Sentomus — In detail: everything about the museum visitor research study
Sentomus museum visitor research — in detail
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What will I learn with Sentomus?
The Sentomus study is developed for museums that wish to gain in-depth insights into their local audience.
A well-balanced questionnaire ensures feedback on all relevant aspects of the museum:
- Visitor experience in the museum
- Evaluation of offerings, infrastructure, and general conditions
- Audience profile, preferences, and motivations
- Impact of the museum on visitor well-being and on society (Impact Compass Model)
- Evaluation of communication
- Satisfaction and Net Promoter Score
- Economic contribution to the local community
- Why do former visitors no longer return?
- Why do non-visitors not come? How can they be encouraged?
- Open questions → concrete feedback & suggestions
- And much more
The questionnaire will be fully personalised to the local context of your museum, based on the information we ask you via the research platform.
Additionally, you can remove questions or answer options of the standard questionnaire that you do not want to include. You also have the possibility to add questions or answer options that are particularly important for your museum.
The study provides many useful insights that can be directly applied in your museum. Open-text fields provide ample space for high-quality feedback.
Ambassador museums receive an extensive individual research report, including benchmarking with clusters of comparable museums, national and international results.
All information about the content of the study can be found here.
| Feature | Member Free | Pro Add-on | Ambassador Premium |
|---|---|---|---|
| Full personalised visitor survey | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ |
| Live dynamic dashboard | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ |
| Multilingual (up to 6 languages) | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ |
| Personalised communication materials | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ |
| European benchmarking report + webinar | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ |
| Survey respondents | Up to 100 | Unlimited | Unlimited |
| Study duration | 6 months | 12 months | 12 months |
| Extra helpdesk support | — | ✓ | ✓ |
| Trend measurement over time | — | ✓ | ✓ |
| Group participation + group report | — | ✓ | ✓ |
| Individual museum research report | — | — | ✓ |
| Benchmarking with peer museums | — | — | ✓ |
| Executive summary for board | — | — | ✓ |
| Raw visitor data access | — | — | ✓ |
Which target audience?
The study is designed for surveying the visitors of your museum. Visitors are defined as people who have been to your museum within the past 12 months.
It is also possible to include former visitors (people who have not visited for more than 12 months) or non-visitors (people who have never been). The intelligent and dynamic survey includes specific questions for both profiles. The system automatically identifies these profiles and presents only the relevant questions to each respondent.
In the international context of this study, questionnaires are available in multiple languages. You can freely choose which languages to make available for your museum's survey.
The available languages are:
- German
- English
- French
- Italian
- Dutch
- Spanish
Is it labour-intensive to participate?
The study has been designed so that it can be carried out in a simple and straightforward way, without significantly increasing the workload of the museum team.
How much time will be required from you or a member of your staff?
- Registering your museum (approx. 15 minutes)
- Providing museum characteristics so that your survey can be personalised (approx. 30 minutes)
- If desired, adding your own questions and modifying the standard questionnaire
- Promoting the survey via one or more communication channels (approx. 120 minutes)
- A live dashboard shows the results as they come in. Exploring the data takes as much time as your own needs require.
- Ambassador museums receive a clear, practically applicable and shareable research report.
Personalised Questionnaire
Sentomus provides a well-balanced questionnaire developed in collaboration with scientific partners, relevant museum associations, and professionals from the museum sector.
The questionnaire is based on a well-balanced international standard but has been adapted to the national context of each participating country.
The survey is fully customised to the museum-specific context of each participating museum. You can review the questionnaire in advance and have the option to:
- Remove questions or answer options you consider irrelevant for your museum
- Add your own questions or answer options
- Personalise standard questions (e.g. local pricing formulas, activities, …)
Removing, adding, and personalising questions is very easy and done through the research platform. This way, we can easily create a fully customised survey while still enabling anonymous comparison with other museums.
The survey system is dynamic and intelligent: depending on the respondent's profile and answers, they will only see relevant questions. This also allows (if desired) the inclusion of former visitors and non-visitors in the same survey.
Scientifically grounded
The study is supported by 10 academic researchers across seven universities.
Together, they have developed a well-balanced questionnaire used across all participating countries.
The universities in each country also ensure that the standard is adapted to national circumstances, as every country has specific cultural specificities. The national sector associations are likewise involved in the composition of the questionnaire.
Learn more about the academic team behind Sentomus.
What does it cost to participate?
The study is offered to museums completely independently. It is developed to provide an accessible tool for a rigorous and structured visitor survey. There is no external funding, and as a consequence results and data are completely confidential and analysis can be conducted without any external influence.
Since 2026, Sentomus is also available free of charge. The free version includes a complete audience research study, without compromising on quality or flexibility. Museums that wish to include larger numbers of visitors, conduct the study on a more continuous basis, or receive more extensive reporting including benchmarking, can choose to upgrade their membership at any time.
