Friday 27 June 2014

Mainstreet Service Awards 2014

This year’s winners for outstanding customer service

Mainstreet Wanganui has once again had a team of secret shoppers hard at work in the CBD analysing the customer service of all CBD businesses to find the best. Their findings were announced on Friday night at the Whanganui Regional Museum during the 4th annual Mainstreet Service Awards. As with previous years businesses were sorted into one of three categories:

1 Best Service Hospitality

2 Best Service Retail

3 Best Service Professional Services

Businesses were analysed on a range of customer experience attributes including signage, access, product display, staff presentation, time to serve and local knowledge. For professional services such as banks, lawyers, accountants, financial advisors and insurance brokers’ shoppers also phoned their businesses and researched them via their websites. It is planned that online presence and marketing will be included as a judging criteria in Hospitality and Retail categories from next year as the vast majority of consumers are now using the internet to research products and businesses before they decide to visit or make a purchase.

The secret shoppers would like to acknowledge the runners up in each category:

For Hospitality: Stellar Restaurant and Bar and Spice Guru

For Retail: Footloose Shoes

For Professional Services: The New Zealand Automobile Association

The winners of the Mainstreet Service Awards 2014 are:

Best Service Hospitality: Mint

Mint was runner up in this category last year and this year took it out with their impressive menus across all three meal times and their venue suitability for a variety of age groups including youth, families and older groups. Mint staff have worked hard since opening to continually improve their food offering and to become a mainstay in the Wanganui hospitality scene.

Best Service Retail: The Bike Shed

Bike Shed won this category two years ago and have proven that in the intervening years their attention to detail and service has not wavered. Once again their store layout, access and attentive service impressed the secret shoppers who awarded them top marks in this category for the second time.

Best Service Professional Service: State Insurance

State Insurance have always scored highly in this category but this is the first year they have won. This year it was their team that pushed them over the line with near perfect scores for staff friendliness, presentation, product knowledge and local knowledge.

And the overall winner with the highest overall score was State Insurance
The award ceremony was supported by More FM and Whanganui Regional Museum.

“Once again this judging process has demonstrated the high levels of customer service a variety of businesses offer in our town,” says Mainstreet Marketing

Manager Elise Goodge, “This year businesses were awarded an average score out of 20, a large number of businesses scored 15 or above demonstrating just how close the judging of these awards was.”

ENDS

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