I have to admit that this book was not what I expected when I bought it. I thought it would be a book about the ins and outs of crafting museum programming. It isn’t.

But it might be better.

Andrea Nalls’ book is a quick and easy to read look at the customer service experience that is inherent in museum work. With chapters like “A Whole Museum Commitment to Service “ and “The Experience Economy Approach, Applied in a Museum Setting,” this book makes short work of raising the bar in your museum, in terms of visitor experience.

As Nalls reminds readers, bad customer experiences are shared 11 times on average, while good experiences, in contrast, are shared only 6 times. Moving forward from this sobering fact into practical steps every museum can take to increase customer satisfaction, Nalls makes the case that improving visitor experience will not only improve your TripAdvisor rating, but also improve your staff satisfaction, help you meet your DEAI initiatives, and encourage one-time visitors to become life-time members.

Don’t be fooled by this book’s quick pace, short chapters, and easy to understand vocabulary. It is packed with information and actionable advice. While all museum professionals would benefit from this book, every manager, director, Executive Director, C-Suite administrators, and Board members should make the time to ready this book and think carefully about whether their site’s customer service is meeting their stated mission or not.