UK. Blackjack Promotions has revealed details of a new travel retail training programme to educate brand ambassadors on how to offer service and advice to passengers with accessibility and disability challenges.
The travel retail staffing and experiential agency has announced the new programme to coincide with tomorrow’s Purple Tuesday (12 November). The special day is dedicated to changing the customer experience for disabled people, and has been extensively covered by The Moodie Davitt Report.
Blackjack is running an accredited disability module in a half-day workshop to cover all types of disabilities including those that are both visible and hidden. The company said that the idea will be to set up ‘train the trainers’ in key airports to ensure that they can help share and spread the message within their own field teams.
Part of Purple Tuesday’s purpose is to raise awareness of the ‘purple pound’, the collective spending power of disabled people and their families which has been estimated by the World Bank to be worth £2.25 trillion (US$2.81 trillion) annually. Further research has also shown that only about 10% of organisations worldwide have a plan in place to access this market.
Blackjack Promotions Managing Director Jason Miles said: “Given the huge spending power of disabled customers, this kind of training is a must-have in the travel retail space. Giving retail staff the confidence to understand how they can recognise both visible and hidden disabilities and make small changes to their service and approach will make shopping in an airport environment more accessible and enjoyable for disabled people – and we, as an industry, should all strive to be better at this.”
The company’s in-house accessibility expert Samantha Saunders added: “It is so refreshing and exciting that Blackjack is embracing this initiative and taking the lead in the travel retail sphere to give their ambassadors the knowledge and confidence to offer a wholly inclusive service experience in airports.”
Purple is the organisation behind the Purple Tuesday initiative. Its CEO Mike Adams OBE said: “I am delighted Blackjack Promotions is involved in Purple Tuesday. It underlines their public commitment to improve the customer experience for disabled people.
“Meeting the needs of disabled customers makes commercial sense for businesses and I am hopeful others will follow Blackjack’s lead. Together we can change the customer experience for disabled people for good.”
Note: For more information on Purple Tuesday, visit www.purpletuesday.org.uk or read our article here.