Bakery and Credit Union recognized for great service!

By Duane Hicks
Fort Frances Times

Two Rainy River businesses were among 15 award winners in the spotlight last Wednesday during the Fort Frances Chamber of Commerce’s “Business After Hours” deck party, when the Rainy River Future Development Corp. named the winners of its 2009 Customer Service Champion awards.
Northern Lights Credit Union (Rainy River branch) and Wood’s Quality Bakery joined the eight other champions which included (in alphabetical order): Cloverleaf Grocery, Enterprise Rent-A-Car, Fort Frances Clinic Dispensary, Fort Frances General Supply, Northern Community Development Services (NCDS), Northridge Funeral Home, Revco Carpet Centre, and Super 8 Motel.
Honourable mentions went to: Celeste’s, Crozier Warehouse-Busy Bee Auto Glass, Northwoods Gallery & Gifts, Vianet Internet Solutions, and Warehouse One—The Jean Store.
Plaques and certificates were given out by RRFDC director George Emes.
Some 28 businesses from across the district participated in the program this year. The call for participants in the program went out 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 as the RRFDC hired Wanda Botsford as a consultant to co-ordinate and fine-tune the shopping surveys and scoring.
“Secret shoppers” went to the businesses in March and April, with each business 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, explained Botsford to those on hand for the awards ceremony at La Place Rendez-Vous. 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 participants next month so they be able to tell how they did.
This is the sixth year for the RRFDC’s customer service program, the purpose of which is to let businesses gauge their level of customer service and figure out how and where they can make any improvements.