Race for customer service trainers reaches quarter way mark

Already successfully used at the Vancouver Winter Olympics to train 39,000 volunteers and tourism staff last year, WorldHost has been developed for the UK by People 1st – the sector skills council for the hospitality, leisure, tourism and travel (HLTT) industries – with the support of VisitEngland. At the end of last year People 1st launched a campaign to train 200,000 customer service and tourism staff ahead of the Olympics and Paralympic Games, but to make this happen 400 hundred licensed trainers are needed to deliver the course. Linda Roberts, master trainer of WorldHost commented: "Businesses and organisations understand how important good customer service is, especially those who want to take advantage of the significant revenue visitors will generate during the Olympics. It's been a pleasure to work with trainers who represent organisations at the top of our hospitality sector in the UK such as Ford, Elior UK, Flybe, Westminster Kingsway and Neath Port Talbot College." The 100 trainers from colleges, leading industry employers and a number of county councils have completed the three-day 'Train the Facilitator' programme. Twenty percent of those trained and licensed have also gone on to attend additional training to deliver three other specialist WorldHost training programmes: customers with disabilities, service across cultures and ambassador workshop training, particularly designed for volunteers assisting visitors to the UK. Trainers will operate under a licence from People 1st and will be subject to ongoing quality assurance activities. As well as independent trainers running courses locally in their areas, WorldHost can accredit in-house company trainers to run customer service training within medium to large organisations. Sharon Glancy, director of the People 1st Training Company, added: "With the support of big businesses such as McDonald's, Flybe, Compass Group UK and Sodexo we are striving to improve the overall standard of customer service delivery in the UK. Although we have short-term goals tied into the London 2012 Olympics, those goals are part of a campaign to raise UK customer service standards in the long-term." For more information visit: www.worldhost.uk.com