5.
TOURISM CONSULTING
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Tourist information
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Service excellency
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Soft selling
I have extensive international experience working with DMOs, tourist offices, hotels and other tourist service providers.
offer consulting, lectures, team and leadership workshops, coaching on-the-job and workflow evaluation on these topics:
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Digital development for Tourist Information Offices
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Active involvement of employees in transformation processes
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Motivated teams with customer focus
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Achieving and maintaining Service Excellence
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Parameters for the measurability of service measures
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Sensibly combining sales and customer support
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Sustainable selling - Service-Selling
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Dealing with "difficult" customers
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Customer-oriented complaint management
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Intercultural communication in customer service
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Value-based leadership for team motivation
Addressing the challenges through Covid19
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Leading effectively at a distance
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Challenges of remote work and home office
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Strengthening self- and employee motivation
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Focus and stress reduction for "tool overload"
All workshops, coaching and facilitations in person or online.
Bern Welcome, Switzerland
www.bern.com
Workshops for the team Guest Relations
Service excellenz | Sales optimisation
Leslie Peyer, Leiterin Guest Relations
„Ich habe Gabriela bei einem 2-tägigen Workshop kennen gelernt. Ihre professionelle und positive Art habe ich sehr geschätzt. Gabriela hat das Workshop an unserer Gruppe angepasst und sie konnte uns so wertvolle Tipps weitergeben. Ich kann Gabriela als Coach nur weiterempfehlen!“
Düsseldorf Tourism, Germany
Workshops for the teams of B2B and Tourist Information Offices
*Service Excellence | Service Selling
*Dealing with difficult customers
*Conflict Management
Heike van Baal, Head of Travel Services:
„Ein Coaching der Sonderklasse! Das 2-tägige Coaching wurde von allenTeilnehmern als überaus erfolgreich beurteilt. Gabriela hat mit ihrer Praxisbezogenheit, Professionalität und Kompetenz ein perfektes Coaching gestaltet. Sie verstand es, das Seminar an den Bedürfnissen der TeilnehmerInnen zu orientieren und alle Fragestellungen praxis-und realitätsnah zu behandeln. Die gute Interaktion sorgte für ein lebendiges, offenes und ehrliches Miteinander, das das schon gute Team noch mehr aneinanderrücken ließ.
Kurzum: motivierend und einfach großartig!“
Stuttgart Region, Germany
*Leadership Training
*Workshops on Service Excellence
Sonja Blickle, Leitung Tourist Information:
„Das Team der Tourist Information Stuttgart bedankt sich herzlich für den tollen Workshop. Wir haben in den 3 Tagen viele neue Anregungen und Motivation mitgenommen, die uns bei der anspruchsvollen Arbeit mit unseren Kunden und im Umgang mit den Kollegen sehr weiterhelfen werden. Bis zum nächsten Mal.“
Tourism Zurich, Switzerland
Workshops with the teams of the Tourist Service of Tourism Zurich
* excellence in service and sales
* excellence in leadership
* measurability of the results
Evelyne Jeannerat, Head of Tourist Service:
“Gabriela is a highly professional, experienced and passionate coach. She has the ability to get the best out of your teams. She is an empathic listener and observer who challenges, encourages and motivates every single participant in a straight, authentic and convincing way. Gabriela inspired the team to elaborate different tasks in a solution oriented, focussed and efficient way. With her skills, methods and good humour, the training was a success – contributing to an excellent and sustainable team spirit.”
Art Cities of Flanders, Belgium
www./kunststedenvlaanderen.be
Series of workshops on Soft Selling in Tourist Information Offices of 6 flemish cities, within a long-term program for improving service quality.
Eline Brutyn, Coordinator Kunststeden Vlaanderen:
“Gabriela is a consultant with great knowledge (in theory and practice) of tourism and professional work ethics. She knows how to motivate and coach professionals and teams like no one else. It has been great working with her on several projects. Gabriela has an unstoppable drive with lots of experience and a high level of professionalism.”
Stockholm Cruise Network, Sweden
World Café with 40 participants on Quality of Customer Consultation
Claudia Quas, Project Manager Stockholm Cruise Network:
“Gabriela carried out a World Café for the Stockholm Cruise Network consisting of companies from port, airport, hotels, attractions, sightseeing, incoming and coach companies. Without any problems she managed to motivate over 40 participants due to a perfect preparation. Also she kept a high level of energy among the participants during the whole workshop, while she made everybody work on developing ideas together. The workshop was a very successful and we got very good feedback from the participants.”
