WorldHost Customer Service & Ambassador Training – a delegate perspective by Naoise Byrne, Odyssey Arena

During my placement year at Odyssey Arena I was given the opportunity to take part in WorldHost customer service training. When I was told I would be attending the course I was initially quite apprehensive with WorldHost training being one of the first days I would be meeting the Odyssey Arena team this was of course daunting. However I knew that it would be a brilliant experience and would look great on my CV for any future job applications so I was very eager to attend.

Day One – The Principles of Customer Service

Christine Watson, Our Licenced WorldHost trainer, introduced us to the Principles of Customer Service course and put us all at ease very quickly especially once we got into the sticky facts section of the programme. Each person in the room gave two sticky facts some of which I can still remember now! One that stuck in my mind was that my colleague Clara played the clarinet in primary school so one trick to remember her name became: “Clara Clarinet”. This activity really helped me remember the names of my colleagues within my first few days on placement.

The Principles of Customer Service module focused around the importance of excellent customer service skills, effective communication and the significance of listening to customers enabling you to demonstrate your genuine interests in their needs.
Throughout the day Christine reiterated the importance of creating a “WOW” experience for each customer. Throughout my time at Odyssey Arena I tried to translate the skills learnt into my day to day work practice through listening to customers, being approachable, polite and professional at all times. During the day a tip that Christine had given was to always write down a caller’s name when talking to them on the phone, little things like this really help to personalise a customer’s experience.

Day Two – Ambassador Workshop

During the second part of the module we took a tour of Belfast visiting key areas of Tourism including Titanic Belfast, SS Nomadic, the Dock Café and Stormont. Day 2 focused around the importance of being responsive and knowledgeable ambassadors for the Titanic Quarter destination, Belfast and Northern Ireland as a whole, encouraging courtesy, friendliness and willingness to help as essential ingredients in creating a lasting impression for customers both local and international.

I had never before visited Titanic Belfast or the Dock Café but I was very impressed. The café is run under the ethos of being an honesty box café – this means the customer decides what to pay for their experience by popping their chosen sum of money into the cafes honesty box.

I found this to be a great experience and have spent most of my lunch breaks there ever since! The café is very homely with an array of art and mismatched furniture including some very comfortable sofas, although you have to get there early as it is a hive of activity over lunchtime.

From the minute we entered Titanic Belfast it was clear to see that it was a world class tourism attraction focused on customer service and the overall customer experience. Titanic Foundation Limited was developed as a charitable organisation in 2008 ensuring Titanic Belfast provides an innovative world class visitor experience to local, national and international visitors and it definitely delivers.

Our host for the tour was extremely welcoming and very confident in her knowledge which made our whistle-stop visit really interesting. I would definitely like to go for another visit to get a more in depth tour of the museum and the history surrounding Belfast’s maritime culture. I particularly enjoyed experiencing the Grand Staircase! Even after such a short visit (We had lots of other tourist destinations to see firsthand!) I believe I still have enough experience to be able to recommend Titanic Belfast to others which is really great.

With Northern Ireland being a key host to world class events, such as the Giro D’Italia, The Irish Open and a number of other major events upcoming, it is important to not only focus our attention on local customers but also international customers. A key aspect of the WorldHost Ambassador programme that I really valued was becoming an ambassador for all of Northern Ireland. For example if I was talking to a customer attending an event at Odyssey Arena I would also give them some suggestions for restaurants and places to eat close by or even help someone out by showing them directions. I will definitely strive to continually expand upon my customer service skills as well as familiarising myself with our community as improvement is a never ending journey.

WorldHost Customer Service training is definitely something I would recommend to everyone. It provided me with excellent knowledge on the importance of the customer experience and an understanding of why we should be ambassadors for our city and country. Titanic Quarter was the first WorldHost hot spot recognised for excellence in customer service in Belfast City, which was really exciting to be a part of while on my university placement year at Odyssey Arena.

Contributed by:

Naoise Byrne | WorldHost Customer Service and WorldHost Ambassador Programmme Graduate

Commercial Assistant| Odyssey Arena, 2 Queen’s Quay, Belfast, BT3 9QQ | Tel: 028 9076 6036