Awards double "Whammy" for Inverness Leisure
The team at Inverness Leisure were jumping for joy twice over the last few days having received their results following two recent quality and service assessments.
First to come through the door was their increased visitor attraction rating which told the team they were now worthy of displaying four stars at the door of the Bught Lane facilities classing them a facility of excellence.
This was closely followed by recognition in the VisitScotland Green Business Tourism Scheme which also upgraded the facilities “environmental” efforts to the top Gold rating.
Speaking about the four star award, Audrey Dignan, Customer Service Officer said, “At our last assessment we missed out on our four star rating literally by a couple of percentage points, so we always knew we weren’t far away and that with a bit of a push we could easily achieve our objective of getting that extra star credit.
“Picking up the four star award really means a great deal to us as it offers an independent assessment of our facilities. This means that it lets the hundreds of thousands of our customers know that we are doing everything we can to make their visit as positive and excellent as possible”
“We try really hard to deliver as high quality service as possible, working closely with our facility user group which is made up of customers. This group help us out by undertaking ad-hoc assessments of the facility giving us a customer eye-view of the different areas and offering guidance on what they would like to see happening throughout the facilities.”
The VisitScotland Quality rating scheme was carried out by a mystery customer who visited Inverness Leisure over a two day period.
Ivana Curuvija, Operations Clerical Assistant and Chair of the Company’s staff led Green Team was even more delighted with Inverness Leisure’s “Gold” Green Award, “We have spent the last 12 months working really hard to develop ways we can demonstrate to the Assessors that we are making an effort to become more efficient and environmentally friendly.
“Some of the decisions taken by the Green Team over the year may have appeared slightly controversial, but we have made the case and have been supported to develop and implement new processes that we believe make the facility not only better for the customer, but also kinder to the environment as well”.
Miss Curuvija is referring to the Green Team’s decision to remove all the litter bins from the facility car park earlier in the year, when customers were encouraged to use the recycling stations located around the centre.
“This scheme has worked really well for us, despite some understandable initial reservations.
She explained, “Prior to the scheme’s introduction, our staff were removing about 30 bags of rubbish from the car park per week. This has now been reduced to under five bags of rubbish with an increase in items being placed in the recycling units. In addition, we have been able to allay the fears of some local residents that littering may increase – we have actually found that litter has been reduced, which is a further indirect benefit to the Bught residents and the Community.
Speaking about the double award achievement, a delighted James Martin, Inverness Leisure’s General Manager said, “This is another huge achievement for my team at Inverness Leisure and further enhances our growing multi-award winning status.
“Things have not always been easy for the facility and we have staff who have been through some immense challenges over the years which is something that we neither forget nor take for granted.
“It is therefore through awards like these that my team and I are able to offer a guarantee to our customers that we continue to do all we can to make their visit as enjoyable, exciting and “green” as possible.
Concluding, the centre’s General Manager said, “I am obviously extremely proud of this double achievement and would thank the 150 plus staff for their ongoing commitment and belief in the making Inverness Leisure one of the best leisure facilities in the Country.”
~ENDS~