I just wanted to share how the Local Guides program impacted my life.
I first became a Local Guide because I like contributing to projects that actually help people. At first I started adding information about my personal experience, but sooner I saw that I should look even beyond that. Because people sometimes are interested in different things than you are interested in. For example accessibility is something I didn’t really care about at first. I didn’t know what to look out for. But then I got a friend that actually used the information on Google Maps to make decisions where he could or could not go with his wheelchair. So then I started noticing the ramps, the width of the doors, stairs and if there is an elevator or not. I had some compliments when I added some of that information in there; even from local businesses that weren’t aware of that and wanted to make the necessary adjustments.
One time I was in a hotel for a couple of days, and I started writing my review with my experience so far. Adding some information with pros and cons of the location. After I wrote the review, I posted it on Google Maps. The next day, somebody came up to me and asked if I had written a review on Google Maps recently. Apperently it was the manager of the hotel, that had seen my review. He had seen my profile pictures, and went looking if he could find me in the hotel. He first thanked me for the nice things I said about his hotel, and then he started explaining that he had taken note of some of the things I said that were not so good (eg. stairs without ramp or other way up); and that he would make a point of getting these things fixed. After we talked about some of the things that could be improved, we exchanged some contact details so we could keep in touch (I wasn’t expecting to hear anything about this actually). A couple of months later, I got a mail from the manager with some pictures, showing that the issues were resolved and they were improved. He thanked me again for pointing these things out. During the time since I visited the location, and the time of the next mail; the team of the hotel also started making a lot more use of Google Maps: adding pictures, replying to reviews and a lot more. Apparently they found a great tool to know what customers think of their hotel, and how they can improve it even more.
I of course updated my review, removed some of the parts that were fixed and added some more kind words as a summary of the story I just told you. And gave them a 5 star rating !
A lot of Local Guides will add information and reviews hoping that we could help some of the users of Google Maps, but not a lot of us would even think that it could also help the local businesses. So starting the experience with the hotel manager, I started adding more constructive criticism to my reviews. Not just telling what is wrong, but also telling how things could be improved. Hoping one day a manager or employee will read it and correct it.
To all Local Guides I can give the suggestion: try to be positive, and if there is something that can be improved, add some constructive criticism to it.
The picture above is from another hotel where I stayed (Philipines) that was really active on Google Maps. They are always updating their pictures with even better onces and replying on Google Maps reviews.