The Skills Broker’s Visit

1. Fully funded mystery shopper audit and personalised follow up visit Ashford Town Centre Partnership, working with the Ashford Retail Skills Centre, is providing fully funded support for retailers. This includes a Mystery Shopper Visit carried out by ESA Market Research Ltd with a follow up by a specialist Skills Broker. This programme is funded by the Learning & Skills Council (LSC) and is aimed at supporting retail employers with the development of their workforce. Ashford has been selected as one of two towns in the South East to benefit from this initiative. How will the Project work? All retailers participating in the Project will benefit from the following: 1. A free Mystery Shop providing a professional and independently conducted store assessment. 2. A free visit from a Skills South East ‘Skills Broker’ to: • Personally present the mystery shop findings • Identify and discuss any potential training issues • Outline retail training courses and funding available The Skills Broker’s Visit On completion of the Mystery Shop, the Skills Broker will visit each participating retailer and provide them with their own personalised report on the audit. Based partly on the findings and a wider discussion with the retailer on their perceived improvement areas, available retail courses will be discussed along with their respective funding arrangements. Following the meeting, the Broker will prepare a summary of points discussed, a formal Training Needs assessment together with options for fully funded training. The Mystery Shop in a little more detail… Mystery shops will be conducted in March 2009 and to ensure a ‘genuine’ mystery visit, retailers will not be forewarned of exact visit times. You will be contacted by Skills Brokers to arrange a feedback session and follow-up discussion. Mystery shops will cover all aspects of a typical customer’s visit including their first impressions, in-store standards through to Store Promotion, Marketing and Customer Service. To book your place please contact: Viv Kenny – Ashford Town Centre Partnership Email: info@ashfordtcp.co.uk DDI: 01233 664410