices of arts & culture.
We’re going to focus on surveys which are directly
informed by our patrons. Considering it’s a primary
source of data - why wouldn’t you use direct feedback
to improve their experience?

Beginning in 2014, the Tennessee Theatre began
using a new platform provided by Survature which
allowed us to gain a deeper understanding of patrons’
experiences. In just over 4 years, we received 21,394
responses with an 85% completion rate. Using emails
to send out links to these surveys, we had an open
rate of 52% in 2014 and 2015 which then dropped to
46% in 2016. We attributed this decrease to survey
fatigue and decided to change the frequency of our
emails. We also had received enough data to satisfy
our questions. The questions we asked in these
surveys included:

• How often do you go to the Tennessee
Theatre?
• How important were the following when you
decided to attend the show?
• Based on your experience, how well did

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Resource Guide & Directory November 2018 INLEAGUE | PAGE 19