How will you be judged?

The award will honour achievements in managed shopping environments falling into four categories determined by size:

• up to 20,000 sq m
• 20,000 – 40,000 sq m
• 40,000 – 80,000 sq m
• over 80,000 sq m

A top ACE award will then be chosen from the category winners.

An independent judging process will be carried out on each application with two mystery shopping trips. These will use two of the BCSC Customer Care audits focusing on both personnel and the facilities provided by each shopping environment.

These visits will take place at different times of day, making sure that both busy and off-peak periods are covered. A score will be given to each place and a shortlist will be drawn up. The short-listed centres will then be visited for a third time. Only at this stage and only for shortlisted entrants will the judges review the evidence that needs to be submitted with your application form highlighting innovative methods and techniques that are being used.

Awards criteria

Awards will be given both for achievements that reflect a holistic approach to customer care and for achievements that reflect the needs of visitors and employees.

The qualitative information provided by applicants should be no longer than 5 pages and include an overview of examples such as:

• training logs/programmes
• local customer care programmes
• mystery shopper information
• customer service performance measurements
• physical improvements that have enhanced customer service over the last 18 months.