Businesses in Dundee have been challenged to ensure they can provide sparkling customer service as the city’s waterfront redevelopment and bid for the title of UK City of Culture gather pace.
David Allen from People 1st, the sector skills council for hospitality, tourism and passenger transport, told Dundee’s second economic summit earlier this week that the visitor economy would suffer if service skills didn’t exceed paying customers’ expectations.
He said providing training for employees was a must for businesses looking to take a share of the economic benefit of the ongoing developments in the city.
Officials behind Dundee’s regeneration expect the V&A museum and other attractions to bring hundreds of thousands of new visitors to the area each year.
“Providing memorable, long-lasting and positive experiences for visitors to the city and the surrounding area is the challenge,” Mr Allen said, highlighting the part service staff play in successful hospitality businesses.
“Without their input and enthusiasm and without their dedication and skill in providing high-quality experiences to these visitors, the foundation of a sustainable visitor economy one that provides and will continue to provide strong employment opportunities dare I say it becomes flawed.
“New hotels, the V&A museum these all create fantastic opportunities for people to come and experience and be part of this fantastic sector and everything that comes with it.
“But people are critical. As Walt Disney said about his first theme park: ‘You can create the most fantastic and amazing place in the world, but without the people the quality of the experience just doesn’t happen.’”
The Government-supported agency has bought the UK licence to the WorldHost training programme first developed for use at the 2010 Winter Olympics in Vancouver and successfully employed during the training of volunteers at the London Games last summer.
Present UK City of Culture Derry-Londonderry achieved ‘destination’ status under the benchmark, while People 1st are also working to deliver the programme from sites across the UK, including Dundee College.
Mr Allen warned that customers were now better informed than ever before, expect more than ever, and have far greater choice.
He said the kitemark enabled a destination to provide uniformly excellent service, while also boosting employees’ pride in their work.
“The question as a business is not how much will it cost me to invest in customer service training for my business; the question you should be asking yourself should be ‘What cost will it be to my business if I don’t train my staff?’” he added.