Will Maitland Weiss

Anyone still reading this on a desktop computer?

Even you—along with the smart phone and smarter tablet readers—know that the tsunamic trend of digital communication will continue to roil how we deliver art (and get money to do so) in 2012.

You certainly aren’t reading this in one of the printed “newsletters” of my (distant) youth. Those, and brochures, and posters, and postcards, and print advertising—which used to take up so much of our time and of our paltry budgets--are going, going, gone.

We tell the stories of our art differently now. We sell our tickets differently; our tickets, which will soon be pieces of cardboard as often as our subway fares are paid in metal tokens.

C-R-M! C-R-M!

Variable pricing—which got a passing shout-out in a recent Sunday Times Magazine (page 11), kind of in the context of “Duh? Some people aren’t doing this?!”

We raise our money differently, or at least we try to. The ubiquitous “Donate Now” button on every home page! Kickstarter.com! Rockethub.com! Power2give.org!

Even more importantly (I believe), we engage our patron differently when s/he walks into our museum or gallery and checks for Wi-Fi. Or doesn’t walk in, and browses from where and when suits her/his fancy.

Harder, but we know that despite the irreplaceable magic of live performance, we’d better grow the theater/dance/music experience well beyond the 8:07 p.m. curtain in the narrow red velvet seat to a flexible and virtual other time and place.

But as well as solving all-of-the-above (and then re-solving them in ever-shorter time spans, as technology half-lives continue to implode), you also know what the transformative arts experience still comes down to, don’t you?

Customer Service.

Three data points:

• In 2001, the Arts & Business Council started a national marketing conference, named for its National Arts Marketing Project, then being rolled out in New York and ten different ABC cities. It was so good, it became known (to the cool kids, anyway) by its acronym “NAMP”—you know, like “TED.” Run (extremely well!) since 2005 by Americans for the Arts, the 2011 NAMP Conference just finished, in Louisville, KY. ABC/NY’s Deputy Director Karen Leiding went, came back last week, and raved nonstop. Scott Stratten’s keynote on “Stop Marketing. Start Engaging.” Survey people: what do they want you to stop, start, continue doing? Empower your staff to provide awesome customer service. Sam Horn’s closing plenary on getting and holding your audience’s attention. “Telling people things keeps them passive. Asking gets them engaged. You want their eyebrows raised in interest, not furrowed in confusion.” Scott, Sam, and everyone in between talked customer service. And using more and more technological tools to enhance personal connections with our patrons.

• Situation Interactive does digital marketing (and only digital) for Broadway shows, some of the big nonprofits, Cirque du Soleil, sports events, and more. In October, its CEO, Damian Bazadona, presented to ABC/NY’s Arts Leadership Institute (ALI) on “Characteristics of Successful Arts Brands in a Digital Age.” Damian stopped the slides of his sharp, useful PowerPoint and told a personal story of how American Express delivered unexpected, breath-taking customer service to him/his family. He had 20 future arts executives reaching for Kleenex. Everything else in his 90-minute presentation became support for how to deliver customer service. Two weeks later, when the ALI class-of-2011 brainstormed for their summary presentation—compacting 50 hours of content, over two months, with 30 speakers—customer service came up number one.

• As I went to hit “send” on this post, it read “two data points” above. Then I glanced at the best daily blog in this field, Tom Cott’s You’ve Cott Mail. Guess what that day’s compilation was on?

You can connect those dots yourself.

Better yet: can you share with us your own strategies for Customer Service Success in 2012?