News Stories: Woodside

National Training Awards 2006

24 Oct 2006

Through the Customer's Eyes, the training programme we deliver to our staff, has landed us our second East Midlands training award.

Since February 2004, more than 300 of our staff have undergone the ‘Through the Customer's Eyes' programme, which is a bespoke training tool delivered and managed by our Training and Development team.

Team members are invited on to the ‘Through the Customer's Eyes' course with joining instructions and a £5 note towards completing a pre-course visit to a food outlet to test customer service!  This experience opens the debate on professionalism.  All participants tour the venue with digital cameras to take photos of good or bad examples of features from a customer's viewpoint, while ‘Reflections of You' uses a mirror to help them identify areas for improvement in appearance and self-confidence.  The participants also use masks in one session to demonstrate how facial expressions show what we are feeling.

Linda Roberts, Group Training and Development Manager, who is based at Highgate House in Creaton, Northamptonshire, said: "Through the Customer's Eyes' is a unique hospitality customer service programme which inspired and motivated all staff leading to Sundial Group maintaining its position as one of the leading venue suppliers in the UK."

Sundial Group was an East Midlands winner in the 2004 National Training Awards, and in 2005 won ‘Best Venue Group Meeting Product' in the Meetings & Incentive Travel Magazine Awards, remaining in the top two for 2006.  Additionally, Woodside's chef was named "IACC/CCE Chef of the Year" for 2006 and Barnett Hill won a Surrey Sustainable Business Award for its environmental and social responsibility initiatives.

This latest accolade was announced in the same week that Woodside in Warwickshire, won gold in the Business Tourism Category of its region's "Enjoy England - Awards for Excellence" competition.