Bletchley Park, home of the renowned World War II code breakers has reached an important milestone in their history through a major redevelopment programme aimed at making them become a must see visitor destination. Their drive to success involved delivering excellence at all levels and this iconic place started to promote itself through informative activities and events including the grounds and museum being used as an atmospheric backdrop for the Benedict Cumberbatch and Keira Knightley film The Imitation Game based on Andrew Hodges’ biography of Bletchley Park’s tragic hero, Alan Turing.
Acknowledging that staff and volunteers were integral to their continued success, Bletchley Park decided to work together with Welcome to Excellence to devise and deliver a company wide customer service training initiative. They choose Welcome to Excellence because they were able to create a fully integrated customer service programme with the help and support of a dedicated team of training specialists.
Fred Howe, Bletchley Park’s Operations Manager was fully behind their commitment and was keen to ensure that training content was geared towards business and customer needs. He and his staff worked together with Welcome to Excellence to create innovative training courses that were delivered by their own company trainers.
Through this model, Bletchley Park were able to offer flexible training by running courses to suit staff and volunteer working patterns and also to set up a sustainable way forward in terms of future course provision.
The results are impressive and in a short space of time visitor numbers had increased by 28% - Bletchley Park feel this number can only be expected to grow and are very optimistic for future growth. The welcome visitors receive is seen as paramount to the success of Bletchley Park and the dedicated team of staff and volunteers now have a passion for interpreting the untold stories of what used to be a very secretive place.
Sue Gill, Training Services Director (Centre) with staff and volunteers from Bletchley Park
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