Listed below are examples of previous training and development activity offered by the Tourism Skills Network Gloucestershire.
Customer Care
Welcome to Excellence
Welcome to Excellence is a portfolio of nationally reocgnised, tourism-focused customer care one-day training courses developed for the hospitality and tourism industry.Welcome Host
Welcome Host helps employees acquire new customer service and communication skills, as well as improving knowledge of local facilities and services. Content: *The value of excellent customer service / benefits of tourism; *Understanding & meeting your customers’ needs; *Customer service trends; *Setting and maintaining standards; *First impressions; *Communication – verbal and non-verbal; *Telephone techniques; *Dealing with difficult situationsWelcome All
Welcome All provides participants with practical advice and cost–effective ideas to enhance service quality for customers with disabilities and specific needs. Content: *The benefits of an accessible service; *Key provisions from the Disability Discrimination Act; *Practical advice on how to provide the best service; *How to communicate effectively; *How to improve accessibility; *Guidance on a range of sensory, mobility and learning disabilities.Welcome Line
Welcome Line helps participants to communicate effectively on the telephone and via email and acquire the skills needed to convert enquiries into sales.Content: *Creating a positive impression; *Improving your communication skills; *Handling enquiries; *Upselling; *Handling difficult calls effectively.Welcome International
Welcome International helps participants to communicate successfully and provide an exceptional customer service experience to international visitors and UK residents from different ethnic, cultural and linguistic backgrounds. Content: *The international tourism industry; *How to communicate effectively; *How to greet visitors in their own language; *Identifying cultural expectations.Welcome Host Plus
Welcome Host Plus builds on the knowledge and skills already developed from the Welcome Host programme enabling you to offer customer service at its best. Content: Aiming for world class service; *Understanding your customers and your competition; *Turning negatives to positives; *Implementing effective service recovery procedures; *Building a winning team; *Converting enquiries into sales.Welcome Management
Welcome Management is for senior managers and proprietors. It helps participants to develop an effective customer service strategy, design and implement systems that focus on meeting customer needs and benchmark their service against their competitors.The course includes: areview the quality of your current customer service, setting objectives and establish a strategy to meet them, building customer relationships, monitoring and evaluating progress, and planning and implementing improvements.Gloucestershire Welcome
A customer care programme which offered participants an opportunity to participate in Welcome Host, Welcome All, Welome International, Welcome Line and Welcome Host Plus, in addition to achieving an NVQ Level 2 in Customer Service. Participants were also issued with a Visitor Attraction pass card to encourage visitation to local attractions in order to improve their knowledge and therefoe provide better information to their guests and visitors. Managers of the employees were also offered an opportunity to participate in a Welceome Management course.Dealing with difficult people
This workshop addresses some of the problems that arise when customers and guests become ‘difficult’ for staff to deal with. For example: *People who don’t understand why you have policies or procedures to follow *People who don’t adhere to the law e.g. smoking ban *Customers who become angry over a mistake that's been made *Guests who complain that the service is not up to their expectations *Customers who are disappointed with the quality they have experienced.Cotswold Garden Welcome
Cotswold Garden Welcome is a half-day workshop created as part of ‘2007 Year of the Cotswold Garden’ celebrations. It’s designed to give you or your staff advice on making the most of contact with your visitors - whether it be turning them into ‘word of mouth’ recommenders, customers in your gift or garden shop or simply making sure that they get the most from their visit.Content: *Overview of the 2007 Year of the Cotswold Garden initiative; *Who are your visitors? *Your role in the visitor experience; *Meeting typical visitor information requirements; *Communicating with visitors; Garden tips; *How to encourage repeat visits / increasing sales.Japanese Culture & Language
A half-day workshop designed to help increase your understanding of Japanese culture, expectations and basic greetings. Content: What do we know about Japan? How to greet our Japanese visitors (in Japanese!) A few more Japanese communication skills. How the Japanese often do things and how that can affect us e.g. bowing, presentation, relationships, bathing, nose blowing, complaining. How to impress your Japanese visitors._________________________________________________________
Marketing
Successful Sales Showrounds
The objective of this course is to equip delegates with a number of professional sales skills and to build individual confidence in order to maximise the full sales potential from “in house” showrounds. Content: *Overview of the sales process; *Effective questioning techniques; *Presenting the benefits to the customer; *Handling objections; *Closing the sale.Restaurant Marketing
