The Rainy River Future Development Corp. named the winners of its 2006 Customer Service Champion Awards yesterday evening at La Place Rendez-Vous.
This year’s top picks were (in alphabetical order) included Cloverleaf Shop Easy Foods, Crozier Warehouse & Bay Rentals, Curves for Women, Drs. Lidkea, Elliott, and Lidkea, and Enterprise Rent-A-Car.
Rounding out the 10 winners were Fort Frances General Supply, the Fort Frances Volunteer Bureau, La Place Rendez-Vous, Shopper’s Home Health Care Centre, and Super 8 Motel.
Businesses receiving honourable mentions included Green’s Countrywide Furniture & Appliances, Mark’s Work Wearhouse, New Life Clinic, and Northwoods Gallery & Gifts.
Rainy Lake Sports & Tackle, Rainy River True Value, The Corner Closet, The Great Bear, and Warehouse One Clothing rounded out that list.
The awards were handed out during the Chamber of Commerce’s “Business After Hours” annual deck party.
Chamber vice-president Brian Kahler handed out plaques to the Customer Service Champions while RRFDC chair Russ Fortier presented the honourable mention certificates.
Crystal Godbout, co-ordinator of the customer service program, said the winners will be recognized again several times throughout the rest of the year, such as during Small Business Week and at the Chamber’s annual business awards.
Godbout noted a total of 38 businesses from across the district participated in the program this year. The challenge is free to all businesses in Rainy River District—no matter how large or small.
All the businesses that participated, whether they made the top 10, got an honourable mention, or neither, will be getting back their surveys mailed out to them today and tomorrow, she added.
“They’ll be able to utilize the comments to find out where they had good service and where they could improve,” noted Godbout.
Regardless of their results this year, any business is welcome to sign up for the Customer Service Challenge when it’s held again early next year.
This is the third year for the RRFDC’s Customer Service Champion program, the purpose of which is to let businesses gauge their level of customer service in order to figure out how and where they can make any improvements.
The call for participants went out in February, at which time businesses volunteered to get involved.
The RRFDC then contacted the participants and told them they would be “mystery shopped” three times by three different people in March and April.
These shoppers rated the businesses’ customer service using standardized forms which are revised each year. Then they reported back to the RRFDC, which calculated the scores.
Fort Frances Times
Local News from Across the Rainy River District
