7:10am Saturday 4th September 2010
By Cecily Liu
A team that sells Croydon every day has been nominated as business champion for its dedication and helpfulness.
The Croydon Visitor Centre was nominated by prominent businessman David Lashmar.
The former owner of Beanos and market place Stuff said: “One tends to think of businesses providing services or manufacturing items but this one sells something others don’t. It sells Croydon.”
Alvin Shivmangal, Shannon Somford, Liz Sheppard-Jones, Rachael Willis, Kathy Goldsmith and Lauren Holyhead all work hard to show visitors how wonderful Croydon is.
Mr Lashmar was given a small area in the centre earlier this year to promote his business and saw how hard the dedicated staff worked.
He said: “I witnessed them working under pressure and, sometimes, with difficult people. They always came across in a most polite and helpful manner.”
The centre was set up on December 2008 and the five members of staff see more than 300 people every day.
More tourists are using Croydon as a cheap place to stay when they are visiting London.
Liz Sheppard-Jones, a customer adviser, said: “Tourists visiting London for a week probably will not travel there everyday. This makes promoting local attractions like the Museum of Croydon and Croydon airport particularly important.
“Many people have the misconception that Croydon was built in the 1960s, but really it has more than 1,000 years of history.”
Since it opened the centre has made a lot of changes to accommodate the needs of its customers.
Miss Sheppard-Jones said: “We found out the East Croydon station is very busy in the morning, so we opened earlier to provide travellers items like Oyster cards.”
The centre also contains a display corner open to businesses, clubs, charities and individuals so they can advertise what they do.
The team are extremely proud to have won an Envibe Bronze award this year for its environmental awareness.
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