Stephanie Weaver wrote the first ground-breaking visitor experience guide for museums and other cultural institutions in 2007, and built a 15-year consulting business based on the book. At the time, museum and other non-profit professionals had just begun to realize that the entire visitor experience is the key to repeat attendance, successful fundraising, and building audience loyalty. Taking lessons learned by successful experience-shapers in the for-profit world, Stephanie Weaver distilled this knowledge for museums and other organizations which depend on visitor satisfaction for success.

Is your institution welcoming? Are the bathrooms clean? Does the staff communicate well? Are there enough places to sit? These practical matters may mean more to creating a loyal following than any exhibit or program the institution develops. Weaver breaks the visitor experience down to 8 steps and provides practical guidance to museums and related institutions on how to create optimal visitor experiences for each of them. In a workshop-like format, she uses multiple examples, exercises, and resource links to walk the reader through the process.