HOTELS and other businesses in the hospitality industry are rapidly expanding in Guyana and visiting Consultant Janice Hall says hospitality skills training should be on-going and at all levels in the industry.

“What I find is that workers are being trained but managers should also make the time to acquaint themselves with hospitality industry practices and standards if Guyana is to be competitive in the tourism business,” said Hall who has been conducting hospitality training in Guyana.
“It is okay for them to run their businesses themselves to protect their investment. However, more exposure to standards in established tourism destinations in the Region would be beneficial to them and to the industry as a whole,” she said.
Hall has hands-on experience in the service industry with a total of three decades of frontline customer service in hospitality, public relations and real estate.  During her hospitality career, she served as Executive Assistant Manager for Swept Away Resort, a five- star, all-inclusive luxury resort set on 10 acres of beach front property in Negril, Jamaica.
Hall is a consultant with Carigold Associates, a North American-based training and consulting group, which is headed by Sandra Ann Baptiste. She lives in New York and came to Guyana at the request of Baptiste to train hospitality workers.
The one-day programme titled, ‘Wowing Guests in the Hospitality Industry: Delivering a Five- Star Customer Experience’ was hosted by the Tourism and Hospitality Association of Guyana (THAG) in partnership with Carigold Associates.
Hall, who spoke with the Chronicle in an interview last Thursday during a break from a workshop she was conducting at Cara Lodge, said it was “encouraging” that some hotel and resort managers participated in the training programme.
She also did in-house training and consulting with two hotels and was pleased to provide training for both seasoned and new employees, some of whom were being trained for the first time.
According to Hall, there needs to be more awareness that all employees in the sector, whether they are hotel employees, tour operators, taxi drivers or airline ground-handling staff need to deliver quality customer service at all times. To ensure this, there should be on-going hands-on training in the industry by people who have considerable hospitality experience and expertise in training.
The THAG workshop covered delivering exceptional customer service; barriers to outstanding service delivery; gauging hospitality customer satisfaction levels; communicating effectively with guests; taking care of everyone – guests and staff alike; turning complaining guests into repeat visitors; minimising stress to stay motivated in the most challenging situations; and a plan for self- improvement so as to deliver a five-star customer experience.
“I also emphasised taking care of the employees because if they are not happy, the customers will not be happy. The hospitality business is a people business more than any other because it involves direct contact every day,” Hall explained, adding that the more the contact, the greater the likelihood of stressful situations occurring.
She advised that it takes, among other things, tact, patience and problem-solving skills to address and resolve guests’ complaints. “There is a need for this to be taught at all levels in the industry.”
Hall said she was pleasantly surprised as her initial reservations that hospitality staff was not keen on training were unjustified.
“They had the willingness to serve; they were genuine and warm and you can’t beat that! The thing is to take those traits, teach them the skills they need and you’ve got yourself a good group of hospitality workers. But we have to recognise that it’s going to take a while.”
She recommended that an understanding of the hospitality industry and what it can contribute to Guyana’s economy should be taught from primary school level and up.
Hall observed that Guyana has beautiful natural resources, perhaps more than a lot of those countries where tourism is the main foreign exchange earner.
The one thing she identified that can improve the quality of service is for industry workers to smile. “I think they have lost the ability to smile. We are warm and genuine but we are not smiling anymore,” she commented.