Gold Standard Accreditation demonstrates independent venue excellence

Conference Centres of Excellence member venues have once again achieved a significant number of BDRC Continental’s VenueVerdict Gold Standard Accreditation at the end of Q3 2014, based on a customer’s ‘likelihood to recommend’ using feedback across a number of key areas.

Conference Centres of Excellence is delighted that a number of member venues consistently achieve the top level Gold Standard Accreditation, demonstrating the high standards required by the membership group to provide excellence in service and facilities for all customers.

Just under 22,500 individual pieces of feedback were collated to determine the VenueVerdict results, providing a completely independent assessment of experience. In choosing a venue where customer feedback and in particular the ‘likelihood to recommend’ has been measured in this way, customers can rest assured that they are in safe hands.

Five Conference Centres of Excellence member venues have achieved the BDRC Continental VenueVerdict Gold Standard Accreditation following ongoing assessment of customer feedback during the year from September 2013 to October 2014.

The Conference Centre of Excellence gold accredited venues are:
• Farncombe Conference Centre, Cotswolds
• Woodland Grange, Warwickshire
• The Møller Centre, Cambridge
• The Beardmore Hotel and Conference Centre, Glasgow
• Imago – Holywell Park, Loughborough

Amanda Stacey, Marketing Manager of Conference Centres of Excellence commented:
“We are delighted to see a number of our members achieve Gold Standard Accreditation with BDRC Continental’s VenueVerdict. As a consortium which measures quality standards in terms of dedicated facilities, exceptional food, superior staff expertise, and overall event experience, these independent accreditations support our own quality criteria to ensure that customers have the very best experience when using a Conference Centres of Excellence venue.”

For more information call 0845 230 1414 or email info@cceonline.co.uk

Another Gold for The Beardmore from VenueVerdict

The Beardmore Hotel and Conference Centre has once again achieved the prestigious VenueVerdict Gold Accreditation.  

The VenueVerdict Accreditation is based on customer feedback from 360 venues across the UK, and over 22,000 events. The accreditation is based on the twelve months ending in quarter two of this year.

The market research agency BDRC Continental award the Gold Standard, to only those venues achieving a twelve-month Net Promoter Score (NPS) of +70 (scores range from -100 to +100). NPS is a progressive measure of customer service performance which acknowledges the power that excellent service has when it comes to driving positive word of mouth for a brand.

Bronagh Bell, Director of the Beardmore Hotel and Conference Centre, commented: “To have achieved our second VenueVerdict Gold Accreditation of 2014 is an incredible accomplishment, and demonstrates that our commitment to customer service, attention to detail and dedication to continuous improvement is paying off.”

James Bland, Client Services Director at BDRC Continental, is responsible for the programme. Congratulating the Beardmore on its achievement, James said: “Achieving the Gold Standard for the second quarter of 2014 is a brilliant accomplishment for the Beardmore. Our targets for achieving this standard are rigorous and involves meeting a very diverse and specialised series of criteria to demonstrate a continued dedication to excellence and improvement throughout the organisation; to have accomplished this for the first two quarters of 2014 is a wonderful achievement and the team at the Beardmore should be very proud.” 

The VenueVerdict Accreditation continues a fantastic 2014 for the Beardmore Hotel, having recently been awarded the TripAdvisor Certificate of Excellence and attaining the prestigious Investors in People Gold Accreditation for the first time. 

Bronagh added: “Everything we do is with the goal of improving quality standards for our customers, clients and delegates. Over the past several years we have continually adapted and upgraded our facilities and technology to keep up with the fast paced world of modern conferencing and events.

“As we move into the second half of the year, we are in the middle of some big changes and developments and are looking forward to what promises to be one of our most exciting and innovative years yet.” 

The Manor House wins Gold... Again!

The Manor House is delighted to have started 2014 with the award of another prestigious accreditation.

The Manor House received a VenueVerdict Gold Standard Accreditation for the first quarter of 2014 from BDRC Continental, who collect feedback to measure how likely the Manor House’s meetings customers are to recommend it. There are around 360 hotels and venues nationally who take part in the VenueVerdict scheme and of these only 29 got the net promoter score of +70 or more necessary to win the Gold Standard Accreditation. The Manor House is the only venue to achieve the award in the Surrey area.

“We're all delighted that the Manor House has received the VenueVerdict Gold Standard Accreditation for  the first quarter of 2014” says Centre Manager Howard Canning, who also points out that this is the ninth successive quarter that the Manor House has achieved Gold Standard Accreditation. "The BDRC Continental VenueVerdict Accreditation is a fantastic endorsement for new or potential customers. Customer feedback is independently measured and verified by BDRC Continental, so the Accreditation is an indication to any meeting booker that their peers are happy to recommend the Manor House’s meetings facilities and services. Customers are assured of a great experience.”

