Ceteris is delighted to announce that the beautiful Gean House Wedding & Conference Centre has been nominated in the Excellence in Customer Service Award at the prestigious Clacks 2016 Business Awards.
The Clacks 2016 Business Awards creates a platform for local businesses and their employees to demonstrate how their work, products, business strategies and services are making an impressive contribution to the Clackmannanshire economy and further afield. The winners will be announced on September 1st at the gala awards dinner to be held in Alloa Town Hall.
There are a variety of wedding venues in Central Scotland. Old, modern, small and large and the majority will ensure that their venue is clean, and well presented to the highest standards.
However what sets Gean House apart is our customer focus.
Nothing is left to chance
In early appointments our manager teases out of prospective couples exactly what they want for their wedding. Follow up appointments prior to the event allow time for additional details, answering queries, and getting to know the couple.
Each wedding is allocated a dedicated wedding coordinator, who works with them from initial booking to the wedding itself. Gean House is by no means a wedding factory: we limit our bookings so that we do not offer weddings on consecutive days, ensuring our full attention is given to the wedding that is taking place at that time.
We are a very flexible venue and don’t require minimum numbers allowing couples greater flexibility in their wedding arrangements. As part of our customer service we offer an early check-in of 10am for ALL guests, so that they have the option to get ready at Gean House, and don’t need to worry about transportation on the day.
The wedding meal plays a big part in the day, our Head Chef, Paul O’Donnell, has created a range of wedding menus to suit all tastes and dietary requirements as part of the Gean House service and couples can customise their menu to their hearts content.
On the day, the bridal party and guests will be met by familiar faces: the ceremony is often held in our Ceremony Room, so there is little chance of the Bride being more than a few minutes (fashionably) late. Throughout the day, the couple’s key wedding coordinator will be available at all times, performing Master of Ceremony, overseeing the reception meal, dealing with guest queries and keeping the whole event running smoothly. We strive to go above and beyond for our customers and pride ourselves on excellent customer service.
A fully trained & committed team
We have a committed team who have been with us for many years; the manager has worked at Gean House for 12 years, resulting in a team that knows the venue inside out ensuring things run perfectly. We pride ourselves on a practical and friendly two-way communication process ensuring our couples are guided through the wedding process with ease.
The Gean House Team is a close knit group of devoted people that strive for the best in everything they do. From our fabulous receptionists and event organisers to the cleaners who ensure that Gean House is shown in all its glory and including our function staff, many of whom are students who have stayed with us throughout their degree.
Gean House has Investors in People accreditation via our Head Office, Ceteris, and training and development of our people is embedded in our culture.
We continually develop our staff and ensure that they have received all essential training, such as Bar Service and Health & Hygiene training, as well as Management and Customer Service training. A mix of mentoring and a buddy system further allows staff to develop their skillset with the help of a more experienced member of staff, allowing for a more effective team and service to our customers, which is one of our main objectives.
An upmarket wedding venue with all the accompanying services
Our venue is a beautiful, immaculately maintained and crafted 18 bedroom mansion house, therefore we have an extremely high standard of product which we enhance with excellent customer service.
A wedding day is a highly important day for couples and their families. It should be intensely exciting, fun and full of celebrations and happiness and it’s our job to ensure that this is the case. We take the stress and strain out of the organising of such an important event, allowing friends and family to simply enjoy the day.
At the beginning of the process, we have introduced a system of pre-wedding appointments which allow our couples time to think about what they want on the day and check the practicalities of it. Developing a strong long term relationship, we build customer confidence, thus able to deliver on all the customer’s needs and wants.
Pre-wedding appointments are integral to the planning and ensure a fabulous service on the wedding day is achieved each time. They are innovative as they are completely centred on the requirements of the customers. We pride ourselves on being exclusive use and not entertaining multiple weddings on one day. It’s this care and attention to detail that result in customers paying for our services. This means that our life cycle can outlast most others as they move from a wedding to christenings, birthday parties, Christmas celebrations and anniversaries.
A varied customer base
Our customers are predominantly weddings, social functions (birthday parties, anniversaries, christenings etc.) and the meeting and conference market.
We reach our customers via email marketing, advertising in the Alloa Advertiser and in the key industry magazines. We recently achieved 10 page coverage in Tie The Knot and a 3 page Real Life Wedding article in the July/August edition.
Open evenings are held on a monthly basis to allow newly engaged couples to see Gean House dressed as it would for a wedding and have any queries answered.
Conference lunches are held each year to allow the Meetings, Incentives, Conferences, and Events (MICE) market the chance to see the various options available to them and their business. Twitter and LinkedIn are used to engage with the MICE market and share content.
Social media is a massive part in how Gean House markets itself to potential customers. A lot of enquiries: wedding and social functions come through Facebook which allows us to disseminate information and content i.e. price lists and menus etc. Social media also allows us to measure customer satisfaction through Facebook Reviews: 4.7 of 5 stars and other online review systems like Trip Advisor: 4.5 of 5 stars with 49 Reviews ranking Gean House #2 in the local area.
The use of various platforms also allows us to create a consistent presence in the local community. This has been achieved through newsletters, blog posts, editorial in wedding publications and social media. Sharing Gean House Facebook events with My Local Wedding and Alloa Live has helped promote upcoming events and keep a presence within the local online community.
Consistent level of service
We maintain a consistent level of service by ensuring staff are well trained and have a positive attitude to customer service, ensuring that people are given individual attention, working on understanding our customer, and our processes have been developed to make sure that we remain customer focused at all times.
A key measure of our customer satisfaction is the number of complimentary cards, emails and personal gifts that our staff receive, 95+% of customers send us thank you cards often saying similar notes: “We can say it and say it and say it again but it really isn’t enough. Thank you all so very much for a truly wonderful day, everything was perfect. It was everything we wanted and more and every single member of staff couldn’t do enough for not just myself and Fraser but everyone. We want to do it all again! Gean House is stunning but you guys [the staff] make it! Love Fraser and Becca” Married January 2016.
We have a lot of loyal customers who book each year to celebrate Valentine’s Day and Christmas with us, demonstrating our success in customer service.
If we do receive negative feedback we always respond by addressing issues and assessing whether or not we could have done better, and putting systems in place to ensure that we do not repeat any mistakes. We will deal directly with the issue, liaise with the customer and wherever possible look to make improvements.
And finally…
Our overall strategy is based on excellent customer service. From our exclusive use; pre-wedding appointments, dedicated wedding coordinator, flexible venue with no minimum numbers required, menu’s to suit all dietary requirements and a service that leaves guests coming back to Gean House time and time again. We strive to go above and beyond for our customers and pride ourselves on excellent customer service.
We believe that all our customers will vouch for the fact that Gean House offers superb service and value for money.
There are many examples of good customer service in Clackmannanshire and we are proud that Gean House has been recognised by its peers in this field.