20 more businesses complete Customer Service Charter training

Cork’s bid to become a city of exemplary customer service continues as a second tranche of city centre businesses have completed a special training programme.

The Cork City Customer Service Charter was launched in February, the first of its kind in Europe. Now another twenty businesses have completed training under the charter.

The Customer Service Charter was developed by Cork City Centre Forum with the aim of establishing Cork as a city of superior customer service and assisting the city to become one of the friendliest, most liveable and sustainable cities globally.

Cork City Centre Forum is a collaboration between various business and public sector groups in the city.

The training programme, run by the Local Enterprise Office (LEO) Cork City, took place over the last two months, culminating in a presentation of certificates to participating businesses by Deputy Lord Mayor Cllr Mary Rose Desmond recently.

The programme comprised a briefing session for owners/managers with leading retail consultant James Burke of James Burke & Associates, and a train the trainer workshop for key senior staff who then delivered the training to other staff/teams in the business.

Participants were also taken on an Inspire tour of The Crawford Art Gallery. After the workshop, there were a number of mystery shopper visits to assist in assessing the impact of the workshop and training.

Each business was then provided with its own feedback as a guide to identify best practice and areas for improvement.

Cork City Centre Forum is a collaboration between Cork Chamber, Cork Business Association, Cork City Council, An Garda Siochana, retail, hospitality and service sectors and other local business representative organisations. It is also an operational group of CORE, the city centre partnership.