What will you learn with Sentomus?
The Sentomus study covers all relevant aspects of the museum experience. A well-balanced questionnaire provides insights into visitor experience, satisfaction, audience profiles, societal impact, economic contribution, and much more.
Explore each research theme below.
Research themes
Click a theme to exploreVisitor Experience
How visitors experience the museum
Evaluation
Offerings, infrastructure & conditions
Audience Profile
Demographics, preferences & motivations
Communication
How visitors evaluate museum communication
Satisfaction & NPS
Recommendation and loyalty
Impact Compass Model
Societal value and visitor wellbeing
Economic Impact
Contribution to the local community
Former & Non-Visitors
Why people don't (re)visit
Open Feedback
Concrete suggestions from visitors
Thematic & Voice Surveys
Pro and Ambassador members will have the possibility of conducting short thematic studies. Short studies can be used to go deeper in topics such as impact, ecology, accessibility, the museum of the future, art conservation, and more.
Next to these studies, a new and innovative tool will be launched allowing museums to conduct in-depth interactive voice interviews through audio surveys, using visitors' smartphones — ideal for monitoring specific sections, exhibitions or events. A live dashboard gives continuous access to visitor sentiment and insights.
Visitor Experience
How visitors experience the museumUnderstanding what visitors actually experience
Sentomus goes beyond asking "did you like it?" — it captures how visitors experience the museum across multiple dimensions: the exhibition itself, the atmosphere, the emotional response, the level of engagement, and the overall journey through the museum.
Visitors are asked to evaluate specific aspects of their visit, from the moment they arrive until they leave. This provides museums with a detailed picture of what works well and where there is room for improvement.
The experience data can be filtered by visitor type, language, visit frequency, and more — allowing museums to understand how different audiences perceive the same visit.
Evaluation
Offerings, infrastructure and general conditionsHow visitors evaluate your museum's offerings and conditions
Beyond the experience itself, visitors evaluate the practical aspects of the museum: the quality and diversity of the offering, the infrastructure, wayfinding, accessibility, facilities, staff friendliness, and general conditions such as pricing and opening hours.
This structured feedback helps museums identify operational strengths and areas for improvement, grounded in evidence rather than assumptions. Because the questionnaire is standardised, these evaluations can be benchmarked against comparable museums.
Audience Profile
Demographics, preferences and motivationsWho visits your museum — and why?
Sentomus provides a detailed profile of the museum's audience: age, gender, education level, geographic origin, group composition, visit frequency, and how they heard about the museum. This helps museums understand who they are reaching — and who they are not.
The study also explores visit motivations: why did visitors decide to come? What drew them to this specific museum? Understanding motivation patterns is key to shaping programming, communication, and audience development strategies.
All profile data can be cross-referenced with experience and satisfaction scores, revealing which visitor segments are most satisfied and why.
Communication
How visitors evaluate museum communicationAre you reaching the right people through the right channels?
Sentomus measures how visitors learned about the museum and how they evaluate the museum's communication. This includes the website, social media presence, signage, and other touchpoints.
Understanding which communication channels are most effective for different visitor segments helps museums allocate resources more efficiently and improve their outreach strategies.
Impact Compass Model
Societal value and visitor developmentMeasurements of satisfaction, experience, evaluation, profile, and more are important for a museum's operations. But demonstrating significance goes beyond those aspects.
The museum also has a societal role: it supports the development and well-being of its visitors and the wider community. The research uses a Danish model that measures the impact of cultural institutions on their audiences.
The model is based on The Cultural Value Project ("Understanding the value of arts & culture"), an extensive UK study initiated by the Arts and Humanities Research Council in 2019. That study explored how culture translates into impact and value, and how the concrete impact and value of a museum can be measured through empirical and analytical methods.
Haven
- Enthusiasm
- Concentration and immersion
- Wellness
- Being moved
Perspective
- Learning
- Reflection
- Critical sense and problem solving
- Cultivation of interest
Community
- Insights and empathy
- Community and relationships
- Democratic participation
- Citizenship
Creativity
- Motivation and new ideas
- Development of skills
- Imagination
- Self-expression
Example visualization — each museum receives its own Impact Compass with accurate data in its personal report.
Net Promoter Score (NPS)
Recommendation and loyalty indicatorWe ask museum visitors whether they would recommend the museum to family, friends, or colleagues.
They can give a score from 1 (would not recommend at all) to 10 (would highly recommend). This question is commonly used in research to calculate the Net Promoter Score (NPS), a metric for measuring visitor loyalty.
Based on their responses, participants are categorised as promoters (enthusiasts who are likely to encourage others to visit), passives, or detractors (those who would not recommend the museum).
NPS = % Promoters − % DetractorsRange: −100 to +100
Economic Impact
Contribution to the local communityWhat is your museum's economic contribution?
Museums are not only cultural institutions — they are economic drivers. Sentomus measures the economic contribution of the museum to its local community: how much visitors spend during their visit, where they eat, shop, and stay, and what their visit means for the local economy.
This data helps museums demonstrate their broader value to stakeholders, policymakers, and funders — moving beyond attendance figures towards concrete economic impact evidence.
Former Visitors & Non-Visitors
Understanding barriers and opportunitiesWhy do people not (re)visit your museum?
The Sentomus survey includes dedicated questions for former visitors — people who have not visited the museum for more than 12 months — and non-visitors — people who have never been. The intelligent questionnaire automatically identifies these profiles and presents only the relevant questions.
This research reveals the barriers to visiting: lack of awareness, perceived irrelevance, practical obstacles, or negative past experiences. It also explores what could motivate these groups to visit or return.
The results provide qualitative insights that are directly actionable for audience development, programming, and outreach — helping museums grow and diversify their audience.
Open Feedback
Concrete suggestions from visitorsWhat do visitors want to tell you in their own words?
Throughout the questionnaire, open-text fields provide ample space for visitors to share their thoughts, suggestions, and feedback in their own words. This qualitative data complements the structured scores with rich, concrete, and often surprising insights.
Visitors frequently share specific suggestions about exhibitions, facilities, programming, and communication — feedback that is immediately actionable for the museum team. The open feedback is available in the live dashboard and can be filtered by language, visitor type, and other criteria.