The Woodson Team joins cohort in kick-off call.
In the staff offices upstairs at the Woodson Art Museum, there has been a major undertaking to implement a new software solution.
As the coordinator of the Museum’s membership program, I led the initiative to search for a product last fall that would help us better maintain our membership records and communicate with our members. In addition to our members, the Museum regularly contacts many other groups, such as volunteers and docents, local educators, artists, and program attendees. So appreciative of their loyalty, I knew there was a solution out there that could help improve our service.
With the input of our team, the Museum took the initiative to move our current patron databases, point-of-sale register, and online webforms to a singular customer relationship management software. Over the past six months, Woodson Art Museum staff members joined three other cultural institutions in cohort meeting sessions that guided us through different topics to implement the software.
A happy visitor tests out the new register, purchasing notecards and postcards featuring artworks from the Museum’s collection.
Throughout this process, we’ve had internal meetings to discuss what you, our members, volunteers, local educators and students, artists, and program participants value in your interactions with the Museum. This software not only improves our data maintenance and communication, but it also provides the ease of online sign up for programs and workshops, renewing memberships, and submitting artwork for Birds in Art jurors’ consideration. At the end of May, the database went live. Since then, our team has been making sure data migrated correctly and was cleaned up accurately, in addition to setting up the cash register and webforms for interacting with the system. Last Wednesday was our graduation!
The first noticeable changes include the webform to join, renew, or purchase a gift membership and the point-of-sale register at the Museum’s Visitor Services desk.
Coming this fall, you can sign up for your favorite programs online. But don’t worry, we’ll still take your phone calls, mail, and respond to your email messages!
