CHARLESTON, W.Va. – Welcome to West Virginia! That is the goal of a new online hospitality training course available through West Virginia University’s Extension Service.
The program, assembled by the West Virginia Hospitality and Travel Association, stresses some important lessons.
“The importance of welcoming guests into West Virginia and offering great hospitality,” said Kara Dense, the executive director of the Greenbrier County Convention and Visitors Bureau, who is also a member of the association.
“[The course] is something that only takes about 45 minutes to do. It’s free. And we are encouraging all businesses to go on and encourage their employees to sit down and take this training,” explained Dense.
Her employees have already taken the course and are now certified. They plan to roll out the program to businesses in Greenbrier County in the coming weeks.
Dense said West Virginians are already great at hospitality. This is just a refresher course in things like handling difficult customers, answering questions you may not know the answer to and learning the best way to make someone feel right at home.
“People crave that personal interaction,” stressed Dense. “When they walk into a business and someone has greeted them with a smile and said a ‘Hey, how you doing?’ It meets their needs and they’ll remember that and they’ll come back and patronize that business again.”
The course is available at www.cred.ext.wvu.edu/wv-welcome.