FREE TRAINING FOR LOCAL BUSINESSES TO HELP CEMENT ISLAND'S REPUTATION AS BEING WELCOMING

Visit Isle of Wight is offering a series of free short training courses aimed at cementing the Island’s reputation as the most welcoming place in the UK, with local businesses and their employees being offered the chance to add to their customer service skills.

Bespoke Welcome to Excellence Customer Service training is offering 500 places free of charge, with the aim of providing extra support for Isle of Wight businesses to welcome visitors. The half-day course will provide delegates with the tools to offer the best customer service and help deal with difficult situations as well as Isle of Wight knowledge to pass on to visitors.

Visit Isle of Wight is encouraging tourism and customer-facing businesses to sign up to the free training course, as part of a drive to help businesses in all aspects of the visitor economy, worth approximately half a billion pounds to the Island economy each year.

The 3-and-a-half-hour course aims to develop proactive communication skills, recognise different customer expectations and how to meet them, better understand frontline sales & service role, encourage confidence in effectively tackling difficult situations and learn why teamwork is vital in a customer-facing environment

Visit Isle of Wight is keen to emphasise that the course may cover information that attendees already know but could add tips and techniques to make their job easier and perhaps some Island knowledge they didn’t already have.

The Isle of Wight has a history of providing a warm welcome as highlighted by the Visit Britain/Mirror top award for UK Tourism Superstar in 2018 and 2020 for Red Funnel’s Jim O’Reilly and Hovertravel’s Lorry Middleton.

Will Myles, Managing Director at Visit Isle of Wight explains:
“This course is very much aimed at businesses who want to give their staff and colleagues an extra boost in a variety of skills which will ultimately benefit their whole business – and the Isle of Wight.

“The Island is famous for it’s warm welcome and this course will back that up, providing team members with the tools make sure they are more confident in their work and providing development in the hospitality industry.

“In a normal year the Isle of Wight welcomes 2.6 million visitors, they spend upwards of £330 million on the Island, that excludes the ferry part of their travel. Visitors to the Island are the life-blood of our economy and it is always great to welcome them here.”
Attendees will have the option to book one of 16 half-day courses over 8 dates during February and March in the new Isle of Wight Council facility at Cowes, Building 41.