Canberra to get some much needed retail excellence

tuggers said :

It’s a fun idea but the potential for gaming and spoofing by competitors makes bits of me clench.

True
A certain radio station ran a competition to choose the Best of Canberra: hairdressers; tyre stores; etc. People were asked to ring in to vote. My children were at the school which won. It was the biggest primary school on the southside then and beat the others by sheer force of numbers.

If ‘best of’ awards are prone to being manipulated by voter pools, I guess there’s always the chance that a Worst of the Worst competition could get out of hand. However, customer service seems to be one that gets people riled, so maybe a regular (e.g. quarterly) call for poor service stories could give us a pool to vote from once a year.

tuggers said :

It’s a fun idea but the potential for gaming and spoofing by competitors makes bits of me clench.

True
A certain radio station ran a competition to choose the Best of Canberra: hairdressers; tyre stores; etc. People were asked to ring in to vote. My children were at the school which won. It was the biggest primary school on the southside then and beat the others by sheer force of numbers.

Pretty lame. At least the stupid radio station paid for it though and thus only wasted their own money (and possibly the money of any stupid but voluntary sponsors).

It’s a fun idea but the potential for gaming and spoofing by competitors makes bits of me clench.

True
A certain radio station ran a competition to choose the Best of Canberra: hairdressers; tyre stores; etc. People were asked to ring in to vote. My children were at the school which won. It was the biggest primary school on the southside then and beat the others by sheer force of numbers.

I think it’s a positive thing to do.

I haven’t heard any horror stories from any of the other states that are doing it, although I’m always up for a good horror story!

It does increase my respect for a place if I see that they have won an award. I also like the idea that if I really want to thank someone for going the extra mile that I can nominate them for excellence.

There are many things I would consider far more objectionable or wasteful of money than this, although I don’t see a burning and desperate need for it either. It’s one of those nice things to do if you can afford it.

Just don’t tell me you can’t afford vitally needed equipment for hospitals or education – particularly special education.

johnboy said :

It’s a fun idea but the potential for gaming and spoofing by competitors makes bits of me clench.

In general we prefer to accentuate the positives (which is not to say we won’t deliver a kicking where it seems warranted).

After further consideration that’s a fair call.

I have been around some of these ‘best of’ retail awards in the past and what you tend to get is organisations voting continuously for themselves, then their friends get in on it and so on. It is VERY incestuous.

Indeed if it were the opposite and we were looking for the worst it would get extrmely nasty methinks.

RachelPower said :

I have to say I am dissapointed by all of your responses. We know we have a wonderful city and I am sure that all of you will be the first to complain at how abismal the service truly is in Canberra. While this award carries the Chief Minister’s name it is only for the funding and good on Chris Peters for finally making this happen.

I run Canberra’s ONLY locally based specialist mystery shopping business so I know how bad the service here can be, I have the statistics – I would rather focus on anything that will make it better than just complaining it is money wasted. Tourism is more than festivals and hospitality, tourists shop and eat too the more money we can make them part with the better Canberra will be. The only way to make them part with their money is if everyone offers great service, tourism, hospitality and retail alike!

Don’t complain – get on board and make sure retailers know they are being watched, makes Canberra a better place for all of us!

It is the funding that I object to Rachel. If ACT businesses want to engage in a circle jerk, by all means let them do so. Just don’t take taxpayers hard earned dollars and spend it on this tripe.

If this can’t be funded on a non coercive basis, it IS money wasted.

It’s a fun idea but the potential for gaming and spoofing by competitors makes bits of me clench.

In general we prefer to accentuate the positives (which is not to say we won’t deliver a kicking where it seems warranted).

Furry Jesus said :

JB, can we have an annual ‘Worst of the Worst’? The six categories of the Retail Excellence Awards themselves suggest WOTW categories: Customer Service, Store Display, Technology, Marketing, Training, and Product Range)

Fantastic idea!

RachelPower said :

I have to say I am dissapointed by all of your responses. We know we have a wonderful city and I am sure that all of you will be the first to complain at how abismal the service truly is in Canberra.

