Maine Woods tourism training initiative offers customer service and marketing workshops in Oxford County

A new network of business and economic development organizations will host a series of training workshops to help Oxford County tourism businesses apply innovative marketing strategies and improve the service they offer visitors to the region.

Oxford County tourism training workshops are being organized as part of the Maine Woods Tourism Training Initiative by the Northern Forest Center, Bethel Area Chamber of Commerce, Central Maine Community College, Oxford Hills Chamber of Commerce, River Valley Growth Council, River Valley Chamber of Commerce, and Western Maine Economic Development Council.

Specific tourism training workshops will be offered at multiple locations now, with more planned for the fall. Current workshops will address priority topics identified by businesses through a county-wide survey conducted in fall 2010. Workshop topics include:

Delivering Outstanding Customer Service

Social Media & Online Marketing

Destination Training – promoting local and county-wide activities and amenities

(See below for details of specific training topics, dates and registration requirements.)

“Customer service and marketing trainings for tourism businesses are crucial to continued economic growth in Western Maine,” says Linda Walbridge, executive director of the Western Maine Economic Development Council. “Thanks to the regional organizing of the Maine Woods Consortium, Oxford County tourism businesses and their employees will have local access to affordable, informative, exciting training initiatives this spring and into the fall.”

The Maine Woods Tourism Training Initiative is a project of the Maine Woods Consortium – a growing network of nonprofits, businesses and state agencies coordinated by the Northern Forest Center and dedicated to advancing the overall economic, community and environmental well-being of the Maine Woods region. The goal of MWTTI is to improve the overall success of tourism businesses across the Maine Woods region – and their ability to provide living wage jobs – by delivering a comprehensive, multi-modal training program to meet educational needs identified by tourism businesses themselves.

In its first year, MWTTI offered fourteen training opportunities to business in Franklin, Piscataquis, and Washington counties. Offerings included workshops on customer service for frontline staff and managers, interpretation skills, and marketing. New DVD lending libraries and an online customer service workshop made training available to businesses unable to attend trainings. Now in its second year, MWTTI is expanding to provide tourism training services in Oxford, Penobscot and Aroostook Counties.

MWWTI is supported by funding from the Betterment Fund and the United States Department of Agriculture Rural Development with additional support in Oxford County from the Central & Western Maine Workforce Investment Board. To find out more about the Maine Woods Tourism Training Initiative and other Maine Woods tourism initiatives, please visit www.MaineWoodsConsortium.org.

Give ‘Em the Pickle: Delivering Outstanding Customer Service

Highly entertaining and motivational, this nationally recognized workshop will inspire both managers and employees to do the most important thing they can do is business… take care of the customer! Participants will leave the workshop with a tool box to help them re-enforce the workshop’s key elements of Attitude, Consistency, and Teamwork needed to provide world class customer service each and every day.

Workshop Instructor: Julie Guerin of Central Maine Community College.

Registration Fee: $20.00

Locations & Logistics:

South Paris, June 27, 9:00 – noon.

Register by contacting Maria Berriault, Oxford Hills Chamber of Commerce: 743-2281.

Rumford, June 28, 9:00 – noon.

Register by contacting Janet Brennick, Bangor Savings Bank: 364-8122.

Regional Destination Training

Keeping visitors in Oxford County longer and helping them take advantage of the region’s many tourism activities and amenities is vital to the success of the area’s tourism sector, and frontline workers play an important role helping visitors find fun things to do. On June 14th small business owners and frontline tourism workers will be invited to meet providers of recreational, heritage, educational and other experiences from across Oxford County as part of Destination Day in Bethel.

Registration Fee: None

Location & Logistics:

June 14, 10 a.m. to noon at the Bethel Inn & Conference Center

RSVP by June 10 by contacting the Bethel Area Chamber of Commerce: 824-2282