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Initiative Overview
The Maine Woods Tourism Training Initiative (MWTTI) is a long-term initiative intended to organize networks of tourism training providers to deliver a comprehensive, multi-modal training program for tourism businesses and their employees in the Maine Woods.
To launch the program, economic development organizations in Franklin, Piscataquis, and Washington Counties have organized local networks comprised of businesses, chambers of commerce, training providers, and other stakeholders. Local networks conducted assessments to determine trainings needs and delivery specifications. They then formulated training approaches to meet highest priority needs. Extensive feedback was sought for all of the plans and has been incorporated to create finalized training approaches. These approaches are now being implemented. Please see Upcoming Training for more information.
The Betterment Fund and USDA Rural Development provided funding for this
initiative.
Planning Team Members
Representatives of Greater Franklin Development Corporation, Piscataquis County Economic Development, Sunrise County Economic Council, Maine Center for Tourism Research and Outreach, Maine Office of Tourism, and a tourism training consultant.-
State Level Partners
Representatives of the Maine Office of Business Development, Maine Office of Tourism, Maine Small Business Development Centers, Women's Business Centers at CEI, Cooperative Extension at the University of Maine, Community College System, and Local Workforce Investment Boards.
Upcoming Training
Franklin County
Piscataquis County
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Customer Service for Employees
DVD training is available through lending libraries at the Piscataquis and Moosehead Chambers of Commerce.
- What is Marketing?
September 14 from 7:00 a.m. to 9:00 a.m. at the Greenville Town Office. This training focuses on understanding what marketing is, while creating a working document as your marketing plan that you can use once you leave the training environment.
Deb Boyd, executive director of the Piscataquis Chamber of Commerce and
James Macomber, microenterprise consultant for Penquis &
MaineStream
Finance will explore a hands-on way to develop marketing skills, while you begin to analyze your business, and strategize as to how to market to your strengths, while minimizing your weaknesses. FREE workshop, registration required. To register, contact the Moosehead Visitor Center at (207) 695-2702 or
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- Maximize Your Marketing Money
September 29 starting at 5:30 p.m. (meal) and 6:00 p.m. (presentation) at the Covered Bridge Restaurant in Guilford. Nancy Marshall, of Nancy Marshall Communications offers her expertise in this training where she highlights how to make the most of your marketing dollar through the use of message mapping, press releases, brand marketing, web presence, and social networking on any budget. You will learn how to gain access to these valuable resources and put them to work for you. FREE workshop, registration required. To register, go to www.MaineStreamFinance.org and click on the Workshop link in the upper right and complete the online form.
Washington County
Recent Training
Franklin County
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Customer Service: The Price of Doing Business
Leigh Breidenbach, University of Maine
at Farmington Coordinator of Outdoor Recreation, conducted this
training that covered communications skills, developing
a customer-friendly attitude, and identifying your customer service
style. During the last portion of the workshop, managers and owners learned the keys to managing your staff to ensure customer service
excellence once you go back to your business.
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Customer Service: Team Approach to Providing Exceptional Customer Service
Rose
Creps, Maine SBDC-AVCOG Certified Counselor and Betty Gensel, Women's
Business Center at CEI Certified Business Counselor, co-presented
this training that covered customer service teambuilding
skills such as realizing your customers needs immediately, identifying
your customers communication style, recognizing important differences
and service expectations among cultures and classes, understanding how
customers evaluate service quality.
- Customer Service: Upselling Your Way to a Happier Customer
Greg Gould, Center Director for Maine SBDC-AVCOG, delivered this
training focused on important customer service topics
including understanding the customer’s experience, improving the
experience to build a more loyal customer base, and the value of
exceeding your customer’s expectations. This workshop also focused on
equipping staff with sales skills to upsell new products and additional
services to customers.
Piscataquis County
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Customer Service for Management
David Lee from HumanNature@Work provided a
keynote address titled Get Great or Become Extinct: Why Good is No Longer Good Enough In Today’s “Tell All” World and conduct a workshop on Creating the “Wow” Experience: If You Want Lots of Repeat Business and Free PR, Here’s What You Do. These two sessions were part of the Rural Maine Small Business Conference. Click here for more information.
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How Are You Marketing Your Business?
Deb Boyd, executive director of the Piscataquis Chamber of Commerce and
James Macomber, microenterprise consultant for Penquis &
MaineStream
Finance conducted this workshop exploring: what is marketing, the
different channels of marketing, and useful tools that you can take back
to your business.
Washington County
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Capturing More Tourism Dollars for Your Business
This session spoke to owners and managers through a panel discussion and workshop about practical ways they can enhance their own bottom line simply
without spending a lot of additional money.
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Managing for Excellence
The Washington County Community College offered this fun,
motivating look at the most important thing we can do in business...take
care of the customer. What is the best way to do that? By figuring out
what your customers want and then making sure they get it.
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Customer Service in the 21st Century
Rod Thompson, Maine SBDC-NMDC Certified
Business, conducted this training focusing on focus on
preparing businesses to meet customer expectations that have changed
dramatically in this new millennium. To meet the challenges and achieve
success; business owners, managers and front-line workers are
re-focusing their energies on strategies that will attract and maintain
loyal customers and patrons.
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Regional Destination Training
Providing great visitor information to
tourists helps keep them in the area longer, encourages more spending,
and creates repeat visits. This training helps you and your staff
educate visitors about all the fun and exciting things to do in
Washington County.
FMI: Contact Shaunacy Cobb at (207) 779-6355 or
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