Tour guides are the front line of your recruitment program

Madison, Wis.—Janury 27, 2008 — Want to add professionalism to your student tour guide program? Give the guides specially printed business cards. That’s one tip Aaron Basko, Salisbury University director of admissions, offered participants during Tour de Force: Using Assessment to Improve Campus Tour Yields, a highly-rated January 27 online seminar attended by more than 60 campuses.

The cards also give visiting families an easy way to ask follow-up questions, said Basko, who, as previous director of admission services at Franklin & Marshall College, dramatically improved that campus’ visitation program.

Another tip: to encourage visitors to fill out post-tour assessments, have student guides write their names on the assessment forms, hand them out personally to the visitors, and hang around while families are filling out the forms to see if there are any last-minute questions.

The question that came up most frequently during the seminar: should campuses pay their student tour guides? Basko shared his unique approach: Students at his campus work as volunteers for the first year or so. The very best tour guides are selected to be on the team that receives work-study compensation. The students joke on his campus that it’s harder to be admitted to the tour guide program than it is to be admitted to the college.

Many other suggestions for improving a campus tour program are included in this fast-paced 60-minute program.

If you missed the seminar and would like to purchase it for your institution, you can order the program in CD or print transcript format, both of which include the presenter's handouts.

Magna Publications is a leading publisher of newsletters and other information products in the higher education segment. Magna also manages onsite and online conferences on topics of interest to higher education.

For more information please contact David Burns, Publisher, Magna Publications, Inc., at 608-227-8109, or dburns@magnapubs.com.