Empathy is, by far, the most important skill for a tour guide. And they use it in more ways than you think. Prefer to listen & watch? This article has a video version. Video please Historical knowledge aside there are a lot of traits and skills* that make
To be clear, the challenges that female tour guides face are not exclusive to women. Nor do all females feel incapable of navigating them successfully. Prefer to listen & watch? This article has a video version. Video please However, in many cultures there is often added pressure for
Surprisingly few companies do regular team evaluations (hopping on a tour, watching their guides, then going over the results with the them afterward). Prefer to listen & watch? This article has a video version. Video please And I get why. It takes time and resources to properly run team
Measuring guest satisfaction during your tour is not only a guide's best strategy for getting ahead of unhappy customers but is an easy (and shockingly underutilized way) to do free market research. Prefer to listen & watch? This article has a video version. Video please That's right, free
Getting a 5 star review is top of everyone's list, from the guides to the managers. And yet, I have very mixed feelings about 5-star reviews... Prefer to listen & watch? This article has a video version. Video please I strongly feel that 5 star reviews give zero
Throughout my career, I've been on a lot of tours, and the majority of those tours' quality was average. Prefer to listen & watch? This article has a video version. Video please That's not to say that most tours are bad. Those tours' quality is totally acceptable in
How often do you get applause at the end of the tour? For me, applause is the ultimate sign of a job well done. Visible, real-time approval, directly from your customers. Prefer to listen & watch? This article has a video version. Video please And here's the secret;Getting applause
A tour theme is one of the most important ingredients and yet is often missing from tours. Prefer to listen & watch? This article has a video version. Video please One of my favorite formulas from Sam H Ham's 'Interpretation' is his TORE Model which says that, in order
To be honest, I've never been asked "How to talk politics" on a tour as most tour guides shy away from politics (and/or many Managers direct their guides to stay away from politics). Prefer to listen & watch? This article has a video version. Video please I talk often
Often, the biggest stressors for guides are around conflict and confrontation: unhappy customers, belligerent locals, an annoyed vendor, etc... Prefer to listen & watch? This article has a video version. Video please These are situations that, thankfully, don't come up too often for the average guide but perhaps because