Last week I headed to the Horizon Rooms of the Duluth Entertainment Convention Center to learn more about tourism in Duluth. Growing up on the Iron Range, I was “kind of” a tourist for years. My family would drive down to visit the zoo or Playfront Park or the Miller Hill Mall once or twice a year. Until six months ago, I didn’t know much about the city and could easily get lost while trying to find someplace like Enger Tower.
Now I’m far more familiar with the city and ready to help those visiting for the day, week or month. So I went to “I’m a Tourist Too!” a customer service training put on by Visit Duluth and the Duluth Area Attractions Council.
First we got a virtual tour of the city and its main attractions through a video made a few years ago by students at Lake Superior College. In a “Where’s Waldo?” fashion, a “tourist” goes to the city’s attractions by chasing down “Joe Duluth.” After visiting each attraction, the tourist finally catches up with “Joe Duluth,” who is, of course, played by Mayor Don Ness. While the video was rather cheesy, it did showcase a lot of cool places in Duluth in a more interesting way than simply talking about each of them, as Briana Johnson from the Duluth Area Attractions Council pointed out.
After a short break, the customer service-oriented portion of the evening began with a demonstration by juggler and entertainer Mick Lunzer. Lunzer performs as part of a three man act at the Renaissance Festival in Shakopee called “The Danger Committee.” He joined speaker Carr Hagerman to prove a point about engaging people.
He started by showing us juggling tricks, then Yo-Yo tricks that, while impressive, didn’t receive a large reaction from the audience. He then pulled a member of the audience up to help him with a trick performed with large “stringless” Yo-Yos called “Diablos.” This trick received a lot of applause because of the audience member’s involvement.
“It’s not just about the mechanics of a trick, it’s about engaging your audience by including them,” Lunzer said.
Not everything in Hagerman’s speech, as I expected, applied to me, simply because I don’t work at an attraction and interact with tourists on a daily basis. But some of Hagerman’s advice really spoke to me about how to treat people.
“You have to decide everyday that I want to make a difference in the quality of life of the people around me,” Hagerman said.
Now that is something I think we all could do better, or at least I could.
Hagerman gave an example of engaging with people in the most mundane of actions. He went to two different coffee places. The employee behind the counter at the first coffee place was clearly not enthusiastic about his job. Hagerman decided to be extra exuberant to try to shake the apathy out of the employee, but instead became frustrated and left.
When Hagerman went to another coffee shop, he walked in and told the employee behind the counter he wanted to have a dance party. She and her fellow employees immediately started dancing behind the counter while preparing their drinks. And Hagerman was ecstatic.
“You have the chance with everyone you encounter to leave them feeling better or worse,” Hagerman said.
That thought reverberated in the back of my mind as I left the meeting. Later that week I stopped to buy gas before heading home for the weekend. I was feeling sick and miserable (I had the beginning stages of the flu), but I still had Hagerman’s statement stuck in my head. So when a couple asked me if I knew how to get to Burning Tree Plaza, I cheerfully pointed them in the right direction. After all, even though I was feeling horrible, I had the chance to make their day better.
Teri Cadeau is a reporter for the Budgeteer News.
