🛍️How do you get to the Carnegie Hall gift shop?
I ditched my routine recently. I traveled to New York with a friend and my oldest daughter to visit Carnegie Hall for the first time. Which begs the question:
How do you get to Carnegie Hall?
Because your daughter “Practiced! Practiced! Practiced!”
My youngest daughter plays the flute in her high school’s Advanced Wind Symphony. The band is excellent. It’s good enough to be Carnegie Hall-worthy. Two honor ensembles from her school – Advanced Wind Symphony and Advanced String Orchestra – were selected to perform at Carnegie Hall, as part of the Symphonic Series for Bands and Orchestras.
Carnegie Hall NYC. That’s a brand you’d recognize even if you’ve never attended an event there.
In a Los Angeles Times article, dated March 23, 2018, Gino Francesconi, the Hall’s director of archives, estimated 50,000 performances have taken place in the building.
He said, “I think we’ve had more events here than any other theater on the planet.” (The article was part of a series exploring great music venues of America. And the Arts & Culture writer chose Carnegie Hall as the first site to visit.)
I think performing here is a big deal and I’m glad I could be in the audience, as the role of Mom. (Hey, I make my own schedule — a perk of being a freelance copywriter.)
I wouldn’t have missed it for the world. I witnessed amazing performances by musicians who were born after iPhones were sold. Four instrumental ensembles from Illinois, Indiana, New York, and her school in Central New Jersey played songs like Tchaikovsky’s Theme from Swan Lake and Shostakovich’s Fortinbras March, from Hamlet.
If you want an eye-witness account of the artist dressing rooms, you need to ask her band members. Or look it up on the internet. She was mesmerized by the backstage rooms.
Oh, I was tingling with excitement!
We walked into the Stern Auditorium/Perelman Stage and sat in the fifth row. My friend’s daugther was also performing. We talked about what momentos to buy at the gift shop. Would our daughters prefer a t-shirt or a tote bag?
The venue has five curvilinear levels and seating for 2,790. What an atmosphere! Legends have performed here since 1891, which makes one feel very young.
Leonard Bernstein was 25 years old when he had his debut conducting the New York Philharmonic at Carnegie Hall. Without a rehearsal because he received a last minute call to substitute for Director Bruno Walter, who was sick with the flu.
When the performance ended, we exited the auditorium. It’s a maze in the hallways, and the unmarked doorways were confusing.
The people stepped on our feet in the crowded hallway. We felt jostled and flipped like a ball in a pinball machine. But we weren’t ready for “game over.” We wanted to explore the building’s interior.
So we decided to keep walking to find an open space to plan what to do next. We followed the crowd, down the hallway, past the Weill Café, realizing the space was too congested to pause. The ushers directed us to keep moving, down the stairs, and walk into the lobby.
Where’s the gift shop?
My friend asked someone with a gift shop bag (a walking billboard, in my way of thinking) and he told her the gift shop was upstairs.
When we tried to retrace our steps and go up the stairs, the staff member said sharply, “No rentry.” But we did not know we had exited. The other option was to travel to a free-standing gift shop, but it wasn’t open for another hour. And we were ready to spend money now.
We were deflated. We exited with no momentos and ample money in our Google Pay-pockets.
You can have an established name as well-known as Carnegie Hall, and still miss a sale.
Give your new visitor a direct path to spending money
The experience reminded me of websites that are a confusing maze when you land on them.
The website is chockful of information about the company, details about the products and services offered, and updated contact information. But I need a guide.
Like our journey visiting Carnegie Hall, your visitor may not have visited your website before. Is the path clear? Or have you stacked up too many barriers?
Copywriters get inside the prospective customer’s head
Your prospective customer is looking for the perfect souvenir (or product or service). Good web copy understands why the prospective customer lands on your website. Then purposely guides them. And eliminates the frustrating obstacles along the path.
Look for the NO ENTRY obstacles on your website. And if you need help, consult with a website copywriter (like me😊).
Images by Shannan Seely
Open Discussion:
- Have you been to Carnegie Hall?
- Think of a time when a company had an unnecessary barrier to buying from them. What would you have changed to improve the experience?
Give your answers below …
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About Shannan Seely
B2B and Healthcare Digital Copywriter📝| Website, landing page, and email copy expert