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.
Article continues below this advertisement “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.
No one is telling me how behave towards these “entitled” that come over here, looking down on the locals and really only want to be as rude as possible to people employed in the places they come to visit. Get real. Shows how bad and unwelcome it is if you feel the need to “train” people. More like brainwashing. Count me out.
All seem happy enough taking their money. You’d be living in mud huts without the income from tourism.
Mud huts, if this lot got there way, there would not be any mud to build a mud hut due to all the concrete around.
Silly comment, my Lord. Soon they will have money taken, whilst they ride around in their modern day stagecoachs, by masked disgruntled ones who object to the entitled ones enforcement of class structure that even the first war eroded. Better mud huts than lose our homes to a corrupt council who cash in on massive council tax rises due to wealthy incomers.
Not sure you’re cut out for the service or hospitality industry.
Just very glad I’m not then.
Oh dear! Bitter & Twisted much?
So all the people who voted down and replied, “basic manners” does that really need to be explained to us, I don’t think so.
Apparently so!
They won’t be happy till we’re serfs who clean their third homes for nothing, and beg to lick the seven bathrooms clean just to feed our kids some old bread off their bird tables. We could all live on prison ships in the Solent looking at the empty homes we used to live in.
That’s one big chip on your shoulder. Nothing special with the IOW as it’s no different than any other rural area in the UK. Just because people move to the island doesn’t make them “entitled” after all its their hard earned money they are spending.
When you say free? You mean paid for by small businesses that are forced to pay the BID tax.?
Exactly. No such thing as a free lunch.
They are, in short, offering to teach basic manners.
Yes which parents should have and should be teaching their offspring !!
If they are offering training courses, then they are acknowledging a problem.
Usually the sun offers the warm welcome.
I am sorry, when I first glanced the headlines, I thought it said, ‘Training to help cement over the Isle of Wight… !! ‘ but hey won’t be long before it is… just cement and tarmac !!
Its the biggest business that’s letting the island down ie the council with the cost to park the lack of loos the road closures the lack of bins and what ever else they do to disrupt the island
Definitely needed! Can Sports Direct send their staff on it, too? They see you then run and hide! The only way to attract attention there is to start bouncing the balls on the floor, lol!! A bakery in Cowes told me to ‘come back at 9am when we open”; It was 3 minutes to!! Obvs didn’t bother. They lost a potentially good customer that day…
Are you sure you weren’t trying to buy a loaf from an Audi dealership? ;oD
Bitter & twisted? Much?
Bitter? Twisted?
The island is welcoming but the method to get here is not! Training people to be welcoming, really! And it’s not even April the 1st yet!
Would be good to be able to see some businesses open for a start. Invest in people hmmm.. our towns are far becoming ghost towns, big business can’t afford to cross the costliest stretch of water in the world. Small businesses are being pushed out with high rates. Where it all going to end. Reputation indeed!
Don’t the ferry barons make ’em feel important with their exclusive prices? Don’t estate agents welcome the entitled set with open arms? Doesn’t the council book holidays when they plan the next precept rise, which hardworking Island people can’t afford? Rich visitors in heaven here, mates.
What you true Island people forget is that it’s better when the holiday set is here. Can’t you listen? They keep telling us often enough. Personally I like winter when my town is my own, the beach isn’t cluttered up with strangers asking me if you can walk to France, or turn down the sound of the sea. Only thing makes me sad in winter is big empty homes when some of my friends with children don’t have a house.
It’s been interesting reading all the comments. Mud huts here anti overner there, what I have never understood about our society is how we’ve got to this point. Like I’m the sort of person where if you dont like me then I’d rather you tell me to which I would say why not? It’s always because I wasnt polite enough or I didn’t break my back to make sure you have room temperature water. Like the need for people to be overbearingingly polite is not what being human is. With me you’ll get the odd bout of rude and irrational outbursts especially after a comment like zoe morgans like put your self if his shoes, rushing getting everything ready hot from all the running all to please yo princesses, like I’ve eaten sandwiches from bins
2/2 like is this what we’ve come to that we have to bow at knees because they will be paying. It’s ironic because usually these people who demand such high standards usually eat in a far less standard kitchen at home. I’m not saying that it’s ok to spit in food for which I bet no one can fully know if there food has been especially if it’s a curry. So there is a standard I recognise but i ain’t talking to people like the queen I’m rough and ready it’s the little boys who get all Quincy, lambs dressed as mutton we can do better but we gotta be able to tell someone to go **** themselves and be forgiven to function as a peaceful society especially if someone is being PURPOSEFULLY AWKWARD we’ve all come across one of those (drops hair)
All this ranting because Visit Isle of Wight is offering the chance to improve customer service skills. Obviously, there is a need for this training. Plenty of people working on the island haven’t got a clue how to behave in a customer facing role.
Maybe, but if you are employed to serve these visitors also be prepared to get treated like sh*t.
Christ on a bike.
FFS don’t let prospective tourists read Island Echo then.
One look through the bitter and twisted comments would make them think the only person most Islanders like is the one they see in the mirror