Conference Centres of Excellence expands its portfolio with three new members

Conference Centres of Excellence are pleased to announce three new members; The John McIntyre Conference Centre in Edinburgh, Kettering Park Hotel Management and Development Centre in Northamptonshire and Cottons Hotel and Spa in Cheshire. With the arrival of these new prestigious venues growing our portfolio, we are able to offer extended choice of venues and reach, specifically in the North and North West of the country where we have identified increased demand for specialist training, meeting and conference centres.

The John McIntyre Conference Centre rooms can be configured to accommodate between 16 and 330 delegates, is fully accessible, and comes fully equipped with state-of-the-art audio-visual kit.

Kettering Park Hotel Management and Development Centre is a purpose-built venue offering dedicated meeting facilities in a separate management training centre, with private break out areas and syndicates adjacent to main plenary rooms.

Cottons Hotel and Spa is a first-class venue with easy access from M6, M56 and M62 – an ideal north-west venue, just 8 miles from Manchester Airport.

Conference Centres of Excellence is the leading Sales and Marketing Consortium for specialist training, meeting and conference venues. With an impressive 44 members the consortium is able to offer a wide variety of traditional and purpose built venues and choice, whether you are dependent on location, style, residential options or competitive rates.

Our aim is to create the perfect learning environment for your company to attain great results, which is achieved through space dedicated to the single use of learning and development with professional staff, state of the art technical and AV equipment and an unrivalled level of quality which can be found consistent throughout all of our members. Our high level of quality is something which we pride ourselves on and that is continually monitored and assessed by BDRC’s Venue Verdict.

The value you get when using a Conference centre of Excellence is unrivalled. Offering a free venue finding service, all inclusive rates and an unforgettable experience, you won’t use anywhere other than a Conference Centre of Excellence again!

Gold awards for Warwick Conferences

WARWICK VENUES HIGHLY COMMENDED IN CUSTOMER SATISFACTION SURVEY

Two Warwick Conferences venues have been awarded Gold in the BDRC Continental’s VenueVerdict Awards for 2011, in recognition of their outstanding level of customer satisfaction throughout the year.

Warwick Conferences’ Radcliffe and Scarman training & conference centres are amongst just a handful of conference and meeting venues in the UK to be awarded the prestigious Gold Standard for 2011.

VenueVerdict Gold Standard is measured through ‘Net Promoter’, a progressive measure of customer service performance, and is awarded to venues with a twelve month ‘Net Promoter Score’ of +70, subject to the venue having met specific qualification requirements in each calendar quarter.

James Bland, senior client services manager at BDRC Continental said: “This year, only 18 properties out of 350 achieved the Gold Standard so Warwick Conferences should be very proud.

“Net Promoter can range from -100 to +100 so to achieve and sustain a score of +70 requires consistently excellent customer service.”

Rachael Bartlett, head of sales and marketing at Warwick Conferences said: “We are absolutely thrilled that two of our venues have been rated so highly in the awards.

“There is no better testimony than positive customer feedback and this accolade is a real testament to the outstanding service that we strive to deliver on a daily basis.”

Top customer award goes to Cotswold Conference Centre

Cotswold Conference Centre near Broadway has achieved a top nationwide customer service award for the third year running. The VenueVerdict Gold Award for 2011 goes to only five per cent of conference venues and hotels in the UK.

“This is fantastic recognition, based on customer feedback throughout the year,” says Nick Akerman, Head of Sales. “We are dedicated to conferences, training and teambuilding and I think people really appreciate the efforts we make on their behalf.”

Market research agency BDRC Continental operates the VenueVerdict Awards which, in 2011, were based on feedback from 23,500 customer surveys across British venues and hotel groups. Conference centres and hotels are assessed over 12 months and must achieve a Net Promoter Score of +70 to reach the Gold Standard. Only 18 properties out of 350 delivered the top level of consistently-exceptional customer service in 2011.

Cotswold Conference Centre has been taking part in the VenueVerdict programme for several years and regularly appears in the top quartile of conference venues.

Important verdict for Conference Centres of Excellence

BDRC Continental is the UK’s largest independent market research agency. Established in 1991, the company has built an unrivalled reputation as a full service consultancy with specialist expertise across a number of sectors including business to business, financial services, hotels, meetings & hospitality, media & advertising, internet & telecoms, Government & not for profit, culture & leisure and tourism, travel & transport.

BDRC Continental is staffed by highly experienced researchers with great reputations in their individual fields as well as in the market research industry. The company is renowned for its consultative approach and ability to add value to clients’ businesses by bringing insights from multiple markets to the research. This cross-disciplinary approach enables BDRC Continental to provide intelligence that is informed by a deep understanding of the client’s issues and the wider market context. As well as undertaking bespoke research for a wide variety of clients, the company conducts a number of syndicated studies and has developed proprietary techniques including AdForensics and ZMET Visionary Thinking. 

Conference Centres of Excellence is to adopt the acclaimed BDRC Continental VenueVerdict customer satisfaction management scheme - designed to benchmark and raise standards in the industry.

Richard Harrison

Richard Harrison, Chairman of Conference Centres of Excellence and General Manager of Scarman House – at Warwick Conferences said,

“Our goal is to continue to offer our customers the best possible experience when they enquire or make use of our training and conference facilities. We wanted an independent source of assessment and BDRC Continental's VenueVerdict offered the best fit for that assessment, in our view.

Our venues continue to invest significantly in their facilities and we all need to know that we are getting the best return on that investment - and success is about how well we train our staff and how they respond to the challenges of a very competitive market.

Areas covered will include everything from overall satisfaction and likelihood to recommend (incorporating the Net Promoter framework), through the entire customer journey; including, the knowledge and helpfulness of venue staff, quality of facilities. perceived value for money. The programme also allows subscribers to benchmark their scores against those achieved by competitors.

Measuring success can be tricky, but as VenueVerdict will incorporate detailed feedback from event organisers who have actually used our venues we believe this to be the best possible feedback for our members and endorsement of their venues.”

BDRC Continental present awards annually for the top performers in the training and conference industry.
Full details of the process are to be outlined at the first annual conference of Conference Centres of Excellence featuring a host of industry specialists. This is being held at the Lakeside Conference Centre of Aston University on 21st July 2011.

Conference Centres of Excellence has been in existence for over 23 years and is the premier body of its kind in the UK ,with a growing membership that extends throughout England and Scotland.

For more information, go to www.cceonline.co.uk  or www.bdrc-continental.com