Cultural mediation

The tour guides

One of the Cultival’s key strengths is the qualified and professional human resources that it has available, with now more than a hundred operators in the field. The teams consist mainly of tour guides (approx. 60), as well as fifteen or so facilitators and cashiers, covering 10 languages in all > English, French, German, Spanish, Italian, Dutch, Russian, Arabic, Chinese and Japanese.

Cultival is involved throughout the production chain of the tours on behalf of the partner site, ensuring all the management of the tour guide scheduling as well as the administrative and personnel management, including recruitment, training, payroll, annual appraisals, etc.

Qualifications for Cultival tour guides

• Professional skills

Tour guide professional card, teaching skills, good knowledge of the audience, proficiency in several languages.

 

• Human skills

Good interpersonal skills and team-spirited, good communication with a young audience, good presentation, keen sense of service and welcoming.

Under the guidance of the partner site, the guides are trained by Cultival on the content of the tours and the internal operation of the place and its areas, prior to the first services.
It is understood that this training is supplemented by personal research by the guides.

The selection of guides

For each new partnership, Cultival selects a team of tour guides for the cultural site. The guides volunteer to participate in this selection process. Indeed, especially given its importance to the quality of the narration delivered, Cultival does not compel any guides to go to a specific site or to take on a specific theme.  

Finalising the teams is done on the basis of three criteria:

• The specialities > history of art, science, performing arts, etc.

• The languages known

• The profile of the guide > comfortable with a young audience, an enthusiast of historical sites, etc.

Obligations

Cultival is committed to the guides following the rules as defined by the cultural site, such as:

— Being present at the meeting point 5 to 10 minutes before the scheduled start time for the tour

— Ensuring compliance with the internal rules of the cultural site by the visitors

— Referring to the training booklet

— Preparing the workshop room, as appropriate, and tidying the place upon conclusion

— Ensuring the proper condition of the course to be followed so as to avoid any potential shortages or mishaps

— Being informed as to the cultural site’s offerings in order to be able to inform the audience in turn

The extranet guide

In 2015, Cultival developed a module for its tour guides that enables them to manage their schedules with complete independence. Consequently, they can enter their availability for each month via their computer or smartphone and edit their tour calendar.

This extranet, which is connected to the Cultival booking system, for each guided tour or workshop, relays in real time the qualification and availability of the guide.

In a continuing effort to improve the after-sales service, a module has been added so that the tour guides can leave a comment after their tour, be it for a no-show, a closed area, a specific problem with a customer, etc.