Basseterre, St. Kitts, July 31, 2017 (SKNIS): Taxi and tour operators and customer service frontline staff are currently attending a two day mandatory training workshop from, July 31 to August 1, to continue to provide exceptional customer service to visitors so that they can exceed guests’ expectations.
It is essential that taxi and tour operators within the federation receive training in customer service if St. Kitts plans to continue to be seen as a premier tourist destination, says Minister of Tourism, Honourable Lindsay Grant.
“We try to at least impart on them what customer service is all about and to indicate to them that for us customer service is number one and for us to be competitive in this industry, we have to deliver excellent service all the time,” he said.
The workshops will teach these persons about the importance of grasping basic customer service techniques, communication skills and knowledge of St. Kitts’ history and culture on the island. The minister said that these skills are vital to visitors and nationals as it only takes one positive guest experience on the island to encourage and influence visitors to return.
“The cruise industry is a very competitive industry. They are not hotels. So, it is much more difficult for a hotel to pick up and move. For a cruise line, they just move dependent upon the feedback they get. Why I say feedback is that the cruise lines come by what their customers tell them. So, if St. Kitts gets a bad rating time and time again they are going to use those ratings against us in terms of whether or not they continue to come,” said the minister.
…You will also have to appreciate a lot of the visitors are repeat visitors and so that if our customers service is not at its best they are going to downgrade the whole jurisdiction and it’s going to cause the cruise lines to rethink their approach when it comes to us.”
St. Kitts is now dubbed a marquee port, that is, it is one of the top ports out of 35 jurisdictions of the Florida-Caribbean Cruise Association (FCCA), said Minister Grant.
