Hospitality skills body launches Smiles of Britain campaign

The National Skills Academy for Hospitality has launched a campaign encouraging the public to lookout for the best smiles, in the latest industry effort to improve customer service standards in the UK.

The ‘Smiles of Britain' campaign encourages members of the public to lookout for the nation's warmest and most welcoming smiles and to send pictures to the campaign website.

There will be weekly prizes for the photographers who have captured the best smiles, while, at the end of the summer, those with the 20 best smiles will be invited to attend a photo-shoot in London where ‘Britain's Smile Ambassador' for 2010 will be chosen.

There is a serious commercial message underpinning the campaign, according to David McHattie, chief executive of the National Skills Academy for Hospitality.

"Our role is to seek out the very best training, development and education programmes in hospitality, to recognise and celebrate that excellence, and to lay down the gauntlet for the whole industry to follow their lead," he said.

"As part of this process we want to shine a light on those in our sector who are leading the way in customer service. And, because excellent customer service invariably starts with a smile, we have launched this campaign."

The campaign was launched as the new chief executive of the Institute of Customer service urged the tourism industry to improve service ahead of the expected boom in tourism this summer, driven by the weak pound.

"Providing great service brings in more than just extra revenue," said Jo Causon. "It's about making people feel good to be here and creating positive, lasting reputations about service that make them want to come back.

"If we get it right it will underpin the future of UK tourism for years to come. If not, people will go home thinking ‘never again'."

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By Daniel Thomas

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