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from the issue of December 15, 2005
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Red Carpet Service can boost community image, tourism potential
BY SANDY ALSWAGER KARSTENS, IANR NEWS SERVICE
Friendly, helpful service may be all it takes to get visitors to come back to a community, said Dave Green, owner and manager of the Grocery Kart in Broken Bow.
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| | | RED CARPET SERVICE - Dave Green, owner and manager of the Grocery Kart in Broken Bow, and Connie Francis, Nebraska Rural Initiative extension educator based at North Platte, look over some tourist information at the grocery store. Green is one of more than a dozen Broken Bow residents participating in Red Carpet Service. Photo courtesy of IANR News Service.
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Green is one of more than a dozen Broken Bow residents participating in a University of Nebraska Rural Initiative program offered in partnership with UNL Extension. The program targets communities' front-line employees - retail sales clerks, servers and other usually hourly employees who are likely to meet visitors. It teaches them to better promote their area's offerings to visitors, travelers and tourists.
Red Carpet Service is a train-the-trainer program that combines customer service training with the needs of visitors, travelers and tourists, said Cheryl Burkhart-Kriesel, community development specialist at the university's Panhandle Research and Extension Center at Scottsbluff. She and Connie Francis, Nebraska Rural Initiative extension educator based at North Platte, developed the program to help Nebraska communities. Broken Bow was the first community to test the program last spring.
The program helps front-line employees discover how to promote tourism, practice skills to identify and respond to travelers' needs, and promote the community in a positive way, she said.
"One of the areas the Nebraska Rural Initiative hopes to increase with this program is tourism that brings new dollars into the state," said Sandy Scofield, Nebraska Rural Initiative director. "The program will help communities offer better service and help them identify their hidden treasures. In addition, the program has the potential to highlight such ventures as agrotourism and ecotourism and highlight Nebraska's rich history."
Good service is anything from giving directions and restaurant recommendations to entertainment suggestions or handing out maps. It also involves such things as slowing people down as they travel through a community by posting a billboard with information about area activities.
"If communities can give good referrals, good things to do when people are in their area, it can earn communities extra money," she said. "If you can slow a traveler or tourist down and have them do one more activity in your state or community, it equates to about $80 to $90 per car that they will spend in that community."
The train-the-trainer approach makes Red Carpet Service different than other community hospitality/tourism programs. Extension educators and specialists working with the Nebraska Rural Initiative customize the program for individual communities and provide initial training. Front-line employees who are trained then teach others in the community.
The program is organized into three, 90-minute sessions. After training, communities often find themselves discussing how to build a Web presence and also are able to participate in an optional "hidden treasures" tour that helps communities point out attractions of interest to travelers and tourists.
"Cruising through a community, visitors may not see some of those things that the locals do," she said. "This program will allow communities to stress those things that they want to promote."
Green said Red Carpet Service helped Grocery Kart employees become more aware of visitors and tourists and also prepared them for questions they might receive.
"We usually are able to identify (visitors and tourists) the minute they come in the front door because we know most of our customers in a small town," he said. "When we see someone new we try to help them if they ask questions or let them know how we can help."
Green said Broken Bow plans to offer another train-the-trainer session this spring.
Jefferson and Thayer counties, Columbus and Beatrice also completed the program.
For more information about the program, contact Burkhart-Kriesel at (308) 632-1234, cburkhartkriesel1@unl.edu or Francis at (308) 696-6739, cfrancis1@unl.edu.
GO TO: ISSUE OF DECEMBER 15
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Hunhoff to address graduates
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Red Carpet Service can boost community image, tourism potential
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