Training in Breckenridge
Supporting frontline training and ensuring their awareness of Breckenridge area offerings is more important than ever. The BTO offers a variety of training opportunities for all levels of employees and businesses.
Elevating Guest Service Through Experience & Fun
BRECK 101
The experiential guest-service training program, Breck 101, is more than just training—it’s a chance for Breckenridge’s most guest-facing employees to experience every aspect of town life, from thrilling adventures and spa services to fine dining, lodging tours, retail scavenger hunts, and even frontline trivia night. The mission of the Breck 101 program is to provide Breckenridge’s guest service workers an opportunity to experience first-hand the offerings they’re trusted to recommend while also learning about support resources available to them as residents. Named Most Cost Effective New Program by Destinations International at the 2019 WOW Awards, Breck 101 offers high-impact training at no cost to participants. It’s a smart investment in the people who shape every visitor’s experience.
Register For Breck 101
Student Registration
“Students” hold Breckenridge’s most guest-facing positions – retail workers, front-desk and sales, bartenders and servers, shuttle drivers, and more are all encouraged to enroll.
Research shows these positions now provide more recommendations than the traditional lodging concierge once did. In exchange for their participation, students must provide the businesses feedback in the form of more informed referrals and online reviews of each experience.
Business Registration
Vendors may participate by providing experiences for students to try – dog-sledding, historical tours, retail offerings, tasting dinners – your business offering is entirely up to you. With two annual Breck 101 programs run since 2017, we’ve learned a great deal and want to work with your business to create enticing experiences to get guest service workers in the door and learn about all you have to offer. Register below to get in touch with the BTO to discuss more.
Why is Breck 101 important?
The BTO researches the guest experience extensively to better understand their expectations and what influences their likelihood to promote Breckenridge as a destination. During their stay, we’ve taken intercept surveys that are compared to their post trip viewpoints to identify “where guests receive their information” and “what they wish they had known”. For the 18-19 winter season, retail workers, servers/bartenders, concierges/hotel staff, and the Welcome Center rose in rank and accounted for the top resources of in-town information, only second to Google. According to Destination Analyst, over 86% of travel decisions are decided by word of mouth opinions.
How does Breck 101 benefit businesses?
- The participants in the program occupy some of the highest guest interaction positions in Breckenridge and will gain the knowledge to recommend your business to the right guest. With all the new protocols required this winter, it’s critical that frontline staff are aware of your current offerings.
- Utilize the students of this program to help train your own employees. If there’s an opportunity for your business to use our students as “guests” to support new offerings or demonstrations while helping to train your own staff, we want to help!
- Constructive feedback and reviews delivered by the students and provided through your business’s Google My Business listing and the One Breckenridge “Who Made Your Day” recognition program. This feedback can be used to improve your services and your business’s online presence.
Employee Recognition
Every season, One Breckenridge recognizes individuals and businesses for providing exceptional guest service. Winners are treated to breakfast and a prize package. Each year, the committee selects one business that exemplifies the values of the One Breckenridge program to be recognized as the Annual Champion at the Breckenridge Tourism Office Annual Meeting.
Guest Service Training
Throughout the year, Breckenridge employees have an opportunity to participate in Guest Service Champion (GSC) and Guest Service Influencer (GSI) training programs, where they not only learn the fundamentals of providing the best customer service, but how to teach these skills as well. GSC is a budget-friendly course for your front-line staff to learn communication tactics and familiarize new residents with all that Breckenridge has to offer through a retail scavenger hunt. GSI is a more in-depth option available for anyone who will be supervising, managing, or training your employees. The theory is, each GSI graduate will be able to go out into the community and teach these skills to other employees, making a town-wide culture of excellent guest service.
What will employees learn in Guest Service Influencer Training?
- We invite a conversation with you in the first 30 seconds of meeting you, respecting the fact that you are the reason why we are here.
- In the first two minutes of our conversation, you feel like you just made a new friend-like you now “know a guy / gal / they” in Breckenridge.
- We get you excited to try a new Breckenridge experience during our conversation, and set you up to make that experience happen before you move on.
- We want you to be excited to come back, and tell the story about your new adventure, and to tell your friends too!
- You leave Breckenridge feeling like it’s a special place – truly unlike any other ski town.