I still don’t remember when I joined the Local Guide Program, I believe it’s the time I completed my masters in Dubai in 2015. For me being a local guide means helping the community and tourists to gain information posted by people who have been or experienced what they are looking forward for.
The greatest satisfaction is when you see the number of views on that pictures that you have posted on the food, products or a business that you have been to. The views says that it actually seen by people. The reviews, rating and pictures that we add actually help people to make decisions. This is where the local guide is actually helping small business owners, adding their store into map and posting pictures and reviews is an indirect way of advertising, we can say an in-direct word of mouth advertisement.
Below is a review of mine, which I added when I went to purchase a shirt from a branded store. When I came to purchase the shirt after altering the shop manager thanked me for providing a review and adding pictures as told that there were 1000+ views on those pictures I have added.
As a local guide, I am still discovering the best way to provide review. I always go through the reviews of other local guides and study the best way to write a review. For example – for a restaurant I would mention provide a rating out of 5 in my review. For restaurant, the ratings are on Food quality or taste, food quantity, restaurant ambiance, customer service, cleanliness of the restroom and washroom and the car parking facility. This review can actually help the owner realize where they have to work to improve customer satisfaction.
Local guide emails are also motivating and updates us with the numbers. Which says about how active/ inactive we were on certain month. These number and levels makes us competitive. My friends recently questioned me on the reason why I am always clicking pictures when I am inside a restaurant, mall retail store etc and I explained to them about the local guide program which they weren’t aware off and now even they started have started to be local guides. These days we click pictures together and discuss on each other reviews on the places we visited.
