Unlocking the Power of Good Customer Service through WorldHost training

  As part of my traineeship at Watson & Co Chartered Marketing, my Mentor and Trainer Christine gave Michelle (my fellow Erasmus trainee) and I the opportunity to take part in WorldHost training – she was delivering an open access course during our time working on placement in Northern Ireland. At the WorldHost principles of customer service training workshop we learned how to deliver Customer Service excellence to customers, internal customers as well as external customers.

The training was held in the new Mallusk Enterprise Hub venue at Mallusk Enterprise Park,  which is around ten minutes north of Belfast city centre. The open access course meant that service professionals could attend from different companies. We enjoyed meeting other trainees from other places and learning with them and from them also as we shared situations when we had each received excellent customer service that delighted us as customers.

For lunch we enjoyed a good variety of tasty food and during the coffee breaks we were able to try the Lemon Marshmallow Fluff from local business Tinholt’s Tasties. Our Trainer Christine explained that these were the steps she took to go the extra mile to delight trainees on the course but also her motivation was to support a local female entrepreneur that she had met at Mallusk Market last Christmas. We were all encouraged to leave positive reviews on Google if we liked the product – online reviews was a part of the learning on the WorldHost course!

At the end of the course we were all surprised with a gift of a large chocolate letter from another local business – Lekkers NI. Christine had a meeting with Tania in the previous days and ordered each of the letters of the word WorldHost in different types of luxury homemade chocolate. Each candidate was allowed to chose at least one letter, one candidate in particular could not wait to surprise his children with his chocolate gift. I am keeping my letter S in dark chocolate to gift to my mother when I return home to Austria as she loves dark chocolate!

Our trainer Christine explained to us that she ran the course at Mallusk Enterprise Hub to support a social enterprise and that her catering choices were made to proactively support local businesses and the local economy.

 

About the WorldHost Customer Service course

I learned so many new things at the WorldHost Customer Service course, which can help me at home in our company.

For example, I learned that a good service starts before you get in touch with a customer. That means that a customer can first take time to research and make impressions about you, your organisation and your products or services. So, you should always make sure to get the right details on your page and make sure to refresh it to keep it up to date.

The three-second rule is also very important, because it is within a short time that the first impression is formed for the customer. So, you should have eye contact with your customer, a positive facial expression and open professional and friendly body language as all of this contributes to the first impression.

We also examined topics such as ‘customer needs and expectations‘ and ‘your role in delivering quality service‘ which included putting yourself in the shoes of each customer and recognising that different customers have different needs, expectations and preferences. We contributed examples such as allergies and accessibility requirements as well as personal preferences such as wanting a ‘seaview’ from your window!

Another very good point was that you should be familiar with the area around your workplace so that you can give your customer tips on:

• – What attractions there are
• – Where there is a good restaurant or good coffee
• – Maybe also being aware of the best and cheapest parking options around the area

This way you can give your customers much more information than just about the business as their journey involves experiences every step of the way – pre visit, during visit and post visit. Verbal, vocal and non-verbal communication processes were one of our group exercises – although this sounds much easier than it is. We all took a quiz on good listening. These exercises engaged all delegates and were fun, but the central theme was how difficult it can be to listen effectively and also that there is much more to communication success than our choice of words. The Customer Service course with Christine was so insightful, she delivered in such an energetic way. The presentation was very interesting and the exercises and tasks we went through were interactive and enjoyable. I would recommend this course to others.

About me

My name is Romana Schöser and I am 20 years old, I came to Belfast from Austria/ Tyrol via Munich and Dublin airports. At the moment I am doing an apprenticeship at the company ‘Tyrolit’ and I work as an office clerk. I am in the 3rd year of professional school and this is the final year as a trainee/apprentice. My final exam is in July 2023. In my free time I love to play volleyball or go snowboarding in the mountain where I live. I also have an Instagram account about my time in NI – you are welcome to follow me for insights into my Erasmus experience in Northern Ireland – find it at @Romana_in_belfast

You also can find me on LinkedIn – Romana Schöser

About WorldHost

Watson & Co. Chartered Marketing offers WorldHost  – world class customer service training for employees of customer focused companies in Northern Ireland, England, Scotland and Wales. The course can also be delivered to English-speaking organisations around the world.

