Speaking at a Customer Service Workshop held last week, Minister of Tourism Charles Clifford noted that while most of Cayman’s visitors report good service most of the time, many of our visitors still experience bad customer service.
Research has shown the inconsistency in customer service levels was not just an isolated problem, for it was identified in all nine sectors of Cayman’s tourism industry.
Compounding matters, Director of Tourism Pilar Bush indicated it is not clear to tourists why they have to pay higher prices for a Cayman Islands vacation as opposed to going elsewhere.
There are many competitors in the Caribbean essentially offering the same tourism products – sun, sand and sea – that Cayman does at less cost.
As Cayman tries to recover from its post-Hurricane Ivan stay-over tourism slump, improving customer service is a vital step in gaining a competitive edge over other Caribbean destinations and giving value for money to our tourists.
Great quality service all of the time needs to become Cayman’s goal.
In effort to do that, the Department of Tourism kicked off a programme last week aimed at improving Cayman’s customer service levels from good to excellent on a consistent basis.
One initiative in the new programme is the creation of an apprenticeship training programme.
Conducted in partnership with private sector tourism employers and Cayman’s two tertiary educational institutions, the programme would allow large numbers of young Caymanians to gain practical training and classroom instruction on the skills vital to tourism.
One prerequisite to the success of such a programme is the participation of sufficient numbers of young Caymanians.
Mr. Clifford said the spinal column of the tourism workforce must be made up of competent Caymanians.
Besides several other societal reasons why this is important, it will also raise the quality of the tourism experience of our visitors. Studies have shown that some of the most memorable aspects of tourists’ vacations are their interaction with the natives of place they are visiting.
Beyond those benefits, a career in tourism will also offer stability to the local job market, as these positions cannot be outsourced or off-shored to other jurisdictions.
It is the Department of Tourism’s intention for Cayman to become the region’s industry leaders in customer service. To do that will take the co-operation of Cayman’s government, private sector and educational institutions.
It will also take the participation of the Caymanian people, for attaining great and consistent customer service depends on recruiting an ample and able Caymanian workforce.
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