Don’t complain – get on board and make sure retailers know they are being watched, makes Canberra a better place for all of us!

Sorry Rachel, but I’m with Poptop on this one. Award ceremonies won’t improve abysmal service across the board, although some individual businesses might be inspired. Knowing you’re being watched for excellence just isn’t the same as knowing there’s a hungry community watchdog out there naming the guilty and issuing its own annual awards for the worst offenders.

JB, can we have an annual ‘Worst of the Worst’? The six categories of the Retail Excellence Awards themselves suggest WOTW categories: Customer Service, Store Display, Technology, Marketing, Training, and Product Range)

I actually think the retail experience in Canberra is by and large pretty good, no longer do I find that my girlfriend and I need to take a trip to Sydney to find bargains or anything like that, it’s all kind of here now.

The customer service side leaves a lot to be desired in some cases though, however rather than complain I choose to stand up for my rights as a consumer and deal with the situation as it arises. Be advised though, this works only in the retail world, go about it the wrong way in a restaurant and you could end up with a few mystery ingredients in your dish.

Best customer service in Canberra, Impact Comics! Second to none, they know what they’re talking about and are always up for a chat or heated debate.

Worst, any video game oriented shop, if another sixteen year old assistant in any of those stores calls my over thrity-ass ‘dude’…

Slowly I’ll turn, step by step, inch by inch, I’ll put my hands around their next and I’ll sreeeeaaammmm!

Don’t

call

me

dude!*

(*apologies to Scatterbrain)

I have to say I am dissapointed by all of your responses. We know we have a wonderful city and I am sure that all of you will be the first to complain at how abismal the service truly is in Canberra. While this award carries the Chief Minister’s name it is only for the funding and good on Chris Peters for finally making this happen.

I run Canberra’s ONLY locally based specialist mystery shopping business so I know how bad the service here can be, I have the statistics – I would rather focus on anything that will make it better than just complaining it is money wasted. Tourism is more than festivals and hospitality, tourists shop and eat too the more money we can make them part with the better Canberra will be. The only way to make them part with their money is if everyone offers great service, tourism, hospitality and retail alike!

Don’t complain – get on board and make sure retailers know they are being watched, makes Canberra a better place for all of us!

Doesn’t Stanhopeless have something better to do?
perhaps make Canberra a ‘GREAT’ place again.

Damn, I forgot to mention the mandatory charity auction – which allows the Big Boys to demonstrate the size of their . . . wallets.

poptop. When you put it like that, the answer to your question can only be: Nix. Nil. Zip. Nada.

mutters… I hate when my thoughts get articulated far better than I could ever imagine…grumble grumble…

Bring on the festivities.

Given the ACT demonstrable skills and capacity in selecting consistent levels of excellence from the private sector (thinks . . . Chubb) I think this is a winner.

We need more opportunities for absolutely dire, rubber chicken dinners at the convention centre, involving magicians, tribute bands or Elvis impersonators for ‘entertainment’; MCed by people like Mark Mitchell in full Con the Fruiter getup or Monica Trapaga encouraging the audience to join her in a rousing rendition of The Wobbly Walk; providing luminaries like ACT Government Ministers and the even more inarticulate major sponsors the opportunity to drone on and on about how fabulous they and the ACT are; in order to allow a small segment of the retail sector to whip each other into a frenzy of self-congratulation and be photographed with a stupendously unattractive (but locally produced)glass trophy; probably also including a tottie grinning through gritted teeth and cramped cheeks; definitely culminating the next day with a special advertorial section in the Canberra Times.

What could be better?

Well one thing is for sure. The ACT Government won’t be getting a nomination from me.

I don’t need my money stolen from me simply so some pissant store can get a trophy.

Just another brown-nosing, pant sniffing junket for all the ‘in’ crowd to attend…at taxpayers expense.
Oh puh-lease. Someone hand me a bucket?

pfft, my store hasnt lost the art of customer service..i’m well aware it’s sitting out the back.. 😀

..seriously, why?

And here I was hoping this story was about Canberra finally getting an Ikea.