ChaCha Tips: Training ChaCha Guides

Training other guides is part of being a ChaCha Guide. A new guide is totally dependant on you being a great guide, because you are one of their first resources when just starting out. However, some of us seem to be a little confused about how to go about this. Some guides are just 'there'.

If you are not in the mood for training, just decline it; I admit to doing that sometimes. Many ChaCha guides seem to just accept training sessions for the pay, this is disgraceful, because if you are not going to guide (train) someone properly, don't do it. You are not benefiting yourself! ChaCha will get a bad reputation for having uninformed, unhelpful guides, and we all lose out.

Greet the guide; ask what their rank is, or how many searches they have done. You may have a Master with 1000 searches, or it maybe someone's 3rd search, and they will need more help.

If the guide is under the master level, take extra care in training. Even if you are training a master, keep in mind, sometimes we get to confident, and could use a refresher. Either way, always let them know that you are available to answer any questions that they may have.

Ask them what their keyword is, the keyword in the inquiry box may contain their keyword in a phrase...don't nitpick. If their keyword is art, and the inquiry in the search box is, "the art of conversation" don't go sending a new guide on a search out of the original intent of the keyword. Obviously if it is "GRAPHIC ART" they are just building a list of favorites under that topic. Don't waste the guides' time by getting them confused. They are probably just getting used to the application as well. (Remember how that felt?)

The guide should now ask you to clarify what you are looking for on that particular topic, if they jumped ahead, and started sending results; kindly remind them to clarify with the info seeker what they are looking for in particular. Make sure they ask "What can I find for you on the topic ___", and never something general like "How can I help you". This just wastes time. Ask them to find (for example) "GRAPHIC ART online galleries". Keep it simple or general even. You are not writing a novel on the 'art of conversation', and if you are, a training session is not the arena to research. (Unless of course the training is going super fast with a very experienced guide, then you can relax!)

The guide will (should) now tell you to hang on for a moment while they search. If not...it is your job to remind them, politely.

Next on your right, along the chat column is where the results they are sending across line up. The CATEGORY we are always talking about will become clear to you. It will say ART>GRAPHIC DESIGN. This is what we call correctly categorizing. Sure you can find ART under society> religion and spirituality, as in religious art, but if that is not where the guide categorized it to begin with, they won't get credit. If it doesn't appear to be categorized correctly, explain this to them. Ask them where they have it categorized under keywords. This is crucial for beginners!

Once they have begun sent over their results, check to see if they have HIGHLIGHTED 'snippets' of information that pertains specifically what you inquired about. This is particularly important when a 'real' info seeker is looking for a particular fact. What date did the Titanic sink? It would be helpful when you find an article with the complete history, to highlight the actual answer. Make sure the guide understands this.

Ask the guide to move the results, the last one to the top, the middle to the top etc...make sure they know how to do this. It comes in handy when you find the most relevant webpage, you can say, in a real search, take a look at that last site I sent over...I moved it to the top for you.

During the search, make sure the guide lets you know he or she is still searching, remind them if they don't. They should ask you if this is they type of info you were searching for. Let them know if there results were good, or what they could have done differently. They should give you three sites in a training session. They should ask if there is anything else on this topic they can find for you. If the results are good, say so, then ask the guide if they have any questions for you.

Training other guides is something all guides should be taking seriously. We can learn so much from a good guide! That is how the system works, we learn from each other to make ChaCHa the best search engine ever!