The question of how to be a better people person is one that every tour guide should ask themselves regularly.
So how to be a better people person? I would make the case that great social skills are one of the top characteristics that set incredible guides apart from ok guides. Even if you have encyclopedic knowledge and are a powerful public speaker, you will still struggle as a tour leader if you cannot confidently interact with your guests.
To help you with this quest, I’ve created a free PDF resource entitled “How to Be a Better People Person – 5 Essential Books for Tour Guides”
In addition, I’ve got six tips for you in the above video on how to be a better people person.
We’ll look at how a great guide will put his guests at ease and reassure them that they are in great hands. We’ll talk about listening attentively during conversations and monitoring the emotional states of the people in your group. Does a customer seem disengaged? Flustered? Especially excited? A great guide will use their social intelligence to engage with their guests and draw them into the experience.
Don’t forget to grab your free PDF right here and I hope you take the time to check out a few of these books. They helped me a lot in my early career as a guide!
Finished Watching?
Let me know in the comments below how you developed your people skills? Any techniques or advice to share?
Transcript:
Hi, Kelsey Tonner here from beabetterguide.com. Now, having great social skills should be one of your top priorities as a tour guide. The ability to connect with people warmly, to make them feel comfortable around you is paramount.
Even if you have an encyclopedic mind and can remember all kinds of facts, or you are a great public speaker, you are still going to struggle as a guide if you don’t have those social skills.
Remember, no matter how much of a people person we are, we can always improve those skills. Here are six tips to get you started.
1) Listen and be curious.
The best conversationalists are the ones that are the most attentive. As much as possible you should be listening more than you are speaking. Try and get genuinely curious and what other people have to say.
2) Share your own passions and personality.
As a local tour guide, people will always be interested in learning more about you. Share openly your hobbies, your history; your passions.
Think about the things that you love to talk about with your own friends and family. As much as possible, let your own personality shine through, because that will make you more impressive and more interesting.
3) Make others feel important and special.
Try giving a lot of compliments to people. We are often quick to say nice things about people behind their back or when they are not present. Try giving those compliments to guests and people who are on your tour.
Also, as much as possible, give personalized service whenever you can, taking the time with individuals because this will make people feel special and appreciated.
4) Be willing to help.
Always be looking for ways to help others. Set aside some time before and after your tour to see how you can be of service to your guests.
5) Practice socializing with strangers.
The best guides in the world can have a conversation with anyone. Practice in your everyday life meeting, greeting, and chatting with complete strangers.
The more that you can quickly and genuinely connect with people, the more comfortable you become with this whole process, and the better your social skills.
6) Read books on how to improve your social skills.
Classic books such as How to Win Friends and Influence People by Dale Carnegie are filled with tips, techniques, and secrets that really helped me when I was starting out as a guide, and I had to really work on people skills.
In fact, I put together a free PDF of my five must read books on the subject. These were books that really helped me become the best guide that I could be. Now, I’ve got to warn you, a lot of the titles might seem pretty dumb.
That is because they are pretty dumb, but don’ t let that stop you from taking a look inside because from each one of these books I have taken some techniques that helped me become a better guide.
If you are interested in that PDF click below. If you only take one thing from this video, let it be that improving your social skills is one of the best ways to stand out as an exceptional tour guide.
Take a moment to share this video if you agree, and in the comments below share some tips and techniques that you use. I would love to hear from you. You can also grab that PDF. Thank you so much for being here, I will see you next time.
