By Tom Carmichael, Class of 2007
Editor’s note: This article recently appeared on The Bridge in two parts. We present it here in one part for your convenience.
Part 1: The Walking Tour Marketplace
The Chicago marketplace for walking tours is becoming increasingly competitive. In 2017 when a group of docents took a number of competitors’ tours, there were approximately 15 companies offering walking tours that directly competed with CAC. In 2019 there wee over 20. To get a sense of how CAC tours stack up against competitors, CAC’s leadership organized an internal task force to observe competitors’ tours. The task force consisted of staff members from the Marketing, Education, Operations and Sales Department plus the co-chair of the Tour Committee. This group observed 22 tours, four of which were core CAC walking tours. Task force members looked at the entire tour experience (nose to tail) from finding a tour, reading about it on the company’s website, booking the tour, taking the tour and finally responding to the company’s post-tour follow up.
Key Findings
Web search: It’s easy to find a variety of walking tours in downtown Chicago. Multiple offerings pop up in a Google search. Many promote themselves as the “best” or the most-highly rated tours. CAC is just one of many.
Websites: Because all of our competitors offer a much more limited number of tours than CAC, their websites tend to be simple and easy to navigate. The path to purchasing a ticket is usually straightforward, involving fewer than 5 “clicks.” CAC’s website offers information about a much greater number of offerings. It can be challenging to find a specific walking tour and buy a ticket quickly.
Tour experience: Compared to guides for competitors, CAC docents have a depth and breadth of knowledge that competitors cannot match. The information CAC docents provide can be relied on to be fact-based. While competitors are getting better at sticking to the truth, some of them still promote urban myths and misinterpretations of the factual record. CAC tours are also more information-packed than competitors. CAC gets more into a 90-minute tour than some competitors offer in a two-to-three hour tour. As a result, competitors’ tours tend to be more leisurely in pace, allowing time for pauses for guests to sit down, take photos, and chat. Guides for competitors take advantage of their slower pace to spend time engaging guests with colorful stories, questions, and pointing out opportunities for the best photos.
Post-tour: Since competitors sell nearly all their tickets on-line they have guests’ email addresses. These addresses enable them to send follow-up emails asking for ratings on the popular travel sites like Trip Advisor, as well as suggest other activities in the city. When CAC has guests’ emails, we send a survey but it is a standard survey appropriate for all our offerings, not a specific tour.
Next Steps
The task force members presented their findings and recommendations to CAC staff and tour directors in November and December. In 2020, assuming budgets allow, staff members will focus on improving the CAC website so that it is easier to find tours, buy tickets and respond to post-tour following. On the docent-side, the CAC Tour Committee will work with tour directors to making the tour experience itself more engaging and focused on attracting 5-star reviews from our guests.
Part 2: Six Ways to Engage Your Guests
To inspire people to discover why design matters. This is the reason we give tours. Our guests enjoy and remember tours that engage them in seeing, understanding and discovering how design has influenced the city and the lives of the people here. An inspiring tour “sings.” Both the words – the information we provide – and the melody – what we do and how we say it – work together to create a memorable experience. Tours that fulfill our mission engage guests, catch their attention and get them involved. What’s the best way to make your tour an enjoyable memorable experience? Here are a few ideas.
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Tell me a story. |
People tend to remember stories more than they remember facts and figures. Facts are, of course, important. Accuracy is one of our hallmarks. But stories, especially stories about people, are what guests remember. Our city is filled with stories: Daniel Burnham, Frank Lloyd Wright, Mies van der Rohe, Marshall Field, Montgomery Ward, and the Bertha and Potter Palmer to name a few. Bring Chicago’s architecture to life through stories about the people who shaped the city.
| Questioning | Ask questions I’ll enjoy answering. |
Asking questions get guests involved. They switch from passive listeners to active participants. But ask the right kinds of questions. Guests don’t like being put on the spot. Do not ask questions that have right or wrong answers. Ask questions that encourage people to talk about their observations – what they are seeing – their opinions – their personal response to a building. Once people start sharing their thoughts, the tour becomes much more enjoyable and memorable for both them and you.
| Eye-opening Perspectives | Help me see the city with new eyes. |
An important element in any tour is helping guests see things they would miss otherwise. Features of the city that are hidden in plain sight can enrich any tour. Pointing out a chamfered corner, a piece of neo-gothic ornament, or a classically-inspired roofline all expose people to seeing the details that make Chicago an architectural mecca.
| Sensory Experiences | Let me sense the city. |
Looking and listening are not the only ways that guest can engage in a tour. Touch, smell and taste have roles in a tour of discovery: The feel of hones granite; the scent chocolate wafting across the city; the taste of a Chicago hotdog. Experiences like these linger long after a tour is over.
| Photo Ops | Give me time to capture the experience. |
For many people, to experience something they need to take a photo of it. Where are the best photo opportunities on your tours? Encourage guests to take photos of hidden-in-plain sight details. Pause at the best places for guests to take photos of themselves in a setting that will help them remember what is special about their visit to Chicago. Pausing to let people take in the city is important. Don’t rush them. Take your cue about how to pace a tour from the people taking it.
| Contact with a Local | I will remember you. |
Many visitors to Chicago want to have contacts with locals to get the inside stories about the city. They want to hear from people who live and work in Chicago. Talking about your personal experiences in and around the city makes tours personal experiences. Guests will remember you as much as they will remember what you tell and show them. Let your personal stories be part of your tours.
There are many organizations giving tours in Chicago. A vital competitive advantage that the Chicago Architecture Center has is the knowledge and passion of our docents. No one else in the city has the tour-giving talent of the Chicago Architecture Center to engage, enlighten and inspire. Engage your guests. Help them remember your tour as one of their best experiences in Chicago.