Do you have what it takes to be a Top Shop?

Do you have what it takes to be one of Wellington’s TOP SHOPS®?

New Zealand’s leading retail excellence awards, TOP SHOP® makes a return to Wellington next week, with the organiser, the New Zealand Retailers Association, looking for entries from all Wellington shops.

Entries for the 2010 Wellington TOP SHOP® Awards open next week, Monday 10 May. The retailer who wins the title of 2010 Overall TOP SHOP® will also win a $10,000 advertising package with The Dominion Post and Newstalk ZB

Announcing the launch of the Association’s 2010 Wellington TOP SHOP® awards, John Albertson, Association Chief Executive, said that it was great to see the return of the awards with new categories and sponsors. The Association was very excited to provide retailers with the opportunity to participate in this influential event once again.

“With so much emphasis on discounting as the ‘tool of choice’ for many stores in the last twelve months, the Association is keen to encourage retailers to look at alternative ways to get the optimum share of the consumer dollar; one of the ways is to stand above and beyond their peers on customer service.”

“Whilst we know that customer service is much more difficult to measure, by entering the TOP SHOP® competition, and undergoing the mandatory mystery shop that goes along with it, we believe the resulting report will indicate to retailers whether their staff are meeting the needs of their customers better than the competitor down the road.”

“This year, as always, we’re looking for retailers whose staff offer fantastic customer service, take a pride in their store and presentation and have that something extra that keeps their customers coming back for more. Once again, doing the basics well is still important.”

John Albertson reminds retailers that the awards are open to all shops within the Wellington TOP SHOP® region.

The awards are now in the 22nd year and have a well established track record of assisting retailers to improve their customer service still further.

“TOP SHOP® is one of the only credible benchmarks available in which we, as retailers, can gauge our performance,” says Victoria Bartram, Owner of The Baby’s Room, winner of Wellington 2008 TOP SHOP® awards, Innovation Excellence in Retail category.

“Winning TOP SHOP® gave us the confidence to stretch ourselves further in addition to building on what we were already doing. To any retail businesses considering entering, I say do it – you have nothing to lose and everything to gain.”

Karl Marryatt, Owner Operator of Railway Metro New World, winner of the Supermarket Category and winner of the 2007 Wellington Overall TOP SHOP® says, “The TOP SHOP® wins we have had are great motivators for my team and me. We enjoy the challenge of the competition and motivate ourselves to maintain our winning way. These awards show my team that not only is there the satisfaction of a job well done but also that hard work does come with recognition.”

The Overall winner of the Wellington 2008 TOP SHOP® was the Mitre 10 Mega, Petone.

A key test for TOP SHOP® entrants is the mystery shopper exercise where a specialist mystery shopping company makes unannounced visits to entrants’ shops to provide judges with information on criteria such as service and presentation.

TOP SHOP® is open to all retailers and entries for the Wellington regional awards close at 5.00 pm on Friday 2 July. The winners will be announced at a black-tie awards dinner on Friday 8 October, 2010 to be held at the Duxton Hotel, Wellington.

The awards also run in the Christchurch, Auckland and Waikato regions.

Shops enter in categories such as large format, which this year includes supermarkets; lifestyle and wellbeing and, new this year, sustainable retailing. An overall winner is selected from eight of the categories and announced at the awards dinner.

ENDS

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