More than one million customer-facing employees worldwide have been trained in a WorldHost customer service programme.

About Watson and Co. Chartered Marketing

Watson and Co. Chartered Marketing is a marketing consultancy and training company established in April 2005 by the multi award winning and industry experienced Chartered Marketer, SOSTAC Certified Planner and Licensed WorldHost Customer Service Trainer Christine Watson . Christine is my mentor at my Erasmus work placement in Belfast.

Christine and her team work with businesses to deliver creative and effective marketing and customer service solutions to achieve optimal results for them.

About Training MatchMaker

Trainingmatchmaker.com directs people to free or paid online and face-to-face courses to inspire people to go on their next learning journey. There are also various trainers that you can find detailed on the website at Our Trainers – TrainingMatchMaker.

Training MatchMaker was founded by my Erasmus mentor and trainer Christine Watson.

On the TrainingMatchmaker.com website you can also read the different blogs that Michelle and I wrote and published during our Erasmus traineeship in Belfast. At the start of our Erasmus placement in Belfast we wrote our first blog to share our learning plans and we will also be writing a blog at the end of our traineeship which will detail what all we have learned during our time living and working in Northern Ireland. Before coming across trainingmatchmaker.com we were not aware of so many different learning opportunities. Blog – TrainingMatchMaker.

About Training venue: Mallusk Enterprise Hub at Mallusk Enterprise Park 

Established in 1992, Mallusk Enterprise Park is a local enterprise agency located in Newtownabbey. Operating as a social enterprise, Mallusk Enterprise Park is committed to supporting individuals and businesses in the Newtownabbey area, throughout each stage of their entrepreneurial journey.

They support businesses in the following areas:

• – Ideas Generation
• – Marketing & Market research
• – Financial Management

Through various programmes, events, initiatives and available spaces, the experienced business advisory team at Mallusk Enterprise Park provide advice, guidance, and resources to help entrepreneurs realise their business goals.

Mallusk Enterprise Park operates from a purpose-built business park offering 50,000 square feet of workspace, office accommodation, meeting and conference spaces including private huddle rooms, co-working desks, and a professional mailing address service to more than 60 local businesses and their 250+ employees.

About Tinholt’s Tasties

Tinholt’s Tasties has been making marshmallows and offering candy since 2020. The marshmallows are very good and not only taste fantastic, but have become a staple in the self-operated bakery.

They offer so many new and exciting flavors and bring treats to all the small craft fairs and local markets for everyone to enjoy.

Some weekends you can find Tinholt’s Tasties at St. Georges Market and occasionally at Junction One Monthly Market.

About Lekkers NI

Lekkers NI is a family business which produces luxury couture chocolates letters. They only work with the best ingredients and the best Callebaut Belgium chocolate.

Michelle and I hosted a tasting party in our home in Belfast, where we tried different flavoured Mallows from Tania. I also took a view photos and clips from when Tania delivered the WORLDHOST chocolate letters to Mallusk Enterprise hub in advance of the course.    

 

About Erasmus+

Erasmus+ is the European Union’s program to promote education, training, youth and sport in Europe.

The 2021-2027 plan focuses on social inclusion, green and digital transformation and promoting young people’s participation in democratic life.

It supports the priorities and activities set out in the European Education Sector, the Digital Education Action Plan and the European Skills Agenda. the program Also supporting the European Social Rights Pillar, implement the EU Youth Strategy 2019-2027, To promote the development of European sport.

About Intern Europe 

Intern Europe are an international team passionate about providing work experience in Belfast, Glasgow and Liverpool.

In collaboration with European partners and local host companies, they organise traineeships as part of a culture and language experience.

Michelle and I took part in our traineeship with Watson & Co. Chartered Marketing and TrainingMatchmaker.com in Belfast via  Intern Europe. In our first week we attended an English course and visited local landmarks such as Botanic Gardens and the Ulster Museum, which was organised by Intern Europe.