Duane Hicks
According to customer service guru Tony Alessandra, “Being on par in terms of price and quality only get you into the game. It’s service that wins the game”—a philosophy apparently shared by district businesses that participated in the Rainy River Future Development Corp.’s 2009 Customer Service Challenge.
And some of the best of those businesses were applauded last Wednesday evening during the Fort Frances Chamber of Commerce’s “Business After Hours” deck party at La Place Rendez-Vous, during which the RRFDC handed out this year’s Customer Service Champion awards.
This year’s top 10 champions were (in alphabetical order) Cloverleaf Grocery (Emo), Enterprise Rent-A-Car, Fort Frances Clinic Dispensary, Fort Frances General Supply, Northern Community Development Services (NCDS), Northern Lights Credit Union (Rainy River branch), Northridge Funeral Home (Emo), Revco Carpet Centre, Super 8 Motel, and Wood’s Quality Bakery (Rainy River).
Honourable mentions went to Celeste’s, Crozier Warehouse-Busy Bee Auto Glass, Northwoods Gallery & Gifts, Vianet Internet Solutions, and Warehouse One—The Jean Store.
RRFDC director George Emes shared a few words prior to handing out the plaques and certificates.
“We recognize it is not easy to achieve the level of customer service that you have achieved,” he said. “And we also congratulate the owners and employees because we realize that if you have great customer service, there is greatness through your organization.
“Really, that’s the big thing—it has to start at the top,” Emes stressed. “It really does. It has to be the owners, the managers that bring it forward.
“It can’t be just the employees; they won’t do it by themselves.”
This is the sixth year for the RRFDC’s customer service program, the purpose of which is to let local businesses gauge their level of customer service, as well as figure out how and where they can make any improvements.
Wanda Barker of the Super 8 Motel here, which has received multiple awards and honourable mentions since the challenge’s inception, said she feels the program helps keep businesses at the top of their game.
“It’s important that your staff understands the importance of customer service,” she remarked. “When they are part of a challenge, it makes them step it up a little bit, and makes them realize that every single person that calls, every single person that walks into your business, could be that inspector or ‘mystery shopper.’
“If you treat evert guest that way, all the time, you’re always going to achieve great customer service,” she added.
“We are very proud that we won,” said Crystal George of NCDS. “We kind of strive to be great at our customer service since we are trainers for the Service Excellence Program.
“That’s sort of our motto.
“It’s excellent we can receive an award like this when we’re actually training people to do it,” she added.
Some 28 businesses from across the district took part in the program this year. The call for participants went out back in February, at which time businesses volunteered to get involved.
Most hailed from Fort Frances, but there were a few from Emo, Rainy River, and Stratton.
Things were done a little differently this year, with the RRFDC hiring Wanda Botsford as a consultant to co-ordinate and fine-tune the shopping surveys and scoring.
“Secret shoppers” went to the participating businesses in March and April, with each one being shopped three times.
In addition to how well the staff interacted with customers, evaluations also looked at areas like accessibility for customers and whether or not the business had a “green” focus.
A telephone shopping survey and a website review also were included the evaluation process, Botsford noted last Wednesday.
These tested employee telephone skills, how long it took for businesses to get messages (phone or e-mail) back to customers, whether or not the business did home deliveries, and similar details.
Customer service survey results will be sent out to the participants next month so they’ll be able to tell how they did.
“We hope you find some comfort in the well-deserved compliments, and we hope you can help grow your business from some of the suggestions from your ‘secret shoppers,’” Botsford told those on hand for the awards ceremony.
“We appreciate any feedback that you can offer to help make the Customer Service Challenge more relevant and useful to you in the future,” she added.
“There’s always room for improvement, even with our program here,” echoed Emes. “If you’d like to see us do something differently, let us know.”
