A little surprise

For our group project, we picked national museum of the American Indian as a comparison to the natural history Museum. The museum is a beautiful piece of architecture hiding on the far side of the Smithsonian Institute near the Capitol Hill. Even though I have lived in DC for nearly 3 years, this was the first time I came here. Clearly it’s not as popular as the other big names, but I marked my whole experience surprisingly enjoyable.

                                      

We visited the American Indian Museum right after the Natural History.  It was an immediate contrast: a noisy place to a harmony surrounding.  Instead of squeezing into the information desk, we’ve been warmly greeted by Jimmy, a volunteer coordinator at the information desk.  When he saw me picked up a Chinese guidance, he greeted me in Chinese “Ni Hao”, and handed me another print out Chinese version introduction about Native American.  As a Native American himself, he has a great passion working in the museum and this enthusiasm appears to be contagious. We were all refreshed and excited for the exhibition.

We started our visit with a video about native people of the eastern Hemisphere in the little theater. The unique round theater has a forward, overhead and lower screen using 360-degree photography that created a truly immersive experience.

Probably there were less content compare to the Natural History Museum, but the whole learning experience was exceptional. And as you can see, both of my teammates were having fun with the learning program design for the visitors! 

This was probably the best group project I’ve ever done, not only we could enjoy our mystery visitor experience, but also we could analyze those experiences in different methology. 

-Joary

Perception Management

In this course, Managing the Customer Experience, we have learned and applied tools to analyze quantitative and qualitative data to improve the customer experience.  The customer experience is influenced by many factors.  However, controlling perceptions is the key to providing an experience that meets, exceeds, or falls short of expectations.  Studies have shown that organizations that consistently meet or exceed expectations increase customer satisfaction, loyalty, and advocacy.  During our final project, we analyzed the customer experience for a typical day on the National Mall.  This analysis applied the tools we learned to include mapping a customer journey, auditing marketing/public relations platforms, service mapping, blue printing, mystery shopping, user experience (desktop/mobile) evaluation, peak performance analysis, and social media monitoring.   One of the highlights of this process was learning the amount of information an organization needs to not only be aware of but engaged with. 

For example, through analyzing over 30 TripAdvisor and 30 Google reviews of the National Mall, we discovered a majority of visitors were disappointed with the current construction on the National Mall.  Despite this initial disappointment, most contributors stated they were still taken by the beautiful scenery and wonderful sites.  Had visitors been informed of the current construction on the National Mall, it would likely have resulted in less disappointment and increased customer satisfaction by meeting customer expectations.     

-Brett

Current National Mall Construction (Until 2017)

Final Reflections on the course

DK

The presentations were yesterday and I would like to say I think every team did an amazing job on their presentations.  Way to go team Blue line, Silver line and Orange line.  Everybody made the class really fun.

When first going over the information I wasn’t really sure as how everything that was presented tied together, but the group project gave me the opportunity to see it in practice and to try the techniques out.  What made the project great was it was real life experience, not just a case that we read.  We got to visit the museums, the memorials, the mall and talk to visitors.  The project seemed rather daunting at first, given the length of the course, but I have to say my teammates really stepped up and made the project a whole lot of fun to do.  They were always upbeat during the class not matter what time of the day it was, or how lost I got us on the mall.  Working with them was a great experience from the start.

I am going to take everything that I learned throughout the 8 days of the class and hopefully be able to integrate some of the techniques into my organization.

A shout out to Professor Levy for making himself available whenever we had questions throughout the course and for all the hard work that we did not see in setting up the visit to Ritz-Carlton, the Big Bus, the baseball game and the dinners.  I would recommend his classes to anyone.

Now we just have to write the paper...

The only way to see Washington D.C.  At top the Big Bus all by yourself

(Residents of DC, VA and MD: You do not have to wait for out of town visitors to go and see the National Mall and the Memorials or the Smithsonian museums, you can go anytime.)

Only at GW

Managing the Customer Experience was (pardon the repetition) an amazing experience. Visiting any business, museum, restaurant, hotel or attraction will never be the same for me again.

This course taught me the importance of management putting themselves in the shoes of the customer in order to run a successful operation. So many businesses have flaws in their customer experience that are very easy to fix, be it better signage at a museum or refilling the water more frequently at a restaurant. However, management is not very likely to witness these failures because they do not experience the restaurant or museum like the customers do. For example, when I was a mystery shopper at Founding Farmers restaurant, I found many small details that negatively impact the customer experience. These were areas that could easily be fixed: have waiters introduce themselves, refill our waters, and tell us if a refill costs extra money. Mystery shopping can be a very simple way for business leaders to quickly find problem areas and refine their service processes.

Presenting our final project to NPS and Smithsonian officials was also an incredible and unique experience. Being an undergraduate at GW, I have never taken a class that has provided me with as much real life experience and skills as this course. Being able to learn the methods for measuring the customer experience, and then 24 hours later being immersed in some of the most popular visitor attractions in the world and evaluating their customer experiences, is something you cannot get at any other university. I was able to learn the skills necessary and then immediately apply them to real life situations, there by enhancing my learning experience.

--Zack

Team Silver's Title Slide