Wanganui New World has received a prestigious award for its excellence in providing a top customer experience and its owner-operator Brendon Joneshas been judged the city’s best chief executive.
A rigorous judging process saw the inaugural Management Excellence Award bestowed on Brendon and the annual Retail Excellence Award go to the supermarket in the 2009 Massey University Wanganui Business Awards.
The annual awards were initiated by the Wanganui Chamber of Commerce in 2004 to honour local businesses that demonstrate business innovation, excellence and achievement.
The Management Excellence Award, sponsored by Training for You, is a new category in the awards. The Massey University judges said Jones applied a deliberate process of planning, implementation and control throughout the business. He delegated responsibility and provided department heads with the appropriate resources to ensure they met their targets.
“Performance evaluation and empowerment are delivered in parallel, creating a vibrant workplace and career track for employees,” the judges said.
The Retail Excellence Award, sponsored by Wanganui Chamber of Commerce, celebrates the performance of the store as an exemplary business set up to sell retail goods.
The store has a layout considered unique among New Zealand supermarkets, including places for elderly customers to sit and rest, provides locally sourced goods where practicable, responds to locals’ requirements in presentation of goods, and offers a variety of opportunities for customers to let their needs be known and to be entertained.
“Wanganui New World provides a genuinely local shopping experience with locally sourced goods, where practicable, to meet local demands and consumer expectations,” the judges said.
“Internally and nationally benchmarked performance targets are set and monitored, making the most of the cooperative model, while still ensuring the business is very much focused on Wanganui.
“Wanganui New World marks a unique addition to supermarkets in New Zealand, shifting from the dominant cream-box format, offering a distinctive layout and design, and the provision of a local customer experience.”
Brendon Jones said team work was the key.
“With customer service, it comes down to the people providing the service,” he said.
“Our mission statement is to be an icon of service. We were already applying the principles of involving staff in making our store rewarding both as a workplace and as a customer experience.
The Great Place to Work programme has provided us with a framework to make this even better and with a greater sense of direction.”
