A new customer service excellence training scheme has been launched to ensure Paisley is primed to welcome visitors to its events and attractions in the coming years.
Customer experience is a key part of any visitor’s impressions of a place and the new Paisley Welcomes programme will provide enhanced training to those coming into contact with visitors covering everyone from volunteers and hospitality and leisure workers to retail staff and taxi drivers.
The Paisley Welcomes project is a key pillar of the Renfrewshire Visitor Plan 2018-2021. The programme is an online module which covers both customer service training and information about Paisley and Renfrewshire. The training is open to individuals as well as businesses.
Interested parties can register for the online module. The first 2,000 people to sign up will be able to complete it free of charge as Renfrewshire Council and Scottish Enterprise are helping to fund the scheme. A wide range of users can benefit from taking part – from school leavers wishing to develop their skills through to front of house staff who are often the first point of contact for visitor questions.
The overall aim is to create a consistent customer experience, but it will also encourage cross-selling leading to visitors staying longer and spending more, and create repeat visitation.
Leader of Renfrewshire Council, Councillor Iain Nicolson, said: “The Paisley Welcomes skills development project offers a great opportunity for individuals and businesses to showcase the very best of Paisley and Renfrewshire and is one of the pillars of the Visitor Plan. The project will also support the delivery of a number of key strategic priorities over the next three years – including the Paisley 2021 Legacy Plan and the Renfrewshire Events Strategy.
“It is a great opportunity for businesses to enhance their customer offer and I would encourage all interested parties to register for the project and take advantage of the first 2,000 free training places subsidised by the council and Scottish Enterprise.”
Renfrewshire Chamber of Commerce Chief Executive, Bob Grant, said: “This is a great opportunity for businesses in Renfrewshire to get involved to provide the best experience possible for visitors while helping upskill staff in the area. We know that businesses want help to improve their services and customer offer and this is a fantastic opportunity to put our best foot forward.”
The programme is based on the well-established Glasgow Welcomes best practice, which all of the Commonwealth Games volunteers went through. It supports the drive for destination development but also supports the new focus on the wider Glasgow City Region development.
A number of local businesses have already voiced their support for the project and have pledged to sign up for the module.
The Glynhill Hotel and Leisure Club General Manager, Graeme Gibson, said “We will be putting our staff through the Paisley Welcomes training. The more economically vibrant the area is the greater the opportunities are for us as a business. It will enable us to engage with other businesses as well as upskill our team which will in turn help grow the local economy and we will benefit as a natural result of that.”
Local restauranteur, Colette Cardosi, said: “Our staff are passionate about Paisley and about their service. Paisley Welcomes will help enhance the skills our staff already have and enable them to provide an enhanced level of excellent service so that customers feel welcome and well looked-after whenever they come into any of our establishments.
“Another major benefit of Paisley Welcomes is that is enhances consistency and excellence across the board and encourages a more collaborative, partnership approach to local businesses working together.”
There is consistency and passion across the board. Working in partnership with other local businesses – joining businesses up collaborative approach with other business owners all about community and reaching out Welcomes enhances that consistency with other local businesses.
The town’s UK City of Culture 2021 bid generated profile and positivity and established the idea that Paisley can harness the power of our culture and heritage assets to transform the area’s future.
The new Paisley.is destination brand will continue the work to transform place perceptions by signposting residents and visitors to everything Paisley and Renfrewshire has to offer. This can only work if the whole area works together to do so.
To find out more or to sign up please visit: https://paisley.is/paisley-