Mission Accomplished? Examining Long-Term Ownership of Visitor Experiences - Part 2 of 3

Previous Article - Part 1: Introducing Experiential Depreciation

Part 2: The Total Cost of Experience Ownership

You probably already know firsthand that bringing any visitor experience to life is a complex endeavor that requires careful planning, design, and execution. However, the expenses and effort associated with creating an experience are just the tip of the iceberg. Beyond the initial development costs, there are various ongoing expenses that institutions often overlook either due to a lack of planning, plain old optimism, or maybe even willful ignorance.?

This is where the concept known as Total Cost of Experience Ownership (TCEO) comes in. Simply put, TCEO refers to the comprehensive assessment of expenses and resources associated with owning and truly maintaining a visitor experience over its entire lifecycle.?

I honestly think that outside of a few large institutions, this is where I see owners and operators of visitor experiences fall short most often. The tendency seems to be to declare a visitor experience “done” as soon as it opens. I don’t need to see an annual operating budget to know this; I can tell just by spending time in the experience.?

In this article, we will explore how a visitor experience can incur additional costs and why considering the TCEO from the start is crucial for long-term success.

The Hidden Costs of Visitor Experiences

A critical component to understanding TCEO is to understand the concept of Experiential Depreciation. Well beyond normal maintenance and repairs lies a much more nuanced and difficult task: Ensuring that the entirety of the visitor experience really WORKS within the realm of the Pillars of Relevance. This overarching philosophy aside, there are many things that owners of visitor experiences can focus on to ensure that TCEO is well accounted for.?

Maintenance vs. Maintenance 2.0: The first part of this seems to be the easiest to grasp because it is the most obvious. Every visitor experience is subject to wear and tear, necessitating occasional repairs. This includes fixing broken components, addressing technical glitches, and ensuring a safe and clean environment for visitors. This is the easy stuff; If it’s broken, fix it. That’s a relatively clear north star. It is also a terrible goal because merely succeeding at this goal means you have failed at the real task at hand.?

Maintenance 2.0 on the other hand, takes a much broader view:

Let’s start with the assumption that in a visitor experience, all unplanned downtime is bad. If an attraction or individual exhibit is non functional, the lost revenue is easy to calculate, but I would argue that the insidious long-term damage to your brand is often even worse. Unplanned downtime is bad because every single second in a visitor journey matters, and we should assiduously avoid the need to apologize to our guests. If you agree to that premise (and you really, really should), then here are some things to consider:

First - a bit of nuance. What does “downtime” really mean? Not working? Sure. Won’t turn on at all? Sure. Does it also mean that (in the case of a science exhibit, for instance) the story is no longer getting across to visitors even though everything seems to be “functional”? You bet it does!! I see this wolf in sheep's clothing all over the world in interactive experiences; Do the lights light up? Check. Does pushing the button make something happen? Check. Are the instructions clear? Check. Does the phenomenon in question really never materialize as clearly as it did on opening day so visitors don’t know what the heck just happened, what they just learned, or if they succeeded? Check, check, and check.?

MAN does this grind my gears. It means that someone spent 30 seconds this morning to ensure that the lights are on, but did not take the time to see if the interactive is still doing it’s actual job. These micro-experiences, whether you call them an attraction or an interactive, are just elaborate and tech-supported storytelling platforms. If they are not telling their story like they did on day one, they are broken. Sometimes, downtime hides in plain sight.

OK, so what does it take to get to Maintenance 2.0??

Step One: Story First!?

As I mentioned above, each moment in an experience is a moment of storytelling. If the intended story is not being told (and told well!) then the experience is not functional. Each member of the team needs to fully grasp this concept. “On” does not equal “good”. Paired with this is the tried and true approach to regular evaluation and updates: Continuously assess the visitor experience, gather feedback, and make data-driven decisions to identify areas for improvement.?

Take a proactive operational stance

Fix what is broken, sure. But, what is about to break? Why? Can we prevent that? Is there an inherent design flaw that can be addressed? Is it somebody’s job to focus on this? If we do X now will we prevent downtime Y? Again, each member of the team needs to think this way.?

Proactive replacement of components

A fantastic (and expensive) example of this is projectors. The lifespan of a typical projector is surprisingly short (even 10,000 hours is only about 4 years in a busy institution). This number is climbing, but it is never going to equal infinity.? So, if you are not planning to rebuild or replace your projectors before they start to degrade, you are already behind.

Structure for a rapid response.

We’ve already established that downtime=bad. So, if something does go awry, you’ll want to be built for speed so that you can sort it out right away. There are a number of components to a successful rapid response strategy:?

• Spares

There is no substitute for having spares on hand. If a component gets wonky and a little troubleshooting doesn’t get you the answers you need right away, replace it immediately. You can figure out the why part of the equation after the fact, behind the scenes.?

• The right team, in the right place

Okay you've read this far. It's time for a quiz: which is better??

A) The team responsible for the maintenance and operations of the experience is sitting in an office or workshop somewhere waiting for somebody to tell them something is wrong.

B) The team responsible for maintenance and operations of the experience is prowling the experience frequently, looking for trouble before it arrives.

• Impeccable documentation

Make sure you have good clean documentation from your vendors (drawings, wiring diagrams, cut sheets, etc.) and commit to updating that documentation as the experience evolves.

• Easy access to components

If replacing a monitor is a full-day project, you might have a bigger problem. (more about this in part 3). In the design phase, imagine what will happen when any given component fails. What will it take to get to that component, remove it, and replace it? Does it involve hiring someone from Cirque to squirrel into the wall to unplug something? If so, you may need to practice your thinking-ahead skills.?

Conclusion?

So, if you are at all budget conscious, you may be reading all of this and saying to yourself "OMG what will all that cost? If so, congratulations! That’s the right question. Now remove the incredulous tone and we are getting somewhere. Good! You are starting to wrap your head around the Total Cost of Experience Ownership.

At first, the willingness of the full team (including our beloved board members!) to fully grasp and embrace TCEO can be a challenge. Conflating development costs with TCEO is a common theme I hear (“Creating this experience was expensive enough! Now I have to spend more money?”). That’s the sunk cost fallacy in full bloom; the Net Present Value of a visitor experience hinges on the qualitative assessment of visitors today. It’s not relevant that you have allocated resources in the past. All that matters is now.? I know. It’s hard. But, would you get a new pet and plan to not feed it or take it to the vet? Would you buy a new house in the Northwoods and plan to not heat it? Being rigorous and honest about TCEO is a critical step on the path to push back against Experiential Depreciation.?

Next in the series:?

In the next installment - Designing for a World of Evolving Expectations - we will examine HOW to design your experiences (and your team) for long-term success.?