Our guests are the heroes of their adventures with our region providing the amazing setting. Our role is to help them experience those goosebumps moments, providing them with the nudge and support they need along the way. Basically, we’re the Yodas and Dumbledores of the story.
To do this we need to build an element of trust with our guests, often long before we ever meet them in person. That means being there to help the guests with their adventure, providing guidance and assistance whenever needed. It means being professional yet personal and approachable. It means being knowledgeable yet humble rather than presenting ourselves as experts or gurus.
We also need to inspire them to come visit, extending an invitation for our guests to explore beyond their daily lives. Our love of the region drives this as we share the feeling of awe that comes with finding yourself in our grand landscape and the beauty of the small things that make it a special place. We share tales that are aspirational while accessible to most along with the stories that come from living in a small remote community.
You’ll learn more about how we do this while you work. In the meantime, a few notes about what we meant above to help you get started:
- Light and approachable: we address the guests by their first name and sign every communication with our own names.
- Personal yet professional: we can be warm and share our emotions without being overly casual. We use contractions and informal language while also being succinct and using appropriate punctuation.
We use guests rather than customers or clients, visitors rather than tourists and we refer to other tourism businesses and stakeholders as industry partners.
Philosophies
Create a Sense of Arrival
Go beyond introductions to set the tone for the experience. Taking care of the small details in our first few minutes with the guests helps them feel calm and ready for their adventure.
Use this time to set the stages for the goosebumps moments, rather than the building blocks, and to plant the seeds for future conversations.
Read Minds and Use Positive Cues
We observe and listen to get to know our guests, anticipate their needs and personalize the adventure. Our guests are here to enjoy the moment, not to make decisions. We use our observations to decide the best option for them without telling them what they might be missing.
Questions are powerful, for good and bad. Using them carefully can reinforce the memories. Using them inappropriately leads to self-doubt (e.g. did I make the right choice, maybe this could have been better), decision overload and discomfort. In most cases, general questions worded positively work best.
We have to carefully walk the fine line between delighting the guests and being intrusive. We also have to treat the information shared by the guests with respect to maintain the trust. This includes not discussing guests in places where we may be overheard.
Showing is Always Better Than Telling (Most of the Time)
Our preference is to demonstrate who we are rather than talking about ourselves or what we do.
That being said, sometimes we need to talk about ourselves and our plans. In those cases we want to be direct and focus on what we can do.
Tell Stories to Inspire
We share stories to draw our guests in, to let them get a sense of who we are and how we got here. Our goal isn’t to educate but rather to elevate the moment and create connections. Make it personal whenever possible and use the story spine or hero’s journey to make it engaging.
Long-Form Content and Short Conversations
We balance the need for in-depth stories with the need to be quick and to the point.
Long form is what we typically use in our written stories, full-day tours and events. Short conversations are used with the public, in guest services, at the Canteen and on our half-day tours.
