By COLE REIF
Great Bend Post
Great Bend Community Coordinator Christina Hayes refers to employees at
gas stations, hotels, stores and restaurants as “frontline workers”. These are
the men and women that are often welcoming and interacting with visitors from
out of town. Hayes stresses the importance of these workers in the community.
Represented at a travel show in Denver this spring, Great Bend representatives
promoted the city to draw more visitors. Because of the travel show, a family
from Denver decided to make the trip to Great Bend to participate in bird
watching. Hayes found out the “frontline workers” responded to the visitors
that they did not know what they were talking about.
"That is like a rip to the heart when we're working so hard and giving up our weekends to promote Great Bend," said Hayes. "The people in the frontlines need to know what we have going on and what we have available. At the bare minimum, we have an amazing zoo."
Hayes is moving forward with the “Be Our Guest in Great Bend Academy” that
offers businesses an online training program to educate staff on Great Bend’s
attractions.
"The training will give employees the insight to all of our attractions," said Hayes. "Businesses will sign up and then know something about Great Bend. That word travels fast. When we're working hard to promote our community, we want the frontlines to do the same thing."
Great Bend hopes to have the “Be Our Guest” program available by January 2023.