News — Experience Guildford Customer Awards Shortlist Announced
The Friary Guildford has been shortlisted for Service Providers in the Experience Guildford Customer Awards
For the last six weeks, residents and visitors to Guildford have been making their voice heard and commending those businesses in the town centre that they feel go the extra mile in terms of providing great service as part of the Experience Guildford Customer Service Awards.
Now in their sixth year, the awards have become a key calendar event of the town, highlighting businesses that consistently put their customers first, covering the full retail and leisure mix.
From beauty salons to burger joints, venues to clothes stores, all the businesses in the town have been eligible to be nominated for an award. With over 3,000 text only votes received this year, voting closed on Friday 13th July and this year’s shortlist has now been announced. We are extremely pleased to announce that The Friary Guildford has been shortlisted for Service Providers and Auntie Anne’s at the Centre has been shortlisted for Food on the Go.
Service Providers
– Guildford Library
– White Lion Walk – Security/Management Team
– The Friary Guildford- Concierge/Management Team
Food on The Go
– Auntie Anne’s
– Meat the Greek
– Goodfillas
Each of the shortlisted businesses will now be visited and assessed by a ‘Secret Shopper’ who will anonymously evaluate and feedback on their standard of service. The ‘Secret Shops’ in Guildford will be carried out by UK wide retail research company, insight6 (formerly Shopper Anonymous), who have conducted over 250,000 mystery shops for a variety of businesses.
The final winners of each of the categories will then be announced at a special ceremony at the Yvonne Arnaud Theatre on Monday 3 September, along with the winner of the ‘Shining Star’ category, offering managers of individual stores or businesses the chance to nominate their staff members who they feel should be recognised for great service.
Commenting on this year’s nominations and the huge response received through the public vote, Amanda Masters, general manager at Experience Guildford, the town centre’s Business Improvement District (BID) says:
“We’ve been overwhelmed again by the public’s enthusiastic response to the Customer Service Awards and would like to thank everyone who has taken the time out to support this initiative and give us their nominations. We all appreciate good customer service and by the sheer volume of responses received we can clearly see the importance that Guildford visitors and residents place on it.
“Good customer service can make or break a business and ultimately the success of a town. We want Guildford to be known for delivering outstanding customer service, and awards such as these help bring our business community together to showcase the efforts they all go to in respect of putting their customers first.”
We would like to say a massive thank you to everyone who voted for The Friary Guildford to be shortlisted for the best service provider and Auntie Anne’s to be shortlisted for the best Food on the Go.
For the full article on Experience Guildford please click here.
