The quality of the services we provide is a particularly important aspect, as it directly determines customer satisfaction, trust, and our reputation as an organization. In order to improve the quality of services provided, Šiauliai tourism information centre together with partners from the Bauska Municipality in Latvia, are implementing the Interreg VI Latvia-Lithuania Program project “Capacity building of public sector professionals to improve the quality of provided services in local and regional authorities of Siauliai and Bauska regions” whose main objective is to improve the capacities of public sector specialists in the municipalities of Šiauliai and Bauska regions by improving the quality of public services provided, sharing best practices, and organizing seminars and practical training sessions to increase employee motivation and competence. Indeed, the project is nearing completion, and in implementing the project objective, the main result has been achieved – service quality standard guidelines provided. This result was achieved over a long period of time, first of all by exploring what it is at all, what is defined in such documents, etc. We worked together with external experts, consulted with them, expressed our wishes and requests, and after some time, two experts – one from Lithuania and one from Latvia – presented the final document defining employee competencies and behavior in the workplace, work appearance, and professionalism. It also discusses customer service standards not only when providing services on the organisation’s premises, but also remotely, and mentions other aspects such as data protection, information provision, communication, conflict resolution strategies and commercial activities.
The project involved not only preparing the document, but also presenting it and discussing its suitability, so on September 10-11, Siauliai tourism information centre held two practical seminars with two different companies of participants. One day we invited representatives of tourist information centers from all Lithuanian cities, 45 of whom gathered and “traveled” through the quality standard points, discussing them in detail. The content of the prepared guidelines, their relevance, and the process of their creation were discussed. Other day, the seminar on September 11 was dedicated to educational and cultural institutions of the Šiauliai City Municipality, where the wording and relevance of the points were also explained, discussed, and adjusted. Partners in Bauska also organized a similar practical seminar, which took place on October 16 and was attended by as many as 70 participants – representatives of Latvian tourist information centers from all over the country. After all these practical training sessions, all comments were taken into account, and the experts made the final corrections to service quality standard guidelines.
We would like to thank Līga Orupa and Lauras Balaiša for preparing the guidelines! We would also like to thank each of our colleagues from near and far for participating in these organized events and for their help and comments.
The document will soon be presented to the public at the project’s final forum and will be posted on the websites www.visitsiauliai.lt and www.visit.bauska.lv.
