Further information
Print this pageHartlepool Borough Council
‘Welcome to Excellence kind of chose us!’ says Harland Deer from Hartlepool Borough Council. ‘The programme has a long-standing reputation across the tourism economic sector, but I didn’t run a course until I’d attended one to see what it was all about. I’ve never been on a bad course and the trainers have been universally excellent.’
Harland, as Marketing Assistant in the Economic Development department, is responsible for developing the tourism product as well as promotion. He is therefore involved in training and promotes the Welcome to Excellence courses to tourism businesses across all of the Tees Valley. He works with the Area Tourism Partnership, Visit Tees Valley who promote Welcome to Excellence to their members.
‘Traditionally we run a mix of six to eight courses a year in the shoulder months September to November and January to March, when businesses are quieter. Over the past five years we’ve run in excess of 40 courses across the whole Welcome family.
‘I think it’s important that we practice what we preach to encourage others to sign up. When they see that our core staff have all attended a Welcome course, businesses in the region are more likely to appreciate how vital the courses are.
‘Seasonal as well as full-time staff attend and they come from the full spectrum of tourism businesses: restaurants, hotels, guest accommodation, attractions, shopping centres, TICs, etc. For example, everybody working in the Hartlepool Maritime Experience has attended a Welcome to Excellence course.
‘Middleton Grange Shopping Centre, the third largest single unit shopping centre in the North East has also recognised Welcome to Excellence as key to providing good customer service. All the staff attend and they get a lot from the courses, including a sense of pride in gaining their certificates. Even the security and cleaning staff wear Welcome lapel badges around the Centre and the Welcome to Excellence sign is displayed on doors and windows. This is increasingly reassuring for customers as they come to recognise what the Welcome brand means.’
Harland continues, ‘I really believe providing great customer service is key and that a business’s level of service needs to stand out if it’s to generate repeat business. You can have the best meal in a restaurant but if the service falls short, you won’t go back. It’s about delivering a complete package.’
Harland is also a Welcome trainer and co-delivers Welcome Host courses over two evenings for hotels. ‘These are a couple of three-hour sessions for those who have difficulty leaving their businesses during the day,’ he explains. ‘The courses are structured specifically to their requirements in a hotel environment.’
Many of the Welcome to Excellence courses, including Welcome All, are held at Summerhill, a country park with a wonderful visitor centre. Tricia Woods, from One NorthEast’s tourism team, delivers Welcome All at Summerhill as it is a good example of best practice and participants can see first-hand how a building can have access built in. Harland says, ‘I believe the access agenda is incredibly important and that there is therefore sound logic for attending a Welcome All course.
‘Thinking they need to make physical adjustments can put businesses off trying to be more accessible, but Welcome All shows that it’s often simple changes in attitude that can be key. Welcome All goes a long way to help people understand and be respectful to visitors with disabilities.
‘It allows participants to ask what they may feel are simple questions and be reassured that it’s often a matter of using common sense. For example, a blind man joins some of the courses and offers advice to participants – including, if they’re talking to him to tell him that they are going away – so, as he says, he isn’t left talking to the hat stand!’
