What do you do when you want to welcome someone to your home the first time? You give a quick tour of the house. So, when you want to connect your business to the local community, give them a tour!
Many businesses have started offering factory tours in recent years. So far, at least 556 companies in the United States offer tours of their factories.
But why should you offer a tour of your factory? Where do you even start with the planning? Is this even safe?
Don’t worry! We have put together an ultimate guide to planning your factory tour to get you started. Keep reading to learn why you should offer a tour and how to plan a successful tour!
Why Offer a Factory Tour?
There are many reasons for offering a tour of your factory. If you need to improve the public’s view of your company, let’s say after a scandal or snafu, offering a tour of your facilities can help make the community trust your company again.
You may want to start offering tours on a regular basis. Many companies are turning to the public to learn how to better serve their needs. What better way to do that than to invite the public in to see how you do what you do and offer suggestions.
Factory owners and upper-level executives take tours of the factories from time to time to make sure everything is functioning according to the plan. Also, other businesses send representatives to tour as many factories as they can so they can check out the competition.
No matter what your reason is for wanting to offer a tour of your factory, you want to make a solid plan before your guests arrive.
Preparing for a Tour
Start planning for the tour of your factory as soon as you can. You never know what issues will rear their ugly heads during the planning process and you want to iron out the kinks before your tour starts.
What Is the Goal of Your Tour?
The first thing you need to do is decide why you are giving the tour in the first place. Knowing the purpose and audience makes the planning process go much smoother.
Learning tours offer an insider view of how your factory works. Guests on these kinds of tours are looking to learn as much as possible about your processes. Don’t worry so much about explaining your financials; try to focus on how things work and explaining everything the guests can see during the tour.
A more detailed version of the learning tour is a teaching tour. Attendees expect to learn about the workings of your factory in detail. A common example of this is when a company wants to open a new factory and sends a supervisor to one of the existing factories to see how things function.
If a company is trying to bring on a new client, the client may want to visit the factory to see the quality of the products and the efficiency of the process. These kinds of tours are more about assessment rather than teaching about how it all works. Tailor the focus of these tours to the area of the business most relevant to the guests.
Once you know who your audience is and the goal of the tour, you can plan out a script for the tour. Decide the path you want the tour to take and write notes as you go through the path to tie in what the attendees see and what the tour guide says.
Make Sure You Have the Right Gear
Once you have a good plan for the tour path and information, it’s time to think about what you need to make the most of the tour. You don’t want to appear unprepared during a tour, even if it’s the very first one you’ve done.
One of the first things to consider is getting the proper sound equipment for your plant tours. If your factory is loud, you want to make sure the guests can hear you without shouting at them.
Also, if you want to give your guests marketing swag or handouts, make sure to plan and print those well in advance. Be sure to have extras printed as well in case some of them become damaged or if unexpected guests show up.
Pick the Right Tour Guide
Let’s be honest, if your factory supervisor has a phobia of public speaking, you may want to find someone else to lead the tour. Consider asking for volunteers among the factory employees to see if your tour guide is already working for you. A guide who works at the factory will always be more knowledgable than an outsider hired to do the tours.
Safety First
Safety is the most important thing to consider when bringing guests into your factory for a tour. The last thing you want is for an attendee to get injured, or worse!
If the tour path goes through dangerous areas, make sure your guests wear proper safety gear. If the workers need to wear hard hats and eye protection, so should your tour attendees!
Building a Better Business
Once you get your factory tour going, consider offering comment cards so you can gather feedback from your guests. Then, take that feedback and learn where your business could use some improvements!
We hope you loved reading this article and that you learned a thing or two about planning a tour of your factory. If you are looking for more helpful information about technology, business, and more, check out the rest of our blogs today!