In order to distribute the cost in a balanced way, the amount is calculated based on the size of the participating museum, using the number of full-time equivalents (FTE) as the basis.
| No. of FTE | Sentomus Member Free | Sentomus Pro Add-on | Sentomus Ambassador Premium |
|---|---|---|---|
| Less than 5 FTE | Free | ||
| 5 to 19 FTE | Free | ||
| 20 to 49 FTE | Free | ||
| 50 to 75 FTE | Free | ||
| More than 75 FTE | Free |
Sentomus Members can conduct the study during 6 months from the day of registration. Pro and Ambassador museums can do the study all year long.
Sentomus does not automatically renew memberships. After each research period, you will be contacted to offer an extension without obligation.
Register your museum for the study →
Reporting & Benchmarking
Sentomus offers a live and dynamic research dashboard, containing all your local results. It allows you to explore the results:
- Clear tables with results
- Dynamic visualisation
- Filtering of results
- Creation of crosstabs
After their study, Ambassador museums receive a comprehensive research report with actionable insights. In this report you can see your own results in detail and compare your museum (anonymously) with a cluster of similar museums, as well as national and international results.
Your dashboard and research report are always confidential: only your museum has access to its own results.
Pro add-onTrend measurement (comparison over time)
AmbassadorPersonalised research report
AmbassadorBenchmarking with peers, national and international results
AmbassadorExecutive summary
AmbassadorRaw data available
For which museums?
Sentomus is designed to be applicable by any type of (public or private) museum, regardless of its offer or collection. It is also built to be scalable: suitable for both small and large institutions.
Sentomus provides every museum with a tool to collect visitor data in an accessible, standardised, and rigorous way, enabling the comparison of results with comparable museums.
Discover the 250+ museums that have already participated.
When?
The data collection period can run year-round or within a timeframe you select. You choose the timing that works best for your museum to conduct the survey.
For Ambassador museums, there are two fixed reporting points to choose from: June or December. Reports are produced at the selected reporting moment.
During the study period, all museums have ongoing access to their interactive dashboard, where they can view results, apply filters, create cross-tabulations, and display various charts.
Security
We handle data and results with care. All systems are secured according to current standards:
- Secure servers
- HTTPS – SSL encryption
- Continuous server backups
- Anti-BOT measures
Various quality control measures are applied to ensure data integrity:
- Consistency checks through control questions
- Checks for 'speeders' (respondents who complete the survey too quickly)
- Anonymised IP address checks
Data Privacy
The study is conducted in accordance with international data privacy requirements, including specifically the European General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR). At no point is any personal data of respondents collected; the survey is completely anonymous.
In this anonymous set-up, how are the incentives (prizes) assigned to winners? The survey system randomly designates winners as respondents complete the questionnaire. Selected winners are shown a unique code after submission, accompanied by a prompt to contact the research team. Contact details are deleted immediately afterward.
For each participating museum, we require the contact details of at least one contact person (first name, last name, email address). These details are used solely for communication regarding the study. The data can be requested, updated, or deleted at any time via a simple email request.
The research results of your study are the private property of your museum during and after completion. They are shared only with your museum's designated contact person(s). You can decide if and how you want to publish local results.
The results of all participating museums are anonymised and aggregated so that overarching analysis is possible. All benchmark analyses are always based on anonymised data, protecting the confidentiality of local results.
Read the full privacy policy.
Assistance
Sentomus is designed to be easy to implement. Easy step-by-step plans and short explanatory videos guide you easily through the complete study for your museum.
If needed, Pro and Ambassador museums are entitled to extra support by a professional helpdesk. A ticket is created for each question to ensure clear tracking.
If museum visitors have questions or feedback about the survey, they can also contact the helpdesk via the "Help" button in the survey.
Pro add-onExtra support via helpdesk
Groups
Groups of museums enjoy some extra benefits and are entitled to a tailored offer with extra price reductions. For more information, click here.
Pro add-onGroup participation possible
Pro add-onGroup report available
Pro add-onGroup structure on the platform
Pro add-onGroup-level questions possible
AmbassadorIndividual reports per location
AmbassadorAdditional benchmark with group-wide results
AmbassadorRaw data available at group level
Reaching respondents
Each museum receives a personal museum link (and QR code) to their survey. This link can be shared with visitors, former visitors, or non-visitors.
Each museum receives personalised, ready-to-use communication materials to easily invite visitors to take part in the survey. These materials can be used across digital channels (ticketing software, newsletter, website, social media, …) or in physical touchpoints within the museum (posters, flyers, …).
The Sentomus survey is set up online. If you wish, it is also possible to conduct "live" interviews with visitors through your museum staff or volunteers. A separate briefing is available. A paper version with reduced complexity is also available.
The survey system is fully responsive, making it accessible on smartphone, tablet, laptop, and desktop.
Would you also like to survey former visitors or non-visitors? Dedicated communication materials are provided through the research platform, for distribution via the city or municipality, partner institutions, associations, etc.
You also have the option to implement a fully random sampling approach, supported by clear sampling instructions and methodological guidance from the research team.