Get to know your guides
Most probably you will work with Freelance guides that you know already for some time and you know that they are serious and reliable.
Keep in mind that the guide is your “window” to the clients. He is the one in contact with them and (after sales) your most important person in the clients journey. Even if the guide is not employed with your agency, you should “invest” in him / her and go the extra mile to keep your network of knowledgeable and reliable guides.
How to choose a guide
We try to only work with professional guides, which means that they have a diploma as a guide. This gives us the assurance to have a guide that knows about Peruvian civilisations and archaeology. At the same time like this we support the formal tourism industry.
On the other hand, there are many “self-made” guides out there, that can be really good guides. In this case, we encourage them to pass the official exam (here in Peru this is possible) and to officialise their status.
Whenever you hire a new guide that should speak a foreign language, make sure to check his level of the language, not only in specific terms, but also just conversational.
Also be aware thas there is a big difference between a guide that handles group excursions and a guide that works with individual clients in an individual service. This means being much more present, talking during a longer trip, and also being able to respond to questions about Peru today, maybe politics, traditions and many more.
Create a list with important information about your guides
You might want to prepare (or maybe have already one) a spreadsheet with their details and information about which languages they speak, how many years of experience they have, which regions they are comfortable guiding – and what your clients said about them !
This will give you the possibility to see where there might be a problem that can be easily solved.
E.g. Conversational English is not that great – get your guide a few English lessons, he will be happy and so will be your clients !
Here is an an example of how this list could look like.
How to make sure that your guides all give the same service ?
Create procedures ! A good procedure should include (in writing) how you want your guide to behave with your clients in different situations.
At Phima Voyages, we came up with a protocole for our guides, including even a kind of role play, in order to make it easier for the guide to understand what kind of quality we want for our clients.
The procedures treats everything from clothing, physical appearance, over pick-up sign (printed, not written) and ethics. We expect from our guides not to make any changes on the clients itinerary. Our clients have a detailled itinerary and know exactly what is included or not. Any changes of the itinerary have to be approved by us and discussed with the clients.
Be in contact with your guide during his travels with the clients
When our clients are travelling, we have two Whatsapp groups going on.
- One including the clients and us and
- one including all professionals involved in this trip (guide and local agencies).
This permits to always be informed of any problems arising and being able to propose alternatives quickly.
Why not create a Facebook group with your guides to share information and knowledge ?
We like to share information about sustainability, new archaeological findings, responsible tourism worldwide and like this to create a real relationship between our guides and Phima Voyages.
The philosophy is to share information and not to “sit on it”, thinking that you are the strongest if you have the most information !