Colton House Becomes the Region’s First Guest House to Achieve Quality at Heart Gold level Servicemark

Colton House near Rugeley became the first guest house in Staffordshire and indeed the Heart of England to achieve Gold level in Servicemark following a unanimous decision by the Quality at Heart Recognition Panel on 29 November.

Owners, Ron and Gay Lawrence were presented with the prestigious award by Chris Lilley, Tourism and Leisure Cluster Manager, Advantage West Midlands, at the Staffordshire Business Advice Day at Uttoxeter Racecourse on 6 December.

The Quality at Heart scheme is funded by Advantage West Midlands, the Regional Development Agency, and is designed specifically to recognise and develop excellence in tourism, leisure and hospitality businesses. Servicemark, which encourages exemplary customer service, is one of the marks; the other two are
Businessmark, which offers a framework to compile a comprehensive range of workable business practices and Peoplemark, which looks at how an organisation can ensure that its workforce is productive and feels valued.

Colton House offers guests top-class accommodation and exemplary customer service in a beautiful Queen Anne house in a peaceful rural setting. The business is highly-successful and the five-star rating awarded by VisitBritain and the AA reflects the quality which guests may expect.

Gay Lawrence said: We are delighted to have attained a Gold level in this prestigious award. We found the Quality at Heart team very supportive and the Servicemark process straight forward to work through. It helped us understand what our guests’ value and what we need to do to enhance our service further. 

Quality at Heart Project Manager Penny Hadland commented: “Colton House’s achievement here is a great reflection of the hard work which Gay and Ron put into the running of the business. The Panel were so impressed by the high standard of customer service clearly shown in the submission, that, not only did they not hesitate to award Gold level Servicemark, they also felt that Colton House should be used as a benchmark for future Servicemark applicants. That is truly something to be proud of.”