As Northern Ireland prepares to host a series of world-class events in 2012 and 2013, People 1st, the sector skills council for hospitality, passenger transport, travel and tourism, has agreed a strategic partnership with the Northern Ireland Tourist Board (NITB) to support businesses in delivering excellent customer service.
Under license from People 1st, NITB will deliver the WorldHost customer service training programme to thousands of tourism staff across Northern Ireland, helping to raise service quality to international standards.
The partnership comes at an opportune time, as the NI 2012 programme of events, which includes the Titanic Centenary programme, and Derry-Londonderry’s stint as the UK’s City of Culture 2013 promise to attract thousands of visitors to Northern Ireland. If the tourism industry is to capitalise on this unique opportunity to raise its profile on a worldwide stage, delivering excellent customer service will be essential.
With over one million people trained worldwide, WorldHost customer service training gives front-line staff a comprehensive grounding in the principles of customer service and acting as an ambassador for their local area.
Originally developed in Canada - widely perceived as the global leader for customer service – WorldHost also has a track record of being used to support world-class events. The programme was used to train 39,000 tourism staff and volunteers in the run-up to the 2010 Vancouver Winter Olympics, and is also being used at London 2012 to train thousands of staff and contractors working at the Olympic and Paralympic venues.
Roisin McKee, People 1st’s Northern Ireland manager, commented: “Customer service is a vital part of the visitor experience, but it is a real skills need for tourism businesses – our recent State of the Nation report found that 64 percent of employers feel that customer handling skills need improving within their workforce.
This is why we are introducing WorldHost customer service training to Northern Ireland. WorldHost has a proven track record, and we are delighted that NITB is partnering with us to deliver the programme. “This new venture will support and complement the positive work that People 1st and NITB have undertaken together to date in support of the Tourism Strategy for Northern Ireland to 2020. In particular, it will help to drive our ambition for businesses to deliver an authentic Northern Ireland experience, by ensuring that visitors are provided with a world-class service.”
Kathryn Thompson, chief operating officer for NITB, added: “This is an exciting time for Northern Ireland tourism. With the NI 2012 programme of events, many exciting project launches and the Derry-Londonderry City of Culture celebrations in 2013 , we have an unprecedented opportunity to put Northern Ireland on the map and to generate future tourism business. Supporting businesses to deliver a world-class welcome will be critical in ensuring that we grasp this opportunity, and we believe that the WorldHost programme is the best solution to achieve this.”
Plans are now progressing to launch WorldHost across Northern Ireland in the New Year. A ‘master trainer,’ responsible for preparing other trainers to deliver the WorldHost programme, has been appointed, and a network of trainers will be established over the coming months.