PETRA - Visitors to Petra can expect more attentive hotel staff, after a training course on customer service skills was given on Tuesday to ensure that every visit to Petra is a "once-in-a-lifetime experience".
Over 30 Petra area hospitality workers ranging from hotel managers to waiters took part in a training course on customer service and hospitality skills organised by the USAID/Jordan Tourism Development Project and the Petra Development and Tourism Region Authority (PDTRA) yesterday.
With Petra on pace for a benchmark year in tourist numbers - 515,000 tourists visited the rose-red city in the first seven months of the year - there is a need to perfect customer service skills across the sector, according to the authority.
"A tourist's first impression is when they are received by staff at the front desk. We need to make the first impression the best impression," PDTRA Chief Commissioner Nasser Shraideh told The Jordan Times yesterday.
"We hear many tourists say, 'Petra is amazing, the people were wonderful, everything was perfect, but...' We need to get rid of the 'but' to ensure the optimum experience," Shraideh added.
The human resource manager at Kings Way Hotel, Eman Al Amer, 27, said she has seen differences in the quality of staff in her several years in the tourism industry.
"Hotels must invest and develop their staff's skills. When they don't, it really shows," she told The Jordan Times yesterday.
Amer said the most important part of the training was communication and presentation, skills she said most in the industry have to learn the hard way.
"You have to give direct eye contact, smile and place people at ease. When many start out, they don't know this and it makes visitors feel unwelcome," she added.
Jafar Falahat, who has spent 15 years with Crowne Plaza Wadi Musa, said he learned new skills to pass on to the 45 employees he is responsible for in the food and beverage department.
According to Falahat, the most important skill Jordanian hospitality workers should learn is being prepared to respond to a guest's question before they ask it.
"We need to know about Jordanian tourism and be able to tell visitors where different sites are. We need to understand and promote our own tourism industry," he said.
As part of USAID/Siyaha efforts to encourage proactive customer service, the one-day training encouraged hotel staff to see complaints as an opportunity to show their professionalism, and not something to shy away from.
"Instead of a complaint, we have learned to see it as feedback," Falahat noted.
"How employees deal with a complaint will determine if people come back to a hotel," Shraideh noted.
Another aspect of the training focused on the impact of the Internet on word-of-mouth reviews, as guests can now instantly post their reviews of a hotel's amenities and services for all the world to see.
"We need to encourage visitors to post positive responses," Shraideh pointed out.
During the session, Petra hotel workers were informed on how to be open to different cultures and how to interpret body language in different cultural contexts.
The session also highlighted Jordan's diverse natural, historical, religious and therapeutic sites and their contribution to the overall economy. The tourism industry generated JD2.1 billion in 2009, over 14 per cent of gross domestic product, according to official figures.
Similar training will be held today in Aqaba, as part of an ongoing programme honing the skills of professionals in the tourism sector.
According to participants, Jordanian hotel workers are ready to give service they say is second nature.
"All we need is to give everyone a Jordanian welcome," Falahat said.
By Taylor Luck
© Jordan Times 2010
