Selling skills

Although the National Maritime Museum is free for general visits, we still need to generate income from many of our products and services. Effective marketing is important, but so are 'selling skills'.

There are a number of ways that Museum staff can encourage customers to buy products and services (see examples below):

• Raising awareness of products and services
• Understanding customers' needs and expectations
• Telephone information
• Face-to-face communication
• Use of the website

Raising awareness

Good customer service or good business? A past on-site poster promoting the Museum's food and drink facilities to visitorsWe look to raise awareness of the different products and services provided at the Museum, including:

• Public and corporate events
• Exhibitions
• Retail products
• Education
• Guiding services

This is done via marketing materials such as posters, newspaper and radio adverts, distributing flyers and leaflets, both internally around the Museum and externally.

Understanding customer's needs and expectations

Many members of Museum staff have built up valuable knowledge and experience in working closely with different types of customer:

• The Education team has built up a large audience of schools, families and adult learners
• The Retail Department is successful in developing new products for domestic and foreign tourists
• The Corporate Events team has years of experience working with corporate clients
• The Marketing team has a strong relationship with the travel trade market

In addition to this professional knowledge, the Museum invests in external market research to evaluate its current products and test new product ideas. This research is expensive, but is vital in building up accurate profiles of our customers, including:

• Demographic information
• Satisfaction levels
• Dwell time
• Reasons for visiting

The Museum's senior management uses this information to test the success of the existing mix of products and services, to plan its marketing strategy and to develop new products such as new exhibitions.

Telephone information

It is important for customers that staff are friendly, helpful and polite when speaking to customers over the phone. A phone call is often the first point of contact between the Museum and its customers: and first impressions count!

Face-to-face communication

Front of house staff are available are available at all admission points, information desks, shops, cafes and in the galleries to provide customers with immediate help and information. All front-of-house staff are regularly trained to be aware of our products and services so that they can respond positively to enquiries from the public.

Website

The Museum website promotes new events, products and services. The Museum also offers an online shop and an online booking service for exhibition tickets and special events or lectures.

Many of these skills are developed and supported through on-going staff training.

Techniques to increase sales through good customer service

1. Welcome the customer and say 'good morning/afternoon' when they enter the shop. Customers are more likely to ask you for help if you have already shown yourself to be friendly and approachable.

2. If a customer asks for something that is out of stock or discontinued, offer an appropriate alternative.

3. Be knowledgeable about the things you sell so you can answer queries such as 'How does it work?' and 'What does it do?'

4. Believe in what you are selling and be encouraging about a product, e.g. point out how the products are unique because they are inspired by our collections. This may help the customer to choose what to buy.

5. When a customer purchases an item, ask if they have noticed linked sale items. For example, if they are buying a mug, ask if they have seen the matching tableware set.

Marketing material: posters

 A past on-site poster promoting the Museum's shops. Click image to discover some of the key features of the posterOur Inspiring gifts poster (right) was designed to promote both on-site shops at the Museum (NMM) and the Observatory (ROG), as well as the online shop. The aim was to increase sales from people passing the site who might not necessarily be visiting the Museum.

The brief was to produce a cost-effective poster by using existing photography. It was displayed internally at key visitor-flow points at the NMM – e.g. stairwells, exit routes, and externally at poster points around the NMM and ROG sites.

Marketing material: promotional postcards and flyers

Customer research shows that many visitors arrive home and regret not having bought an item from the shop. In response to this customer need (and sales opportunity), the Museum's retail team developed a range of promotional postcards and flyers.

Elizabeth promotional postcard

Download a high-resolution image to discover some of the key features of the postcard (PDF, 441KB)

These were reminders of the quality and range of gifts we supply, and gave information on how to order online or by phone. This enabled the Museum to generate sales that could have been lost.

Download a flyer for the NMM shop (PDF, 33KB): part of a previous promotion. Key points of the flyer:

• The flyers have the same aims as the promotional postcards. They are printed in-house and so are cheaper to produce.
• They are printed on a heavier paper to give a high-quality feel.
• The image of the ship-tile product was chosen since the flyers are being handed out at the NMM shop and this is an image specific to the NMM site displays. Other flyers were produced for the Observatory shop. These feature products linked to the ROG displays.

Special promotions

Occasionally, the Museum, shops and cafes will run special promotions to encourage or reward customer purchases. For example, in the past customers were offered a free hot drink when they spent more than £5 in one of the Museum's shops.

Download the flyer (PDF, 23KB)