| Abstract [eng] |
The recent explosion of social media and data analytics provides museums with new challenges and opportunities to develop enhanced knowledge and establish more effective strategies for visitor relationship management and service quality. In this chapter, we introduce a methodological framework and applied case study demonstrating how museums can establish an evidence-based quality evaluation process, based on a systematic analysis of large-scale visitor responses in online social media platforms, and use it to improve the quality of their offering to local and global communities. We introduce MUSEQUAL, a five-dimensional model for museum quality assessment, extending the HOTELQUAL standard for quality evaluation in the hospitality sector, and show how it can leverage an analysis of social media content extracted from TripAdvisor and Facebook to provide evidence-based insights for improving museum service provision in the dimensions of Display, Subject matter, Facilities, Services and Staff. Based on this model, we present, firstly, an automated analysis of several thousand user comments on TripAdvisor from three European museums using software and, secondly, a qualitative data analysis of visitor reviews of these museums on Facebook. Finally, on the basis of a critical summary of findings, we identify challenges and offer guidance on how such an approach may be used by museum professionals without specialised training in complex research methods and tools, to conduct a practical evaluation of complementary dimensions of museum provision, pointing to potential improvements in different aspects of museum work. |
