William Melhado
A "happy or not" kiosk stands near the exit of the Genoveva Chavez Community Center, awaiting feedback from visitors.
As visitors exit the Genoveva Chavez Community Center, a kiosk with four emojis beckons their attention. Choices range from a smiley face to a frowny face, awaiting a selection based on a visitor’s experience at the popular neighborhood hub.
On a recent quiet Tuesday, the kiosk at the community center saw little action, but employees at the front desk say lots of visitors stop to share their thoughts on the way out.
Though more commonly associated with sports stadiums or airport bathrooms, the “happy or not” kiosks have popped up all over Santa Fe: the Southside Library, Main Library, tourism office, airport and City Hall, seeking quick feedback from visitors.
Feedback from the community center kiosk has been good. The team over at the main library, has also received positive reviews.
“After our long building closures and the stress that COVID placed on staff, it’s always nice to hear positive feedback,” Library Division Director Maria Sanchez-Tucker tells SFR.
Libraries shuttered across Santa Fe due to the pandemic, limiting their business to curbside check-out and virtual programming. Now, Sanchez-Tucker says, with doors open, residents have expressed overwhelming gratitude for the programming the city has since been able to provide.
Residents all over town have offered positive feedback at a higher rate than negative reviews that show up in the automated reports provided to directors, officials say.
The kiosks are an effort of the Community Engagement Office to better understand the public’s experience in high-traffic areas, Kristine Bustos-Mihelcic says, who serves as director of the office and City Clerk. She hopes “to help integrate data into daily decisions that just make it more readily available to constituents in general, as well as governing body members.”
When city buildings reopened in July, the kiosks started collecting data. Bustos-Mihelcic says planning for the project started prior to COVID, but without visitors in buildings for almost a year and a half it didn’t make sense to launch until this summer.
The kiosks are simple to use: After electing an emoji that reflects your experience—happy or not—visitors have the option of sharing more feedback based on a number of factors. Those who want to leave a written comment, can do so—though users can share as much or as little feedback as they want.
“We live in a culture that’s very quick, right?” Bustos-Mihelcic asks, noting the kiosks’ appeal to instant gratification. “That was one of the things we really enjoyed about this layout and format: It’s very familiar, very user friendly.”
The feedback form appears in English and Spanish.
Sanchez-Tucker agrees that the data-driven project supports her, and her fellow directors, to better meet the needs of Santa Feans.
When less-than positive reviews find their way to Sanchez-Tucker, that information helps inform her work.
“If the feedback is negative—it’s rarely negative—but sometimes people do put specific examples in,” she says. “We’re able to address it if it’s specific enough, and then we can follow up on those issues.”
With four months of data, the project is “still kind of in its infancy,” Bustos-Mihelcic says. She tells SFR the city hopes to expand the use of the kiosks by bringing the devices to events to get immediate feedback, adding: “We’ll see how we can incorporate these into additional services moving forward.”
Bustos-Mihelcic says she hopes everyone utilizes the kiosks to help the city improve its services. For all those library patrons and community center users out there, go forth and give feedback.