The objective of this course is to provide delegates with an overview of how to use marketing techniques to improve restaurant sales and to encourage their customers to spend more. Content: * Blueprint for an effective marketing plan; *Customer segmenting techniques that work for you and your business; *Maximising the sales potential of your menu; *Tips and techniques for engaging with your customers (including public relations, direct mail and advertising) *Taking the mystery out of e marketing and tips for better website optimisation.Restaurant Sales: Boost your profits through sales orientated customer care
The objective of this half-day training workshop is to develop the sales skills of food and beverage staff to give them the tools and confidence to generate additional revenue from customers and deliver an improved and consistent customer care experience. Content: * The relationship between great customer care and selling; *Qualities that make a successful sales person; *Product knowledge and customer profiles; *Closing techniquesMarketing to overseas visitors
This half-day workshop looks at how to attract overseas visitors, how to look after them...and how to avoid accidentally offending them. The course will help you, or anyone in your business in regular contact with overseas visitors, to understand and look after them better.Writing effective press releases
The objective of this course is for delegates to leave with a sound understanding of what the media is looking for and with some techniques and tips for writing their own successful electronic and traditional press releases. This session is ideal for owners and managers of small to medium businesses or could be a useful refresher for marketing professionals.Telepower
The objectives of the course is to supply accommodation providers with the necessary skills and techniques to maximise the full business potential from incoming calls and reservations enquiries. The half-day sessions includes: * Effective telephone techniques; *Upselling and merchandising; *Yield management. Ideal for those who handle incoming enquiries and reservations in hotels and bed and breakfasts.Market research for non-marketing managers
By the end of this session delegates will be able to identify and discuss the benefits of improved market intelligence on their business and demonstrate cost effective data collection methods and analysis.This is a half- day course and will cover: *Techniques for gathering data, *Establishing and managing a data- base, *Segmentation techniques, *Legal issues.E-Marketing
The objective of this workshop is to bring delegates fully up to date with web marketing techniques and best practices.This is a half - day course and the session covers: *Introduction to web based marketing *Getting started *Working with an agency *Best practices *Website optimisation *Website accessibility, *Legal do’s and don’ts. This course is suitable for any business currently setting up their first site or planning to update an existing one._________________________________________________________
Management
Chef Excellence (Pilot Training Programme)
Chef Excellence is an 8-day management and business skills training programme for senior chefs. Participants gain an ILM Introductory Certificate in First Line Management in addition to gaining an insight into butchery, bakery, sourcing local food produce, food and wine matching, sourcing fish, mass catering, diet and nutrition, environmental best practice through visits to local organisations such as Ensors Abattoir, Campden & Chorleywood Food Research Centre, Over Farm, Gloucester Royal Hospital to name a few.Welcome Management
Welcome Management is for senior managers and proprietors. It helps participants to develop an effective customer service strategy, design and implement systems that focus on meeting customer needs and benchmark their service against their competitors.The course includes: areview the quality of your current customer service, setting objectives and establish a strategy to meet them, building customer relationships, monitoring and evaluating progress, and planning and implementing improvements.Visitor Attraction Quality Awareness Day (VAQAS)
A one-day practical workshop for owners and managers of visitor attractons, developed and operated by the Visitor Attraction Quality Awareness Service (VAQAS) to enhance quality and spread best practice through the industry. Participants have an opportunity to analyse each stage of the visitor journey making recommendations for quality improvements. The session also offers an insight into how the VAQAS quality-grading scheme is assessed with comparisons drawn from all sectors of the industry._________________________________________________________
Food & Drink
WSET Foundation Certificate in Wines
An internationally recognised qualification, specifically geared to give hospitality staff the skills and confidence to provide customers with advice and a professional service. Candidates study: The Main Styles of Wine, The WSET Level 1 Systematic Approach to Tasting, The Characteristics of the Common Grape, Varieties Used to Produce Wine, Service of Wine, Health, Safety and Legal Issues, The Matching of Food and Wine._______________________________________________________
ICT
Digital Photography
This half day workshop is designed to help you get a better understanding of your camera, taking photographs indoors and outdoors, using Adobe Photoshop to explain image usage (ie. internet, quality printing and e-mail), and using Adobe Photoshop to manipulate images._________________________________________________________