“The guides were terrific; best we have ever encountered in 40 years of world travel. Their professionalism and knowledge of historical, wildlife, and educational information was extraordinary. We enjoyed the attention to travel details which allowed us to have a worry-free trip. We really felt taken care of.”
“Our team leader had incredible personal knowledge of Patagonia, interaction with the local guides, facilitation of day-to-day experiences for our delight and discovery were outstanding. Her attention to detail, and ability to coalesce a large and varied group was quite impressive.”
The earning of excellent reviews is what every successful travel company aims for, not once or twice, but consistently. You can have the best itinerary in place, the most exclusive, well-located hotels and unique meal experiences planned to amaze your travelers, but as everyone knows it is truly the Tour Leader who makes or breaks the travelers’ experience. If your Tour Leaders do not know how to deliver a stellar and unique experience the result can be far from what your clients are expecting.
The key to receiving extraordinary reviews is to first find the right people, train them together in the classroom & in the field, and to coach them periodically to ensure you have a high performing tour leadership team.
HIRING- Choosing the right people is the first step to get the best team in place.
The required skills for an outstanding Tour leader are several but the four basic ones are passion, strong leadership, knowledge and being a great communicator…a “people” person.
Interviews alone are not enough to confirm whether a candidate will be a good for the role or the culture of your company. A 45-minute conversation will not tell you if that person will be able to perform all their tasks in the required manner; nor how they behave under pressure; nor how flexible and open they are to receive feedback or how creative they can be in dealing with an unexpected event.
At North Star Travel Consulting, we have created a vetting and hiring process to minimize errors, and to invest only in those who are the right fit for your company. You will be able to see them in action through role play and in the field training to hone their skills on the spot. We put them in scenarios they might have with a group of travelers to understand and assess how they take feedback and work together as a team. Our unique programs allows us to select the best Tour Leaders and to keep attracting the best available talent.
CUSTOMIZED TRAINING PROGRAMS
Every travel company is different but at the end of the day they all aim for a common goal; to deliver excellent experience that exceed travelers’ expectations, resulting in brand loyalty, repeat business and referrals.
A common mistake is to not invest in formal training for Tour Leaders but instead, expect them to learn the hard way and at peril to your company’s brand. On-the-job training while they are with your travelers and with limited preparation. This puts your reputation on the line, a great risk that North Star Travel Consulting can help you manage and turn into an asset.
Being a Tour leader is a 24/7 multi-tasking role and it is not for everybody. Tour Leaders are responsible for trip logistics such as ensuring restaurants are serving the confirmed menus, including special meals for those travelers with dietary restrictions; ensuring hotel rooms are ready when the group is checking in, that the bus is clean and shows up on time; getting the boarding passes for the next flight, among many other duties to include unexpected events that demand real preparation.
Tour leaders need to be great listeners, empathetic and devoted to the care of your travelers; giving them assurance in unknown destinations so they are relaxed and ready to enjoy the itineraries created for them.
Tour leaders must be confident so that travelers follow them and strong enough to resolve any emergencies that may occur on a multi-day trip. They may encounter strikes, blocked roads, flight cancelations, ships with engine problems, bad weather, erupting volcanoes halting flight operations just to name a few perils they will need to be prepared for.
They need to know how to deal with demanding or disruptive travelers and how to resolve and defuse conflicts within the group. This is one of the most concerning issues for many Tour Leaders due to complexity. When combined with lack of preparation, this creates avoidable but obvious risks to your brand.
In addition to all this, the ultimate Tour Leader’s role is to exceed every traveler´s expectations, create unique opportunities for spontaneous on-site experiences and being the bridge between the local destination and the traveler to deliver a stellar travel experience for the whole group. Effective training for your Tour Leaders on all of this is key to creating a high performing team.
Holding structured trainings are the #1 way to create:
Clarity on the culture and goals of your company.
Consistent and excellent product delivery.
Best practices, share knowledge and skillsets.
A strong bond and a team ethic.
Reliable management of brand and reputational risk at a traveler level.
Everybody wants to belong to something bigger than themselves. Being a tour guide or a Tour Leader can too often be a lonely role. Helping them to feel part of a team sharing a common goal will bring the best out of them.
We have in-depth experience in creating unique and innovative training modules that include in the field role plays, team building activities and participative sessions. We believe in the power of a motivated and knowledgeable team to foster new ideas, and to strengthen loyalty to your company. We offer customized training modules tailored to your specific needs.
COACHING
Customer feedback is the most valuable and objective tool companies have at their disposal to improve their services. Companies work to satisfy their clients’ needs so it is key to listen to them, especially in such a changing environment. What are we doing well? What do we need to improve? How do we drive positive changes?
Based on this feedback, there is an opportunity to continually improve itineraries and service as well as on Tour Leaders’ performance.
Training sessions are the just the starting point but in isolation they are not enough to maintain momentum and drive improved performance over a long period of time. Coaching your Tour Leaders on how to achieve your clients´ expectations and requirements is what is going to make them focused on achieving the company’s goals.
But not all coaching is effective, it must be approached and driven in a certain way following tried and tested processes which have proven to be successful. These are some of the more common questions on coaching Tour Leaders:
How to coach to keep the Tour Leader motivated?
How to pick the most important issues that will make a difference in performance?
Who is coachable and who is not?
What is a coaching plan?
How many times can you place someone on a coaching plan?
How to measure success?
The good news is we have the answers to these questions. The North Star Travel Consulting team has decades of experience building teams of top-notch Tour leaders, taking them to the next level of service and enabling them to deliver stellar experiences.
Let us share our success with you. Call us for a free consultation.
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