Douglas Stafford Mystery Shopping at the Johnston Press South Business Awards
By Jamie White – Head of Communications
Mystery shopping and performance improvement company, Douglas Stafford, was named among the best businesses in the south at the coveted Johnston Press South Business Awards.
On Friday (September 27) ten team members headed to Brighton for the ceremony, where Douglas Stafford were shortlisted for the Team of the Year Award.
The event was held at the prestigious Grand Hotel, with around 300 people in attendance, including sponsors and nominees for the awards.
Our category saw two categories merged – Team of the Year/Employee of the Year – and was hotly contested, featuring six other people and businesses from across Hampshire, Surrey, West Sussex and East Sussex.
TV star Fred Dinenage presented the awards, and said: “I love these awards this event in particular, because this is the creme de la creme, this is the battle of the giants. I greatly admire all of the companies involved, who are going from strength to strength.”
The deserved winner of our category was Furniture Now. The crowd was told the story behind the business, which buys furniture and sells them to people who can barely afford to buy any and struggle to get by. The founder employs people with learning and social difficulties to promote social inclusion, and also teaches IT skills, furniture skills and other back to work skills. The charitable business has grown hugely and he now has several other stores across the south.
Douglas Stafford also sponsored the Large Business of the Year Award, which meant the company logo was on the big screen all night and featured prominently in the events programme. Winner of Large Business of the Year was Oceanair Marine Ltd – designers and creators of marine blinds and shades which are distributed to clients around the world. Douglas Stafford Operations Director, Ben Sargeant, went on stage and presented the award to a representative from the company.
There was also some extra satisfaction to take from the night for the Douglas Stafford team. The Customer Service Award was won by clients of ours, Lookers Mercedes-Benz of Eastbourne, re-iterating how mystery shopping with Douglas Stafford can significantly improve customer service.
Ben said: “Sadly, we couldn’t take all of our team on the night, but we would have loved to. To be named amongst the best businesses in the south is a huge credit to all our hardworking team. Credit goes to all the Douglas Stafford team who have played their part in the company’s continued success. Everybody should be very proud of their achievements.”
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