Mainstreet Wanganui seeks public feedback on best service

30 May 2012

Classic Hits Best of the Best Poll 2012: Mainstreet seeks public feedback on best service

June has come back around again and for Mainstreet Wanganui members that means awards season. Last year Mainstreet Wanganui Inc revived the Mainstreet Awards, renaming them the ‘Mainstreet Service Awards’ and introduced a public poll called the ‘Classic Hits Best of the Best Poll’. The purpose of both was to highlight and reward good customer service taking place in our CBD. The inaugural poll had 28 categories, including some fun ones such as most memorable CBD character and favourite building. This year 1 new category has been added; ‘best sport and recreation store.’ The inaugural poll had 300 responses which were tallied to find the top 3 businesses or individuals in each category and these results were published. “The results had an enormous impact for some businesses,” reports Mainstreet Marketing Manager Elise Goodge. “At the time Victoria’s T 4 2 was a relatively new café with a slow burning profile but when they came out top in the poll for best café and best barista their profile lifted considerably. We also have anecdotal evidence that visitors to our city have been using the poll to decide where to eat and shop.” The poll can be completed on line at Mainstreet’s website www.mainstreetwanganui.co.nz or in store and all completed polls go into the draw to win vouchers from local businesses. “Last year we thought the poll would be a fun way for the community to get to know the retailers and acknowledge retailers they have existing relationships with, we didn’t expect both the public and the businesses to take the results so seriously, our CBD business owners are very competitive, I guess you have to be in the current retail environment and the poll is no exception,” Elise continues.

The announcement of the poll results will coincide with the Mainstreet Service Awards being held on Friday 29 June at the Cooks Gardens Function Centre. The Service Awards have three categories; best retail, best hospitality and best professional service, with an overall winner who is selected from the winners of each category. Once again Mainstreet has been working with a team of secret shoppers to ascertain who is delivering outstanding service in the CBD. “There is a lot to get through,” Elise smiles, “there are just over 240 businesses in the membership to be assessed, it takes a long time to come out with just one winner.”

The poll will be running for just two weeks, opening on Monday 11 June and closing on Sunday 24 June. Mainstreet hopes to increase the number of submitted polls this year, it takes approximately 10 minutes to complete and you can fill in as many or as few categories as you like. The results will be published on Monday 2 July on Mainstreet’s website. “We encourage everyone to tell us their favourites if they want them to win!” Elise concludes.

Classic Hits Best of the Best Poll
Monday 11 June to Sunday 24 June
Complete on line at www.mainstreetwanganui.co.nz

ENDS

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