2010 TOP SHOP® - How Is the Competition Judged?

The TOP SHOP Retail® Excellence Awards follow a two-stage judging process.

The first stage is a mystery shop, conducted by our mystery shopping partner Market Pulse International.

The mystery shopping in the TOP SHOP® Retail Excellence Awards focuses primarily on the customer service and presentation of your store.  Each mystery shopper is briefed about the category of retail you operate in.

During their visit the mystery shopper will observe and report on a range of factors that contribute to the customer service as well as all other aspects that contribute to the overall retail experience.

Mystery Shoppers will not be judging stores on the products being offered, or the offers available - rather the focus of the visit will be on the layout of the your store, presentation of products or services for sale and the knowledge, availability and service of your staff.

Each category has its own specialised mystery shopping questionnaire to best reflect the nature of the particular category.

The second stage of the judging process is that all finalists will be mystery shopped a second time by a panel of independent judges who are all highly experienced professionals.

This panel will then decide who will be the winner in each category, as well as the Overall TOP SHOP® winner.

About Market Pulse International

Market Pulse International is an international client services company, established in 1989 in Auckland.  It is a research based company with a passionate and experienced team of experts specialising in developing and managing customised customer experience and front line performance improvement programs for a wide range of retailers.

They can access a suite of tools to assist their clients to measure and improve:

Customer Experience Front Line Performance

Brand Loyalty

Brand Promise (Price, Service etc)

Relationships & Experiences (Customer, Supplier, Employment)

promoting excellence in retailing