I. General Concepts 3. Interpretation and Communication

Section 3.9: Evaluating Your Performance and Visitors

Before the activity of interpretation is finished, you must find some time to obtain meaningful feedback from your customers. This can be made in different forms, you can enjoy an informal chat or drink after the activity, you can engage your customer in one of the many existing evaluation dynamics and games or you could present them with a questionnaire. In all cases you should be able to collect the visitor’s opinion on the following issues.

• Information provided: was it relevant?, too much or too little?, appropriate for your audience background?
• Structure of the information: was the information presented in a clear and structured way?
• Selection of features and spots: was it interesting and relevant?
• Duration of the activity: adequate?, too short?, too long?
• Your verbal skills: did the visitors understand you or do they have the feeling that they missed something? Was your choice of vocabulary adequate?
• Participation: did the visitors feel involved during the activity? Were they able to contribute their own opinions to the activity?
• Expectations: did the activity fulfill their expectations? If not, where did it fail?
• Comments and suggestions: be sure to collect your visitors' suggestions as to the general improvement of the activity.
• Pricing: was the price of the activity appropriate for its contents or did visitors find it expensive? Was it a bargain?

Working in interpretation is a process of continuous learning. Apart from attending workshops and improving your general skills and knowledge there is a lot you can learn by self-evaluating your performance and paying attention to your customers feedback.

Even if you are tired at the end of the day you must find time to evaluate your performance and the general aspects of the activity. Having a template with a list of those aspects you want to evaluate will be most helpful when reviewing the day’s activity. You must collect both your visitors' and your own impressions. Apart from those aspects listed above it is important that you note the characteristics of the group and your general impression on the activity: did you find some visitors lagging behind or seeming uninterested? Which were the highest and the lowest points of your performance? Did everything go according to the plan or did you have to change plans on the spot? Did any problematic situations arise and how did you solve them? Did you find yourself short of information/preparation at a given point?

By collecting information together with the characteristics of your groups you will be able to make generalizations that will be useful to improve your performance in the future: you may find out that children do not pay much attention to a particular spot or that the itinerary seems to be too tiring for elderly people. You can also make notes as to the people’s own backgrounds and areas of interest and find analogies to other people’s culture.

The notes you take from everyday experience will help you to improve and assess your activity on a daily basis. But it is crucial to undergo an overall evaluation at least once per season. By processing together the information collected on a daily basis you will be able to identify changes to be made for the next season and design a whole new range of activities that will most effectively broaden your interpretative offer.

Section 3.8: Delivering Your Message; Communication Skills

4. Quality and sustainability