Visitors to Kingston town centre should get a good first impression and enjoy their visit thanks to a new customer care course.

The course, designed by town centre manager Julie Grail, is the first in the South-east and has been created with the help of the English Tourist Board (ETB). She designed the course to appeal to Kingston businesses under a scheme called Welcome Host.

This is an ETB initiative to make businesses across the country more aware of the needs of visitors and tourists.

Kingston's customer care drive will help organisations understand and deal with the needs of their customers.

It deals with improving communication skills and offers information about the past, present and future of the town, its services and facilities.

Julie said: "I am extremely impressed with the success of the first two courses and the feedback from delegates was excellent.

"They found it informative and educational and benefited from learning about Kingston Town Centre Management.

"It was developed to suit a wide range of Kingston businesses from the very small to the very large and not just focusing on retail.

"This appears to have worked with those attending including large and small retailers, restaurants and even a conference venue."

Caroline Morgan, manager of the new Artisan Gallery in the Bentalls Centre, said the course was "an excellent opportunity to meet other people in the town and talk shop and to share ideas and comments."

A team from Marks and Spencer also attended the course. M&S customer services manager Jeanette Maslen said it had been an extremely interesting and worthwhile exercise.

More courses will be run throughout the summer and cost £35 per delegate to attend. Anyone interested in attending should contact Julie Grail on 0181 547 5991.

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