Press Release - Two new customer-service tools

January 27, 2010

Contact:
Mickey Schaefer, 520-219-0469, mickey@mickeyandassociates.com
Colleen Rickenbacher, 214-341-1677 colleen@crspeaks.com

Industry Leaders Colleen Rickenbacher and Mickey Schaefer Announce Collaboration on Customer Service and Cultural Competency Training

Two industry leaders combine their expertise to create new customer-service tools that help workforces provide exceptional service to international visitors by developing an understanding of the customs of other countries.

Two new customer-service tools teach front-line hospitality and tourism workers how to assist international visitors in a way that leaves great first impressions.

The specially designed module, Cultural Competence in Serving International Visitors and Multicultural Customers, and the new guide, Quick Guide to Interacting with Other Cultures, address issues that make the difference between a negative experience and a positive, memorable one for visitors traveling from other countries.

Cultural competence is the ability to effectively interact, understand and communicate with people of various cultures and backgrounds. Workers who master this provide quality customer service while observing international protocol and respecting other customs and heritages.

The skill is essential for anyone in contact with international tourists, business travelers and convention attendees, as well as for global events such as the February Winter Olympics in Vancouver, BC, Canada and a fall equestrian competition in Lexington, KY.

"The Cultural Competence Module will be a wonderful asset to front-line hospitality staff as we continue to prepare for the 2010 Alltech FEI World Equestrian Games," says David Lord, president of the Lexington Convention and Visitors Bureau. "With several hundred Certified Tourism Ambassadors benefiting from this new module, we will ensure our international visitors experience the very best we have to offer."

Colleen Rickenbacher, Inc. and the Tourism Ambassador Institute^TM, a subsidiary of Mickey Schaefer & Associates LLC, developed the tools to help businesses and destination management organizations (DMO) successfully tap into the market of more than 50 million annual international visitors to the United States and 17 million annual international visitors to Canada.

The quick guide is a 20-page, pocket-sized tool that offers tips for communicating with international visitors and details language phrases and social nuances for 28 countries. Developed with high-level concierge input from the U.S. and Canada, the guide also encompasses the expertise of Colleen Rickenbacher's years of formal training and teaching.

Information on ordering copies is available at mark@CTAShopOnline.com or +1-520-219-0469.

"Knowing when and how to shake hands, gestures to avoid and even the proper way to exchange a business card or present a gift can distinguish you from your competition and avoid any cultural misunderstanding," says Rickenbacher, CMP, CSEP, CPC, author of the book, Be on Your Best Cultural Behavior and an expert on customer service and business etiquette and protocol.

The new module, Cultural Competence in Serving International Visitors and Multicultural Customers, is a value-added component of the highly successful nationwide certification program -- Certified Tourism Ambassador^TM (e.g. John Smith, CTA). It helps a region's workforce become tourism experts in order to provide high-level customer service while living the destination's brand.

People who take the cultural competency curriculum, either as part of CTA training or as a stand-alone course, learn how to recognize their cultural biases, develop answers to commonly asked questions and communicate warmly with international visitors.

More than 7,000 CTAs are serving visitors in the 12 programs located in 11 states throughout the U.S. More than 90 DMOs are involved in providing the licensed, accredited program in their local areas for the benefit of their stakeholders, their front line and their visitors.

"One of the goals of the Tourism Ambassador Institute^TM is to strengthen tourism by ensuring that the front line are exposed to important concepts of high-quality service, including cultural awareness," says Mickey Schaefer, CAE. "We are pleased to align with Colleen to produce these valuable resources for the industry."