Education and Events
True NORTH Workshops
Happy guests spend 86% more and are more loyal to your business or organization. With 9 out of 10 consumers relying on online reviews before deciding on where to spend their money and where to visit, ensuring guest satisfaction leads to positive reviews. Let's also not forget that providing great customer service also improves employee retention, as delighted customers contribute to happy employees, creating a positive cycle.
While customer service training is important, we don't always see long-term results. Our employees and volunteers know what to do, and they often implement what they've learned in training, but it doesn't always "stick." Or because of turnover, it's a continuous process.
While many businesses focus on equipping their front-line employees with guest service standards, achieving truly exceptional and lasting guest satisfaction requires a much deeper commitment: a fundamental transformation of the entire organizational culture. This shift forces the engagement and buy-in of every employee, from leadership to individual contributors. The True NORTH Guest Satisfaction program tackles customer service by creating the pathway to a culture of guest obsession, ensuring front-line employees and volunteers are supported and motivated to delight guests. It aims to create a joyful environment for serving guests and is intended to enhance, not replace, existing customer service initiatives.
A key insight from this program is the interconnectedness of employee satisfaction and guest satisfaction. It offers valuable strategies for engaging our teams at all levels, empowering them to make decisions that prioritize guest happiness, and demonstrating our commitment to their success and well-being.
The True NORTH Guest Experience™ train-the-trainer workshop, created by the Ohio Travel Association, is offering FIVE workshops across the state of Ohio, creating a movement to address the critical need for exceptional guest satisfaction in the travel industry. This one-of-a-kind program goes beyond surface-level guest service training, focusing on how to cultivate a deep-rooted culture of customer service and care throughout an entire organization and its partner network.
Here's a Breakdown of What the Workshop Entails:
To its core, the True NORTH Guest Experience™ workshop is a strategic investment for travel and tourism professionals who understand that creating truly exceptional guest experiences – the kind that fosters loyalty and recommendations to friends and family – requires a deep and wide-ranging commitment to a guest-centric culture driven from the top down and embraced by everyone.
Learning Standards and Sampling of Workshop Activities
The program offers guidance while allowing flexibility in prioritizing tasks. Each participants receives a workbook with reproduceable materials to use back at your place of business, as well as the complete slide deck and script. Here's a few of the things you'll know how to do at the end of the workshop:
- Assess your current culture for strengths and weaknesses in guest satisfaction (a pre-workshop survey will be sent prior to the workshop. When you arrive to the workshop, your personalized assessment will be waiting for you.).
- Steps to collaborate with your entire team to create a guest satisfaction vision.
- Review your existing policies and KPIs for their impact on guest care.
- Use an online tool for structuring effective team discussions to deliver exactly what you what you hope to achieve..
- How to create personalized plans for each employee related to guest satisfaction.
- Set guest satisfaction goals instead of standards, focusing more on the guest experience and less on tasks.
- Design professional development strategies for customer service needs.
- Learn to hire individuals passionate about serving guests.
Who Should Attend? Who Has Attended?
- CEOs, executive-level positions
- Managers and supervisors
- Members of an internal team you want to task to lead the work back at your workplace
- HR professionals
Workshop Dates, Locations, and Investment:
All workshops will begin at 10 a.m. and end at 2:30 p.m. Registrations opens at 9:30 a.m. Space is limited!
- Wednesday, May 28 at COSI in Columbus
- Thursday, June 26 at the Cambridge/Guernsey County VCB office in Cambridge
- Thursday, July 31 at the Hilton Toledo Downtown in Toledo
- Wednesday, August 27 at the Hampton Inn & Suites in Wilmington
- Wednesday, September 10 at the McKinley Presidential Library & Museum in Canton
This transformative workshop includes True NORTH workbook, tools and resources. Lunch and drinks will be provided.
- Members: $125/person
- Non-Members: $185/person
Don't miss this opportunity to revolutionize how your organization approaches guest experience. By investing in this train-the-trainer program, you'll gain the expertise and resources to cultivate a truly guest-centric culture, turning everyday interactions into opportunities to build lasting loyalty and advocacy. The impact will not only be felt by your valued guests but will also significantly contribute to the long-term health and growth of your business.
