A lot of my friends and families are still confused to this day as to what a Local Guides is. They have a general idea that we write bad reviews for a bad restaurant and write a good one for a good restaurant. But to me and many of the Local Guides, the Local Guides Program is beyond just writing reviews. Firstly, yes we do write reviews for any experiences we’ve come across–however, we don’t write reviews just for restaurants. We write reviews for tours, hotels, and even the beach! Secondly, we write reviews not just for the sake of writing it, but we try our very best to inform the next customer of what to expect and hope that the business owner can get some feedback. In other words, Local Guides believe that anyone has the power and the voice to make a difference. For instance, a couple of years ago I encountered one of the worst customer services ever at a Bubble Tea shop because they never warned me about an additional fee of ordering anything below $10. My immediate thought was, “How can I make sure that people don’t go through this experience and have to pay extra money just because they ordered something below $10?” And I thought of Google Review because I know just how much exposure Google Review can get since everyone is on Google. The exposure from the reviews will allow the next customers to know what to expect and to be warned about the restaurant policy.
However, when Local Guides write reviews, most of us are not malicious and don’t hope to shut down the business–instead, we hope that our feedback can help the business improve. It’s like learning from your mistakes! And sometimes, people need to know that criticism is a good thing. I remember writing feedback to a Burger Shop in Vancouver, BC about how the service took a very long time and how I was disappointed because my burger was burnt. The business owner responded by asking me to give them another chance and invited me to come back for a free meal as he wanted to hear more details about my experience and how to improve on their service. This is why many Local Guides and myself believe that this program is very powerful because it allows businesses and Local Guides to form a connection that is beneficial in that businesses can learn how to make their businesses better. This also applies to Local Guides as well because we still need to learn and improve on the way we write our reviews. Often times, many reviews contain all the negative experiences, yet they don’t leave positive feedback and suggestion that will allow businesses to gain useful insights on how to improve. Local Guides need to remember that everyone is just a human being and we need to give them a chance to grow. But in order to do that, we need to have empathy in the way we create our reviews and be able to write reviews that can give both customers and business owners better perspectives.
So what does the Local Guides Program Means to me? It means that everyone has an equal voice and power to share personal and honest experiences and turn that into something that is life-changing, practical, and better. It’s a community where everyone gets the opportunity to learn from one another and to better develop the community so that everyone can enjoy it together.
How has the Local Guides Program impacted your experience?