For more information please contact us on 0845 230 1414 or email info@cceonline.co.uk

Awards and Gold Standard Accreditations for Conference Centres of Excellence members

Conference Centres of Excellence members have won further acclaim in the VenueVerdict Awards 2013 – the only industry awards programme to be based entirely on the voice of the customer. 

The awards and accreditations provide a comprehensive measure of service standards based entirely on the voice of real customers, and this year's results are based on 22,000 individual responses from event planners across a pool of over 360 participating venues.

EEF Venues, whose three conference venues Woodland Grange, Engineers House and Broadway House are all long-standing Conference Centres of Excellence members, have been named ‘No 1 Small Group’ and ‘Best Value for Money Group’ in the Awards.

All three venues have also gained Gold Standard Accreditation again in the VenueVerdict programme, proving consistently excellent quality standards.

Conference Centres of Excellence is the only marketing consortium to adopt and promote BDRC Continental’s VenueVerdict as the benchmark for its ongoing quality assurance. 

A further four Conference Centres of Excellence member venues have also achieved the highest level BDRC Continental VenueVerdict Gold Standard Accreditation at the end of 2013:

• Maple House, Birmingham

• Farncombe Conference Centre, Cotswolds

• The Manor House, Surrey

• The Møller Centre, Cambridge

Anthony Lishman, Executive Director of Conference Centres of Excellence commented: 

“All our members consistently strive to maintain the highest possible quality standards in the meetings, training and events industry, and this is an excellent example of how important it is for us to provide an exceptional experience for our customers, who recognise the importance of using specialist venues. There’s no better endorsement than that from independently monitored customer feedback and we are delighted at the consistent quality standards our venues achieve. ”

Customers give Beardmore the Gold Standard

The Beardmore Hotel and Conference centre are delighted to announce that they have once again achieved the VenueVerdict Gold Standard Accreditation. 

The Accreditation is awarded based purely on customer feedback and the Beardmore is one of only 3 venues in Scotland and 33 across the UK, out of 400, to have achieved this honour.

The market research agency BDRC Continental, announced the venues which have achieved Gold Standard, awarding this only to those that had 

a twelve-month Net Promoter Score (NPS) of +70 (scores range from -100 to +100). NPS is a progressive measure of customer service performance which acknowledges the power that excellent service has when it comes to driving positive word of mouth for a brand.

Bronagh Bell, Director of the Beardmore, commented: “We are absolutely delighted to have received the VenueVerdict Gold Standard Accreditation for the second time. For conference and meeting venues around the UK this is the key distinction to receive and demonstrates our commitment to providing excellence to the events sector. 

“We pride ourselves on providing a personalised, professional service for every client, with attention to detail underpinned by an infrastructure to meet the needs of the specific conference. 

 “Our team have worked extremely hard to ensure our customers have the best experience possible; to have such positive feedback from our clients that we secure a spot in the top 33 is fantastic. 

“With the Commonwealth Games fast approaching, we are excited to continue enhancing our client experience through innovation, enriching our client experience and constantly striving to improve throughout 2014 and beyond.” 

James Bland, Client Services Director at BDRC Continental, is responsible for the programme. Congratulating the Beardmore on its achievement, James said: “Achieving the Gold Standard Accreditation once is difficult enough, so the Beardmore should be very proud of having retained the accolade at the end of this most recent period.  To do so represents fifteen months of consistently excellent customer hospitality to meet the very specialist (and often varied) needs of meeting and event hosts”

Conference Centres of Excellence members achieve excellence with Gold Standard Accreditations

Conference Centres of Excellence member venues have once again achieved a significant number of BDRC Continental’s VenueVerdict Gold Standard Accreditation.

Since the consortium was founded in 1992 the focus for each venue has been on flexible, dedicated facilities and providing excellent quality standards, ensuring customers can be confident about the smooth running and success of their event.

Conference Centres of Excellence is the only marketing consortium to use the BDRC Continental VenueVerdict scheme as the benchmark for its ongoing quality assurance, ensuring standards are consistently maintained and measured to provide an excellent business meeting experience at all times.

In choosing a venue where customer feedback and in particular the ‘likelihood to recommend’ has been measured, customers can rest assured that they are in safe hands.

Conference Centres of Excellence is delighted that so many of our member venues have achieved the top level Gold Standard Accreditation, demonstrating that in the 21st anniversary year, quality remains at the very core of their businesses and our consortiums desire to promote excellence across our industry.

