Relying on our core values in Coronavirus times

The last twenty years have really been fantastic, and I wouldn’t change a thing. But there have been some difficult times, especially in the start-up phase. I made my fair share of mistakes, or rather, I learned quite a lot. But in recent years, things have been only been positive. Our brand has really been boosted with wonderful new products and lots of new customers in an increasing number of countries. And a team that pulls together to build on the dream that we now share. But then, March 2020 came, when COVID-19 took hold of the world.

It was like we’d been hit by a bus. All of our customers’ locations were closed within two weeks. No more visitors, which meant no more stories to share. What would that mean for our business? What would that mean for our customers? How long would it last for? There was only one word for it: PANIC! But not for very long, because when panic breaks out, I’ve learned simply to fall back on our core values. Values that have been steering the course for Guide-ID and – between you and me – for me personally, for years. So, when the crisis hit, I decided to go back and reflect on them.

Our core values

Our values are ‘collaborate as friends, take the initiative, be curious, act with accountability, and keep it simple’... and not forgetting to have a lot of fun at the same time. It’s been great to be able to fall back on these clear core values.

Let me explain, starting with our value ‘take the initiative’. Without initiative, nothing changes, and I can’t stand that. You can have the best ideas in the world, but if you don’t take the initiative, what good is it having those ideas? You need to do something with them. How have we taken the initiative in this situation? By helping all our colleagues at Guide-ID to work safely and feel comfortable working at home from the very outset. We also set up a coronavirus crisis team, which met daily to ensure that we could make the right choices quickly for the team and for our customers.

I felt it was important to take the initiative with our customers as well. Everyone who knows me knows that I’m quite curious. So, I wanted to know how our customers, the most amazing museums in the world, were coping. And because everyone was now communicating online, it was very easy to find out by scheduling a quick call via Teams. Technology is great when it’s straightforward and works! Most museums launched a range of online initiatives in the first few weeks. But when the dust had settled, it became clear that their physical collection is really what visitors are interested in.

That’s why, from that moment on, we’ve made every effort to help museums with our products as soon as they could open again. This was not just about making it safe to use our Podcatchers, but also using Podcatchers for other modern uses, to regulate visitor flows, for example.

Collaborating as friends

We collaborate as friends. That is what I believe in. Working together as friends on an equal level is good for both parties. That is the only way to help each other for the long term. I’m not about the quick wins, not even in difficult times. We have listened very carefully to the challenges that museums are facing at the moment. Our tagline isn’t ‘the art of listening’ for nothing.

One of the challenges was the idea that visitors wouldn’t be confident using Podcatchers anymore. That’s why we created a procedure to keep Podcatchers clean, and developed a mobile website so visitors could listen to all tours on their own smartphone. Now that the museums are opening up again, the percentage of visitors using a Podcatcher hasn’t reduced at all, so our fears were fortunately unfounded. And with the mobile website, we have a great new product that makes it easy for customers and prospects to get to know our audio tour platform.

Keeping it simple!

The last core value I want to stress is ‘we keep it simple’. I apply that to everything. We have the ‘world’s easiest audio guide’ for good reason. We believe that audio is the best way to share stories, so visitors can keep their eyes on the beautiful artworks. Because that’s what they came to do, right? So, no distractions. Just added value. This simplicity is also reflected in the solutions we offer to our customers. It is even more important to provide clarity in uncertain times. How do we do that? By offering simple packages with something for everyone, you have a scalable system that can be used worldwide.

And that's exactly want we need to make our dream come true: telling stories in every country of the world. We are well on the way towards that, and I’m sure we’ll experience a load of cool things over the years to come, and really engage museums and visitors. I have a lot of fun doing that, and that’s what makes the circle perfect once again, as far as our core values are concerned.

Wonderful, isn’t it?