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How we work | 31 Iúil 2025
How we work: Different ways of listening, checking and inviting ways to make our work better
A vital part of how we work is to consistently check how people are experiencing the different programmes we offer, gathering feedback in different ways so we strive to make our work better.
We have created a number of ways to do this for everyone - our participants, visitors and audience members. Making sure we include the time for people to ask questions, give their feedback and opinions on what they’ve experienced as part of our programmes is central to everything we do.
Every six months, we invite a ‘mystery shopper’ to tell us their experiences. This ‘mystery shopper’ may come from the cultural or visitor experience sector, but most importantly it is someone who has never participated in any of our programmes or work previously.
They are contracted to review and analyse our work, to bring a fresh perspective and give us new insight into how we are doing across all our programmes and buildings. We ask them to highlight where we are succeeding, achieving excellence and importantly, areas for improvement.
Reflecting on their experiences may include questions such as: how easy is it to navigate our websites and is our information given in a clear and accessible manner? How did they find their interactions with the team whether by phone, through email or in person? Was it easy to find out where we were located and what you might experience on arrival? Can you easily identify the members of our team? And are you welcomed in a warm and inviting manner? Did you enjoy yourself? Was it interesting? What did you feel afterwards and did we invite you to try other things or continue to develop your relationship with us?
Our recent ‘mystery shopper’ confirmed that the quality of the personal interactions with our team and follow up made a difference between a passive transactional experience to experiences that felt people centred, thoughtful and inclusive. In the past six months, in response to our previous ‘mystery shopper’ we’ve worked on specific aspects of website navigation, given greater prominence in our information on the additional supports and facilities we offer and giving clear information on what to expect when you visit our buildings or participate in our programmes.
This regular checking-in to see how we are doing demonstrates the value people place in openness, friendliness, access and community. We will continue to work to make sure we learn through people’s participation on their journey to join us through to what other things they may wish to explore across all our programmes and buildings.
The ‘mystery shopper’ is an additional element in how we receive information to improve our programmes. It sits alongside all we gather through our visitor, participant and audience survey feedback, online reviews and comments on social media platforms and the conversations our team have when you visit or join in our programmes. Continuously listening to your experiences is a vital element of how we work and the ongoing development of our programmes.