Westtoer, Belgium
Several series of workshops for Front Office staff and managers of tourism organisations in Westflanders, within a long-term program for improving service quality:
* Workshops on leadership
* Communication trainings
* Soft selling trainings
* Trainings on intercultural competence
Annelies Gobert, Projectconsultant, Westtoer:
“The most amazing thing about Gabriela is that she is really able to adapt to her public and is ready to jump into each situation she is confronted with.
She is very emphatic and understands her public like no other. She is able to touch people, to give them a real boost and to let them discover how they can get the best out of themselves.”
Tourism Limburg, Belgium
* Market Place Bingo
* CreativeWorld Café
for front office staff of the Tourist Info Offices of the region
* State of the art in Tourist Information Offices
*Staff motivation for managers of he Tourist Info Offices
Video – Workshops Ambassadeurs van Limburg
Hanne Dekoning, Projectmedewerker Toeristische Onthaalkantoren Limburg:
“Gabriela is very motivated, professional and fun! She has a great knowledge about workflow in Tourism Information Centers.
During the workshops, she knows exactly what she is doing. She feels the group dynamic and the personal needs of the participants at the same time.
I learnt a lot from working together with her. The workshops were the boost we needed for our project!”
Art Cities of Flanders, Belgium
www./kunststedenvlaanderen.be
Series of workshops on Intercultural Communication in Customer Service in 6 Belgian cities within a program to improvve service quality. With over 200 participants working in Customer Service in museums, sights and Tourist Information Offices.
Click here to see the feedback of the participants
Jana Kerremans, Manager Kunststeden Vlaanderen
“Gabriela is a dedicated trainer who brings out the best in people. Due to her patience, empathy and experience with front-line workers in tourism practice and customer service, she manages to make all participants feel at ease, welcome to speak their minds, and thus empower them and their colleagues. Gabriela starts from the participants’ point of view and work situation, and along the way manages to open their minds and to have them assess their professional situation.”
Visit Leuven, Belgium
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Team training for the front office team of Tourist Info Leuven
Klaar Van Hoeymissen, Teamleader Customer Services:
“Gabriela has that light, open, direct, positive and ‘future oriented’ way of working with people that made our team open up immediately. Great to see how she enabled us to really speak up to each other, a challenge in our daily working environment. Listening to each other’s personal motivation and style helped to increase mutual understanding. Gabriela holds important keys in hands to help teams moving to that important ‘next step’. Thanks for all the energy while sharing these keys with us!”
Visit Flanders, Belgium
* Leadership coaching
* Training of the team
* Evaluation of the workflow
for the Visitors Centre of Visit Flanders.
Elke Dens, Marketing Director at Visit Flanders and Chairperson Marketing Group ETC at European Travel Commission:
“Gabriela was consulting the head and team of our visitor information centre. I found out she is very quick and good in detecting underlying problems and understanding what is really motivating people and what is not. Of course, her long experience within the field of visitor information centres was very useful, because she truly understands what keeps this team busy on a day-to-day basis. However, her advice would have not been so good if she was not the kind of person that really understands behavioural psychology in a professional context. I can advise Gabriela to anyone who wants to improve customer service. She can make your team change towards a more customer focus. And because change always starts with the change of the management, I can assure you she also has very good coaching skills, challenging managers, making them grow.”
Visit Belgrade, Serbia
www.Visti Belgrade.rs
Presentation and workshop “State of the art in Tourist Offices worldwide”
Seminar for team members of Tourist Information Offices in Serbia during the International Belgrade Tourism Fair.
Djani Zivanovic, Coordinator Tourist Offices Belgrade:
“Gabriela encouraged us to follow our gut feeling and make things happen. She knows what she’s talking about, but it really helps that she loves what she does. I noticed that from the energy and passion she showed during the seminar. I was fortunate and privileged to meet Gabriela, and I could go on and on and point out the many ways we benefited from this seminar. Thank you for the great time!“
Tourism Ghent, Belgium
*Team training
*Leadership coaching for the Tourist Information Centre.
Erwin van de Wiele, CEO Tourism Ghent:
“What Gabriela does with the team is making them feel they are really important. Not only as a team and as a team member. Also as an individual person. And tell me: is there anything more captivating and motivating than that?
The result is a light form of euphoria after the training. However, more important: also on the long term the team has become much more mature, positive, and thus more effective. And they truely enjoyed every session!“
Amsterdam Marketing / Hogeschool Inholland, Netherlands
www.amsterdammarketing.orgwww.inholland.nl
Lecture & Workshop on Hostmanship in Serving Customers at the seminar City Hospitality 2013.
