Three hospitality providers in the Highlands and Islands have become the first businesses in the area to be registered in a new scheme geared at improving customer satisfaction.

'Hospitality Assured' is a simple model which can be adopted by hospitality providers to boost customer satisfaction through improved standards of service. Advice on how to conduct customer research, as well as monitoring the impact of improvements are all provided as part of the new scheme which aims to increase profitability and encourage more repeat custom.

Any tourism business in the Highlands and Islands can get involved, and in the Inverness and Nairn area, businesses have undertaken a range of one-to-one and workshop sessions which involved restaurants, attractions and accommodation providers joining forces to share good customer service practices. Under the scheme - which is organised by the Highlands and Islands Enterprise (HIE) network - businesses are assessed by a trained auditor and then scored against a list of set criteria.

The owners of Woodwards Restaurant and Melness Guest House - both from Inverness, and Boath House near Auldearn will receive their 'Hospitality Assured' awards tonight (Tuesday, 27 November, 2001) from Peter Lederer, chairman of VisitScotland, and also chairman of the national tourism skills group 'Tourism People'.

Owner of Woodwards Restaurant in Inverness Kay Frew said: "As a relative newcomer to this sector, 'Hospitality Assured' helped me pick up the hints and tips which turn good service into really excellent first class service. Sharing experiences may seem a strange thing to do for businesses who are theoretically in competition with each other, but Scottish tourism is in competition on a global scale and networking like this helps make the area more attractive and better value as an overall destination."

Inverness and Nairn Enterprise (INE) have helped fund these first three businesses through the scheme which is now being rolled out across the Highlands and Islands through the local enterprise company network.

Bill Sylvester, chief executive of INE said: "Hospitality Assured is an excellent next step on from well-known courses organised by the HIE network such as 'Welcome Host' and 'Scotlands Best'. Continually developing the skills of people who work in the tourism industry will help Scotland become an even better tourism destination. With this in mind 'Hospitality Assured is all about focussing on your customers, finding exactly what they need from your business and developing the best way to meet customers expectations - it's a great business development tool."

Tourism training manager with HIE Chris Taylor said: "Delivering really high quality customer service all day, every day is not easy. These three businesses have really shown that 'Hospitality Assured' can help small businesses to achieve consistently high standards and that means happy customers and more repeat business.

"HIE are also working with Inverness Airport on 'Hospitality Assured' to help deliver excellent service to all visitors coming through the airport. We now hope that many more tourism businesses - large and small - throughout the wider Highlands and Islands embrace the standard and experience these benefits as well."

To find out more about how 'Hospitality Assured' can help your business contact Marina Huggett on 01381 621064.

Inverness & Nairn Enterprise

Woodwards Restaurant

Melness Guest House