Majority of Brits agree that our customer service needs improving ahead of London 2012

Seventy-three percent agree that Britain needs to improve customer service ahead of the Olympics and just 14% think Britain's hospitality and how we welcome guests is the aspect that will most ensure we are a good host to international visitors during London 2012. Sharon Glancy, director of the People 1st Training Company said: "Businesses in the hospitality, leisure, travel and tourism industry really need to step up and take customer service training seriously, especially if they want to take advantage of the estimated £2bn that could be generated from visitors. "It's not too strong to say that London 2012 will be deemed a success or failure on the strength of how well we welcome and look after our international guests and workers across the sector will be representing Britain on the frontline." It also seems we can't rely on our food and weather to make up for poor service – only 1% of respondents thought British cuisine and 1% thought the weather were aspects that will most ensure we are a good host to visitors. However, Britain's historical and cultural attractions topped the list with 32%. Glancy continues: "Hosting big international events offers significant opportunities to the HLTT industry and they don't come bigger than the Olympics. Tackling the standard of customer service training will show that not only can we host these big events, but that we do it well and Britain therefore is best placed to host future events." People 1st – the sector skills council for the hospitality, leisure, tourism and travel (HLTT) industries – has launched a campaign to train 200,000 hospitality and tourism staff ahead of the London 2012 Olympic and Paralympic Games. To train the target of 200,000 people, customer service training programme WorldHost, will be used. WorldHost's track record includes the Vancouver Winter Olympics, where it was used to train 39,000 volunteers and tourism staff last year.