Report on my key note and workshop:
Seminar City Hospitality Amsterdam 2013 – digitaal magazine
Hans Dominicus, Dir.Research Amsterdam Marketing:
„Gabriela knows like nobody else the importance of investing in customer service. She is innovative, a real networker and someone who thinks out of the box.”
Stockholm Visitors Board, Sweden
Team Training for the Stockholm Tourist Center
Sabine Dubreuil, Manager Stockholm Tourist Center:
“I think that Gabriela is an inspiring coach that combines seriousness and humour in a professional way. Based on her wide experience in leading teams, in combination with a long carrier within the Tourism Industry, Gabriela carried out a workshop for the team of the Stockholm Tourist Centre. On one hand, she made the team recognize its strength by seeing everyone’s capacity within the team and focusing on the good team atmosphere. On the other hand she made them reflect and discuss on how to convert information opportunities into sales opportunities.”
European Cities Marketing
www.europeancitiesmarketing.com
Workshop on Hospitality and Sales in Tourist Offices
Dieter Hardt-Stremayr, President European Cities Marketing:
“I would like to take this opportunity to extend my warmest thanks to you on behalf of our members for your valuable input to the seminar on “City hospitality for tomorrow’s visitors” held in Copenhagen 2013. The feedback we have received from the participants was extremely positive as they picked up new knowledge and ideas. The success of our meetings relies heavily on speakers like you who kindly agree to give the best of their experience and high professionalism.We hope to see you again in the future!”
Lviv Tourist Information Centre, Ukraine
Lectures on customer service and social media in Tourist Offices
“Nadiya Radionenko, Head of Lviv Tourism Office
Gabrielas inspiring speaches and presentations held in Lviv brought our Lviv Tourist information centre team on the next level. In 2012 Lviv TIC became no.1 in Ukraine! Thank you for introducing us to the social media and customer empathy in details! One day you will see the trees growing from this seeds. Great speaker, coach, presenter and a great person.“
“Win with the Lion” Annual Tourism Forum Lviv, Ukraine
Several lectures on topics regarding Tourist Information Offices
Oksana Sydor, Founder of “Win with the Lion” Tourism Forum:
“We are happy to have Gabriela in our forum as a keynote speaker since 2010 where she shared her great experience in customer service, leadership and social media with us. Her professionalism, coaching skills and sense of humour inspired the participants to share their ideas, cooperate and develop their own projects, to move .forward and do the services of their companies, organizations or cities better. Furthermore, her instant advice and support are more than appreciated by our Forum team!”
AVART Personal, Germany
* Business coaching
* Team training on Service customers on the telefonx
Birgit Groß, Geschäftsführerin:
„Gabriela Schweinberger führte in unserem Haus einen Workshop zum Thema „Positive Kommunikation am Telefon“ durch. Sie hat es verstanden, alle Mitarbeiter mit ins Boot zu nehmen und dabei auf die Unterschiede der Persönlichkeiten im Team einzugehen. Dadurch fühlte sich die Gruppe von ihr sehr gut betreut und hochmotiviert, die Ergebnisse im Anschluss auch wirklich umzusetzen. Wir bedanken uns nochmal sehr für die Unterstützung und freuen uns, wenn Frau Schweinberger uns bei weiteren Trainings unterstützt.“
San Sebastian Tourism, Spain
Workshops for theTeam of the Tourist Information Offices
*Service Excellence
European Cities Marketing
www.europeancitiesmarketing.com
Interactive lunch-to-lunch workshops with 80 managers and staff members of Tourist Offices from all over Europe in Dublin, Ireland
Visit Bratislava, Slovakia
Workshops for theTeam of the Tourist Information Offices
*Service Quality
*Service Selling
*Dealing with difficult customers
Reisebüro Pforzheim, Germany
Sales training and Future workshop
Managing Director::
„Zusammen mit Ihnen haben wir Neuland betreten mit den Workshops zu Strategie, neue Ausrichtung und innere Abläufe in unserem Reisebüro. Sie haben uns engagiert und kompetent nicht nur auf Schwachstellen aufmerksam gemacht, sondern uns auch Lösungen angeboten. Das fanden wir toll und auf jeden Fall motivierend, auch weil Sie dazu beigetragen haben, die Kommunikation innerhalb unserer Belegschaft zu optimieren und neue Erkenntnisse im Umgang mit Kunden umzusetzen. Für uns war es
wichtig, dass Sie genau diese Schnittstellen gefunden haben, die für unsere Arbeit wichtig sind und sich auch in der Kundenresonanz widerspiegeln. Was wir noch nicht geschafft haben: der Chef lässt sich noch immer den Kaffee servieren - aber wir arbeiten dran!“
Tourism Schorfheide, Brandenburg
Expert for sustainable service at a workshop with local steakholders and Tourist Offices
ETOA City Fair London, UK
Lecture on the future of Tourist Information Offices in a digital age,
at Showcase Digital Travel during ETOA City Fair 2017.
