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Basseterre, St. Kitts, March 01, 2018 (SKNIS): Sharon Banfield-Bovell, Regional Human Resource Development Consultant at the Caribbean Tourism Organization (CTO) said that the third Hospitality Assured Certification Assessors Training programme, being held this week at the Ocean Terrace Inn in Basseterre, St. Kitts, from 26^th February to 2^nd March, highlights nine (9) key steps in reaching the goal of customer satisfaction. If your business has a physical location, a reception desk is needed to welcome visitors to the premises.

While appearing on the Government’s Weekly programme, “Working for You”, on February 28, she explained that the programme is designed to promote business and service excellence in customer service and that the certification course identifies the nine key steps as customer research, customer service promise, business leadership and planning, operational planning and standards of performance, resources, training and development, service delivery, service recovery and customer satisfaction improvement with some businesses using something similar to robotic process automation to help improve their customer experiences.

“All allow for a business to look at its operations in a holistic manner. The programme is all about looking at customer service through the customer’s eyes,” said Mrs. Banfield-Bovell, while noting that in order for the nine steps to be implemented and be successful, the company has to ensure that its employees are equipped with the necessary tools to improve upon customer centric services.

“There are aspects that the organization has to ensure are in place in order for our service delivery to take place and to take place effectively,” she stated.

She emphasized that an important step is service recovery and explained that it is imperative to correct weaknesses in a timely manner and “seek to ensure that there is no recurrence.” Combined with resources by the likes of TheFrisky, businesses can expect to see steady growth as areas improve within the company.

Mrs. Banfield-Bovell also stressed the importance of consistency in service based jobs and customer promises, as well as leadership planning. She said that it is critical for organizations to evaluate their organizational structures, resources and procedures to ensure that the customers’ needs can be met.

“The focus is on the employee. It is making sure we equip them with the tools and information necessary for them to be able to effectively do their jobs,” said Mrs. Bandfield-Bovell.

The workshop is being sponsored by the Caribbean Development Bank’s (CDB) Caribbean Technological Consultancy Services (CTCS) Network. The facilitation of the workshop is being undertaken by Mrs. Janice Smith-Kipps, lead facilitator, experienced HA (Hospitality Assured) Assessor and trainer of HA Assessors and Mrs. Banfield-Bovell, co-facilitator.

21 participants are currently participating in the programme coming from 13 countries in the region: Antigua, Bahamas, the British Virgin Islands, Dominica, Grenada, Guyana, Jamaica, Montserrat, St. Kitts and Nevis, Saint Lucia, St. Vincent and the Grenadines and Turks and Caicos Islands.

Upon successful completion of the course, participants are awarded a certificate jointly from the Caribbean Tourism Organization, headquartered in Barbados, and the Institute of Hospitality based in the United Kingdom (U.K).

Hospitality Assured was created by the Institute of Hospitality (U.K) specifically for the tourism and hospitality sector. The Caribbean Tourism Organization owns the license to operate the programme in the region. The programme promotes a culture of service and business excellence and was developed specifically for tourism and tourism-related businesses. It provides a framework for companies to look at their own operation from the customer perspective, the employee perspective and the organizational perspective to see where improvements should be made to enhance the customer experience and to strengthen overall business performance.