Newry businesses raise the bar on customer service standards

Eleven local hospitality and leisure businesses from the Newry and Mourne area have successfully completed WorldHost Customer Service training.  Councillor Michael Ruane, mayor of Newry and Mourne Council presented certificates to the ‘WorldHost graduates’ at a special ceremony at the Sean Holywood Arts Centre on Tuesday 12 November.

“Good customer service is the lifeblood of any business”, Councillor Ruane explained. “Exceeding your customers’ expectations first time, every time will secure their loyalty, help grow your customer base, build your reputation and give your business an edge over your competitors. The key to making sure this happens is through training.”

The Northern Ireland Tourist Board (NITB), the sector skills council People 1st, and the Department for Employment and Learning are working in close partnership to provide WorldHost customer service training in Northern Ireland. The initiative aims to help businesses improve customer service skills in a range of industries including the tourism, hospitality, leisure and passenger transport sectors.
Louise McKinstry NITB Skills and Development Officer congratulated all those who had taken the time to undertake the training in the interests of ensuring that visitors to Newry and Mourne receive the very best Northern Ireland welcome and service. 

“With Northern Ireland currently hosting an impressive series of events, celebrations and new visitor attractions, more visitors are coming to our area than ever before”, Louise commented. “We are delighted that local businesses are prepared to go the extra mile to provide the very highest standards of service to both visitors to the region and to local customers. This will help generate higher visitor numbers in the future which will be a great economic benefit to local business and the region”

WorldHost trainer Lynda Willis, who delivered the training, added her congratulations and also explained that nine of the businesses had also achieved ‘WorldHost Recognised Business’ status as over half of their staff had been trained up to WorldHost standards.

Michelle McKeown, Tourism Development, Newry and Mourne District Council, explained: “We would also like to thank the Department of Employment  and Learning for substantially subsidising the cost of the 2-day WorldHost course without which it would not have been possible for so many staff working in our local shops, cafes, pubs, restaurants, hotels and visitor attractions to refresh the skills needed to deliver outstanding customer service and become such excellent ’ambassadors’ for the area.”

“The funding will be available until 31^st March 2014 so I would encourage local trade who have not yet taken part in the programme to consider doing so”, Michelle added.

For anyone interested in finding out more about WorldHost, or booking a place on the next course in Newry on 18^th and 20th February 2014, please call 07773 423675.