Munich Tourism, Germany
Teambuilding workshops for the teams of the guest and visitor service of the city of Munich.
Vienna Tourism, Austria
Jury member for the tender for the new Tourist Information Office of the City of Viennax
Read: Tourist Information as an architectural hotspot
Read: Press release Vienna Tourism Board
Visit Kyiv, Ukraine
Lecture onFinancing Tourist Offices
at the Chamber of Commerce of Ukraine in Kiev
SalTo – Salon voor Toerisme, Belgium
Lecture at a tourism symposium:
How to improve hospitality in Tourist Information Offices.
Visit Antwerp, Belgium
Team training for the front office team of Tourist Info Antwerp
ONLY LYON, France
Speaker at a workshop about the future orientation of the Tourist Information of the City of Lyon
Tourismusakademie Brandenburg, Germany
www.tourismusakademie-brandenburg.de
Seminar for Tourist Information Offices in the Brandenburg region
Bilbao Turismo, Spain
Jury member for the tender for the new logo of the City of Bilbao and the Bizkaya region.
Kyiv Tourism, Ukraine
Working out of a tourism strategy for the City of Kiev, Kyiv/Ukraine on behalf of the “Deutsche Gesellschaft für internationale Zusammenarbeit” (GIZ).
Bern Welcome, Switzerland
www.bern.com
Workshops for the team Guest Relations
Service excellenz | Sales optimisation
Leslie Peyer, Leiterin Guest Relations:
“I met Gabriela at a two-day workshop. I really appreciated your professional and positive manner. Gabriela adapted the workshop to our group and she was able to give us valuable tips. I can recommend Gabriela as a coach! "
Zurich Tourism, Switzerland,
www.zuerich.com
Workshops “Complaint management"
Esther Elmiger, Teamleiterin Front Office
„Herzlichen Dank nochmals für zwei spannende Kurstage. Deine wertvollen Tipps, Hinweise und aufmerksamen Anmerkungen waren für uns alle eine Bereicherung.“
Stuttgart Region, Germany
*Leadership Training
*Workshops on Service Excellence
Sonja Blickle, Leitung Tourist Information:
„Das Team der Tourist Information Stuttgart bedankt sich herzlich für den tollen Workshop. Wir haben in den 3 Tagen viele neue Anregungen und Motivation mitgenommen, die uns bei der anspruchsvollen Arbeit mit unseren Kunden und im Umgang mit den Kollegen sehr weiterhelfen werden. Bis zum nächsten Mal.“
Tourism Schorfheide, Brandenburg
Expert for sustainable service at a workshop with local steakholders and Tourist Offices
ETOA City Fair London, UK
Lecture on the future of Tourist Information Offices in a digital age,
at Showcase Digital Travel during ETOA City Fair 2017.
Munich Tourism, Germany
Teambuilding workshops for the teams of the guest and visitor service of the city of Munich.
Vienna Tourism, Austria
Jury member for the tender for the new Tourist Information Office of the City of Viennax
Read: Tourist Information as an architectural hotspot
Read: Press release Vienna Tourism Board
Visit Kyiv, Ukraine
Lecture onFinancing Tourist Offices
at the Chamber of Commerce of Ukraine in Kiev
SalTo – Salon voor Toerisme, Belgium
Lecture at a tourism symposium:
How to improve hospitality in Tourist Information Offices.
Visit Antwerp, Belgium
Team training for the front office team of Tourist Info Antwerp
ONLY LYON, France
Speaker at a workshop about the future orientation of the Tourist Information of the City of Lyon
Tourismusakademie Brandenburg, Germany
www.tourismusakademie-brandenburg.de
Seminar for Tourist Information Offices in the Brandenburg region
Bilbao Turismo, Spain
Jury member for the tender for the new logo of the City of Bilbao and the Bizkaya region.
Kyiv Tourism, Ukraine
Working out of a tourism strategy for the City of Kiev, Kyiv/Ukraine on behalf of the “Deutsche Gesellschaft für internationale Zusammenarbeit” (GIZ).