Nine Conference Centres of Excellence member venues have achieved the BDRC Continental VenueVerdict Gold Standard Accreditation following ongoing assessment of customer feedback during the year from July 2012 to June 2013. 

The Conference Centre of Excellence gold accredited venues are:

• Broadway House, London

• Engineers House, Bristol

• Maple House, Birmingham

• Farncombe Conference Centre

• Scarman Training and Conference Centre, Warwickshire

• The Beardmore Hotel and Conference Centre, Glasgow

• The Manor House, Surrey

• The Møller Centre, Cambridge

• Wyboston Lakes Executive Centre

Anthony Lishman, Executive Director of Conference Centres of Excellence commented: 

 “Conference Centres of Excellence has been promoting best practice and the highest level of quality standards for 21 years, which enables our customers to have a clear route to booking a successful event venue. BDRC continental helps us in promoting this message to our customers, being an independent accreditation based on genuine customer feedback, and as always, we are delighted to see so many of our venues achieving the Gold Standard Accreditation.”

Farncombe Maintains Gold Standard for Fourth Year

A leading UK conference centre, near Broadway, has achieved a top nationwide customer service accreditation for the fourth year running. 

Cotswold Conference Centre secured VenueVerdict Gold for 2012 and maintains its record of gaining the accreditation every year since the industry standard was launched in 2009. It is one of just four UK venues to have achieved Gold every year.

VenueVerdict is based on feedback from customers and only 26 conference venues and hotels – around seven per cent of those who participated – achieved the standard last year.

Richard Howdle, operations manager at Cotswold Conference Centre, said: “It’s an amazing achievement and shows the dedication of all our staff to the very highest levels of customer service. 

“It’s especially satisfying to gain an accreditation based purely on customer feedback. 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 VenueVerdict, an independent customer feedback benchmarking programme for meetings and events. Its quarterly accreditation framework is based on responses from more than 20,000 customer surveys across UK venues. Conference centres and hotels are assessed over rolling 12 month periods and must record ‘consistently excellent’ results to secure Gold.

James Bland from VenueVerdict said: “Congratulations to everyone who achieved the prestigious Gold Standard and especially to those, like Cotswold Conference Centre, who have done so every year since 2009.

“Maintaining this standard requires excellent service delivery, hard work and real customer satisfaction so it’s a great stamp of approval for the venue.”

Cotswold Conference Centre is part of leading hospitality business Farncombe, which also includes the luxury Dormy House Hotel and popular residential learning centre Farncombe Courses.

Farncombe is located in 320 acres of picturesque parkland in the Cotswolds. 

Gold standards remain top of the agenda for Conference Centres of Excellence

Conference Centres of Excellence is the only marketing consortium to adopt and promote BDRC Continental’s VenueVerdict as the benchmark for its ongoing quality assurance. 

We are therefore delighted that a number of our member venues have achieved Gold Standard Accreditation, re-confirming that quality  remains at the very core of their businesses  and our consortium's desire to promote excellence across our industry.

Seven Conference Centres of Excellence member venues have achieved the BDRC Continental VenueVerdict Gold Standard Accreditation following ongoing assessment of customer feedback during the year from January to December 2012. For the period in question, VenueVerdict featured a fraction under 400 participating meeting venues in the UK and Ireland, and just 26 venues in total were awarded the Gold Standard Accreditation. As more and more Conference Centres of Excellence Members sign up to VenueVerdict we are convinced that our tally of golds will also increase, setting a benchmark by which others will be measured. 

The Conference Centre of Excellence gold accredited venues are:

• Maple House, Birmingham

• Cotswold Conference Centre, Midlands

• Engineers House, Bristol

• Scarman Training and Conference Centre, Warwickshire

• The Beardmore Hotel and Conference Centre, Glasgow

• The Manor House, Surrey

• The Møller Centre, Cambridge

Anthony Lishman, Executive Director of Conference Centres of Excellence commented:
“All our members consistently strive to maintain the highest possible quality standards in the meetings, training and events industry, and this is an excellent example of how important it is for us to provide an exceptional experience for our customers, who recognise the importance of using specialist venues.
To have over a quarter of the venues who have achieved this Gold Standard within the Conference Centres of Excellence group is something we are incredibly proud of, particularly as this accreditation is independently gathered, and analysed. And of course it is based on consistent customer feedback, there’s no better endorsement ”

Conference Centres of Excellence is the only sales and marketing consortium in the UK with a wide range of dedicated meeting, training and conference centres, covering a geographical area from the south east of England to Scotland.

Its 33 members, which include many of the country’s most respected providers, all offer staff and facilities dedicated to the process of communications with exceptional value for money packages that are genuinely all-inclusive.

For further information please contact info@cceonline.co.uk or call 0845 230 1414