It is during times of crisis that we usually realize the value of things we otherwise took for granted. We realize how we as a race are different yet so interconnected. The amount of impact each one of us can create in our immediate environments and the world in general!
My contribution to the Local Guides program began as a distraction from my daily 9 to 5. It was a means to do something fun while helping others. The idea was to share information. Information that I had initially thought would benefit no one. It started with me rating restaurants and hangout places - the ones I used to visit with my friends. The nearest burger place, the best time place and so on. Sharing my experience for someone to come across at a later time seemed interesting. I imagined that it would help them better prepare for the venue or in some cases make a better decision before they make a reservation. The gamification of the Local Guides platform - its points and reward system kept me going. It kept me moving up from one level to another. It started getting more serious with every other review, as I started climbing the ladders to higher levels. I got me thinking, thinking before writing. Will this help someone sometime?
A lot of restaurants I knew, as a local, were nowhere to be seen or found initially on search. Adding such information and rating them made them much more visible to the general community in an ever so connected world of the internet. It gave these local businesses much more exposure for tourists and other locals to visit. It increased their odds of performing in an ever so competitive economy. Where I write this from, everyone is on the lookout for a better/different shawarma place and there’s a new joint opening up every other weekend - well you can’t try everything and its tough to catch up (unless you look for advice from others).
The reviews gave highlights of the menu, the feedback on the service and sometimes something for the local business owners as feedback for them to work on - to improve their customer experience. It also acts as a way for local places to receive feedback on their products or services as a way for continuous improvement. You can always edit your previous review once a place fixes something that you pointed out. It was about turning your mistakes or success into a guide for others later (enabling a better customer experience).
It also developed trust in some local guides in the area. Their reviews would help me make better-informed decisions on places for a prospective weekend plan. The credibility of guides was inferred from their previous reviews of known places. It helped find some new dishes at restaurants and sometimes avoid wasting money and time.
I was in on a surprise when students of the incoming exchange program I was volunteering with, in our (human) absence, were using our reviews and ratings to choose on places to visit or eateries to go. So I believe that it is about putting the information you have, the expertise you have about a place, to someone else’s advantage at another point in time. You never know when someone’s review of a place in 2010 would help you make a decision in 2020 somewhere in the world.