Managers at a Coventry hotel have gone back to school to keep visitors returning to the city.

All the heads of department from the Hilton Coventry Hotel have been on the course run by Coventry and Warwickshire Promotions to learn how to give their customers a warm and friendly welcome.

The importance of making visitors feel cared for has been drummed into 57 staff at the hotel, who have been on the Coventry Welcomes You With Pride course.

They have been taught the basics of life in the city from a tourist’s perspective so they can answer the kind of questions visitors may have.

The aim is to ensure that people coming to the city leave with a good impression, come back again and tell their friends of their experience.

And the Hilton managers have moved on to the next level to see how they can use the new found skills of their staff to improve the running of the hotel.

The ‘Welcome Management’ course is designed to give managers an insight into how they can emphasise the importance of good customer service to their staff.

The course covers customer service strategy and developing systems to make sure the strategy is monitored and implemented.   

Hilton Coventry's personnel and training manager, Jilly Saddington said:

"We felt it would be beneficial to encourage our heads of department to re-address and become inventive as to how we approach customer service and feedback.

"The skills our department heads came away with after completing the Welcome Management course are the linchpin to our continued success of our business".

'Welcome Management' is a free one-day training course designed to compliment 'Coventry Welcomes You With Pride' - a free one-day customer care course available to all front-line staff in the city.

Other courses available under the scheme are 'Welcome Line' to encourage good telephone customer service, 'Welcome International' for guidance on welcoming foreign visitors and 'Welcome All' for advice on welcoming disabled customers.

Fifty-seven Hilton staff have already completed 'Coventry Welcomes You With Pride' and there are plans to put the majority of the 180 hotel workers through the course over the next few months.

Both courses are part of a national welcome host scheme.

For more information on all courses or to reserve a place call project co-ordinator Bally Bains on 024 7683 1363.
  

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