Tuesday, August 18, 2009

How do you make college tours better...

by having the tour guide walk forward, of course.

huh?


The remaking of the campus tour is the latest development in the pitched competition among colleges to woo the most talented applicants.

Among the institutions that now instruct their tour guides to walk forward, alongside visitors, are big schools like the University of Texas at Austin, American University in Washington, and the State University at Oswego, N.Y.,, as well as smaller colleges like Trinity University in San Antonio, Albright in Reading, Pa,. and Spelman in Atlanta.

Though some have done so on their own, others have been urged to turn their guides around by a private consulting firm called TargetX. It charges colleges thousands of dollars to “audit” their tours and look at other aspects of how they present themselves to visitors, including visitor parking.

“Walking backwards is just not conducive to having a conversation,” said Jeff Kallay, a principal at the firm whose job title is experience evangelist. “Not only are you talking at someone, but it’s also so stressful to watch. We have seen guides hit signs and trees and lampposts.”

..who knew that we could get students by simply turning around? read the whole, er, "article," here.