Hotel workers, taxi drivers and other members of the hospitality industry met for a day of customer service training at the University of the Virgin Islands’ St. Croix campus Tuesday as part of the National Tourism Week.
Assistant Tourism Commissioner Brad Nugent said the department is often focused on talking to people outside of the territory, telling them how great a destination St. Croix is.
“But it’s equally important,” he said, “and some would say even more so, that we believe that amongst ourselves. If we’re inviting guests to our home and we don’t have our house in order, it won’t make the best presentation.”
The training included lectures on the basics of customer service as well as informative sessions on the island’s history and environment.
Charlene Springer, host of the Beyond Empowerment radio show on WSTX, led the early session. She stressed the importance of being able to speak knowledgably about all aspects of the island, especially when dealing with European tourists.
“They want a little more history,” Springer said. “They want numbers; they want dates.”
She said those who interact with tourists should also be well-versed on what’s happening on the island today, relating an anecdote about overhearing some tourists asking a cab driver what there was to do on the island. “He said, ‘Well there’s not much to do, just the beach,’” she recalls.
Springer said that this was the wrong mentality. In order for tourism to prosper, she argued, everyone needs to work together and inform visitors about other experiences they might enjoy.
Springer’s session also dealt with the basics of customer service, culminating in the assembled crowd taking a “customer service pledge” that included the following:
– to greet customers with a smile, eye contact and positive body language;
– to acknowledge customers as soon as they approach you or your “hospitality zone”; and
– to listen, apologize and agree to a solution with the customer if you receive a complaint.
Taxi driver Gwendolyn Meyers said that although it was information she had heard before, she still felt it was worthwhile.
“I think a lot more taxi drivers should attend, especially those who work with the tourists coming off the ship,” she said.
The training event was part of an ongoing campaign to better organize the tourism industry in the wake of the Hovensa closing.
Nugent said, “Tourism recognized early on that we’re the next big [industry] in town. That’s why we’ve doubled up our efforts in terms of reaching out to the community.”
The event comes on the heels of a four-day tourism conference in March that sought input from community members in writing a five-year tourism development plan.
Nugent said continued community involvement in the events was essential for the department to be successful.
“We don’t have a copyright on great ideas,” he said. “Some of the best things we’ve done—most of them—have come about through these forums.”
