The ‘Captive Audience’ Phenomena Can Be Your Secret Weapon To Connect With Visitors
Imagine you are using a restroom in a public place or park. As you sit and wait, the boredom you experience causes you to study every feature around you as though you were searching for a secret code from the Illuminati.
After leaving the restroom, you continue on your way. There is much to see and do. As you walk down the trail, you pass by a sign that gives an interesting history of the park. Later you walk past a flier that posts several upcoming events you might have been interested in.
You would have liked to have read these things, but you didn’t. Maybe you were in a hurry, or maybe you didn’t even notice these things at all. Or maybe it wasn’t sufficiently evident how interesting or relevant they were from a glance.
Now think about all these great signs that didn’t feel like they were worth your attention, but back when you were stuck in the bathroom, studying every little scratch and dent in the walls WAS worth your attention. Isn’t that kind of weird?
Actually, it isn’t. The phenomenon described in this story is known as the “captive audience.” Whenever we are forced to stop, it’s just human nature to look for ways to stave off boredom. Think of it this way- in what place other than a waiting room would anyone ever read an eight-year-old copy of US Weekly?
Any place where people wait is going to create a “sellers’ market” for attention. Whether it’s the line at the concession stand, or the bench at the side of a trail. And then you have the prime real estate of all captive audience areas, the restroom. No other captive audience location will have higher traffic, and less to look at. Here are some examples of things to use in these ‘captive’ spaces:
Education
Captive spaces are a natural fit for providing interesting local history or education of local plants and animals. You could think of this as filling the same role as the magazine in the waiting room, except it actually provides visitors with a connection and enhanced appreciation for your public place.
Schedules and Events
If your public place has upcoming events, the better you are at getting the word out, the more people that will attend. Bathroom doors are a very natural location for paper fliers, and these can be easily put up and removed as new events come along.
Volunteering / Stewardship
Some of your visitors have free time and would be happy to answer the call for volunteering. For everyone else, this could also be an opportunity to bond with visitors and create a sense of stewardship, especially if your location has a lot of natural beauty or historic significance.
Advertising
These captive places make for good advertising real estate if so desired. For example, a little league field could use advertisements or acknowledgements in captive spaces to help incentivize local business sponsorships.
Rules
Some common examples of rules posted in restrooms include things like “don’t stand on toilets” or “don’t flush garbage.” This could also be a useful place to post non-restroom rules or reminders, such as “don’t feed wild animals” or “the park closes at 8pm.”
Flair
If nothing else, you can still make an impression with visitors by posting something memorable in their eye-line in these captive areas. It might be a humorous sign, something visual that represents the local area, or some cool nature inspired art. Any of these things adds an identity marker to your place and helps it feel more memorable to visitors.
Places of rest represent a golden opportunity to connect with your visitors. If properly equipped, these areas become powerful tools for communication and connection that work for you around the clock. This is an easy and low-cost way to give your public place a significant added advantage.
Lastly, we should mention that thevisitorexperience.org was the inspiration for this blog post. If you run a public place and are interested in tips and advice for improving your visitor experience, we recommend giving their website a click as they have a lot of helpful tips and ideas.