Services

SERVICING SUMMARY
Serviced and hosted 505 groups, achieved a 46.51-percent survey response rate with an overall scoring of 4.385 on a five-point scale, hosted 12,307 guests in the official Visitor Information Center and fulfilled 4,600 other visitor information requests.

NOTABLE GROUPS HOSTED
Hosted highly diverse groups including such notables as Jehovah's Witnesses (July and Aug. 2012), Hopscotch Music Festival (Sept. 2012), Animazement (May 2013) and N.C. Firemen's Association (Aug. 2012).

CUSTOMER CARE CLASSES
Hosted customer care classes at two 2012-2013 host sites, the Residence Inn by Marriott Raleigh Crabtree Valley and the Hampton Inn Raleigh Midtown. Overall, customer care classes have trained more than 500 students, and the program is entering its fifth year.

SEE FOR YOURSELF TOURS
Brought back a popular training program and launched a new generation of See For Yourself Tours. The program offers front-line staff the opportunity to tour Greater Raleigh with guides and learn more about all that the area has to offer visitors by "seeing it for yourself!" Two tours were offered in 2012-2013. The first tour focused on downtown Raleigh attractions and history, and the second tour focused on performing and visual arts venues.

TAXI DRIVERS ORIENTED
Worked cooperatively with the Raleigh Police Department to continue the taxi driver orientation program. During bimonthly classes, GRCVB orients the drivers on primary destination assets and resources available through GRCVB. The program averages 50 drivers per session.

EVENT SERVICES PROFESSIONAL ASSOCIATION (ESPA)
Attended ESPA's Annual Convention in Orlando along with Raleigh Convention Center's senior event manager Tim Greene and event manager (meetings, social events and conventions) Morgan Evans. Assistant director of convention services Tammy Jeffries served on the annual convention planning committee and facilitated sessions at the convention, highly distinguishing GRCVB in the hospitality industry. Director of convention services Julie Brakenbury assumed the role of continuing education chair for ESPA and was a presenter at the Professional Conference Management Association, which followed the ESPA convention.

TOURISM AMBASSADORS
Hosted 45 GRCVB Tourism Ambassadors at our annual training and recognition event. Highlights included updates on tools, resources and projects that impact the Ambassadors. We called the program "We Love Our Tourism Ambassadors" as the event was held close to Valentine's Day. Ambassadors expand staffing resources for GRCVB's meetings, conventions and sports groups and are hugely important to the success of GRCVB in welcoming groups.

CELEBRATE SERVICES DAY
Celebrated ESPA's Celebrate Services Day in Sept. by hosting an educational and networking event at Sullivan's Steakhouse. The program included a "Super Star" panel of industry experts providing an educational forum in a fun format for nearly 40 convention and meeting services professionals from around Greater Raleigh.