Rochdale Town Centre Business Awards 2008

Date published: 22/08/2008

The Rochdale Town Centre Business Awards 2008 sponsored by Rochdale Borough Council are now well underway. The awards are to recognise the great customer service and the unique selling point we have in our town here in Rochdale and to restore the pride and faith of the community in our town. Rochdale businesses should be acknowledged for the friendly, personal service that they provide, and this is an opportunity for that to happen.

‘Mystery Shoppers’ have visited over a 125 businesses in the Town centre over the last few months, assessing them for their overall performance in customer service. There are 12 awards in total, which will be presented at the Awards ceremony on 5 September. This week we bring you the last two categories, Rochdale Ambassador and Best Business Overall.

Rochdale Ambassador sponsored by Rochdale Online
Malcolm Journeaux, founder of Rochdale Online, said “Rochdale Online is delighted to be involved in the Town Centre Business Awards as sponsors of the Ambassador category. I personally am a passionate ambassador for the town and very much want to encourage those who are looking forward to the bright future the regeneration of the town centre will bring.”

During each Mystery Shopping visit carried out for the Rochdale Awards, Researchers, as part of their scenario, made an enquiry about Rochdale Town Centre’s facilities, referring also to Touchstones and the resurfacing of Yorkshire Street. Within their review the member of staff that they were dealing with was then assessed on if they were an Ambassador for the Town Centre within which they worked. This award was included, as we believe it is vital that the people of Rochdale have pride in their town.

The staff were appraised against the following five standards:

1. Was the staff member seem passionate and committed to their town?
2. Were they an Ambassador for the town?
3. Did the staff member seem knowledgeable of the town centre?
4. Was sufficient information given in response to the query?
5. Was extra/supplementary information volunteered over and above that asked for?

Although everyone of the businesses involved in the awards can be proud to be classed as an ‘Ambassador’ for Rochdale’s Town Centre, we had to pick out those that showed outstanding support to the town, based in part on the manner, style and content they used when talking about the centre and its facilities.

Examples of Ambassador comments:

“She said that with all the works that were taking place Rochdale would be a good place to shop. She was very positive about the changes and the impact they would have on Rochdale”

“When I commented on Yorkshire Street she agreed it was far better but the improvements to the town would not be completed until 2012. There was going to be Debenhams and new car parks. She said it would make a huge difference to Rochdale and would hopefully bring more people to the town.”

“I said that I had seen the Town Hall and thought it was a lovely building. She went on to tell me the History of the building and how it had been used in filming and how the people of Rochdale are proud of the fact that it did not get bombed in the war. She was very proud and suggested I go and look at it.

Best Business Overall sponsored by Rochdale Development Agency
John Hudson, Chief Executive of Rochdale Development Agency said: “We are delighted to sponsor the best business award. It’s important to recognise that Rochdale is home to many innovative and growing businesses that are contributing to the local economy. The calibre of businesses in Rochdale town centre is sure to make the decision difficult.”

The final award is the Best Business Overall. This aims to reward the highest achieving business out of the 125 that were involved in the awards. Many businesses scored very highly, with 50 achieving over 90%! This is a fantastic achievement for the town that we should all be very proud of.

Next week the short listed business will be announced for each of the awards.