Emerald Frog Marketing were privileged again this year to be given the chance to embark upon a mystery shop market research expedition for Love Cambridge!

Our job was to shop the non-independent retailers across Cambridge and sponsor the Best Overall Customer Experience award for that category.

So, how did we get on? Here’s the lowdown on one of the trips out assessing retailers:

Scorecard…Check.

List of businesses…Check.

Map…Check.

Bacon sandwiches…Check.

Fake moustache and glasses…Check.

…and we’re good to go!

We’re not unfamiliar with our feminine sides or a good shopping spree. However, not many shopping trips involve  hotels, restaurants, corporate events and a pen shop!

The sun is shining and before we know it we’re at the Marriott Hotel booking a pretend “birthday party”. A smiley young lady greets us and helpfully answers our barrage of questions. So far, so good. We get into our stride. Our acting skills impress even us. Last year, so convinced was I that Cheriee was in fact getting married at one of the hotels, I started wondered about what wedding present I should get her. That’s method acting, that.

As we pulled up to the Cambridge Belfry Hotel we couldn’t help but chuckle at a couple trying to fit fifty wedding balloons into their car. Yes, good luck with that, mate!

Then it was time to get serious again, enquire about bedrooms, ask the hotel’s knowledge of the Cambridgeshire area, eye up their establishment and ask some probing questions.

The highlight of the whole experience for us was creating obscure scenarios which would enable us to put businesses through their paces and allow us to score the huge list of criteria. We love it! To name just a few odd scenarios we had gift cards for mother in Neals Yard Remedies, organising an annual event with guest speakers at Double Tree conference centre, buying a camera for a budding paparazzo from John Lewis and procuring an executive pen to sign “a highly important contract” from The Pen Shop.

As obscure as all of this sounds we made sure we took it very seriously and, as the criteria stated, we took note of all the minor details; from payment methods, store appearance and litter to accessibility and name badges. The businesses were not let off lightly.

The good weather persisted and halfway through the day’s list we decided it was time to divert into a nearby pub for lunch. Always on duty, we made sure the pub overlooked the river and the Granta Punting Company – which just so happened to be the next victim of our obscure role play.

A couple of lemonades and a light salad later, like a majority of the businesses we visited that day, the Granta Punting Company were holding their own with our questioning and provided a happy and helpful service. 

Although at times our scores differed in general (to provide an average and reduce subjectivity each business was shopped twice), overall the standard was very good. We met some lovely people and we were very impressed with the overall standard of shopping Cambridge has to offer. 

We also thoroughly enjoyed the awards at the Royal Cambridge Hotel last week. We had the pleasure of collecting the award on behalf of the very worthy winners, the Cambridge Belfry Hotel and our photos taken with the Mayor of Cambridge and displayed in this week’s Cambridge News.  Huge congratulations to all the winners and runners up!

Award winners were:

Best Ambassador for Cambridge: Allan Brigham, a member of Cambridge City Council’s Streetscene team.

Best Overall Customer Experience for an Independent Business:Cambridge Strings and Catherine Jones Jewellery 

Best Overall Customer Experience for a Non-Independent Business: The Cambridge Belfry Hotel with a highly commended certificate for John Lewis Partnership.

Contribution to reducing the city’s carbon footprint: The Grafton Centre.

The Way to Be Awards, given for good service for disabled people: The Sunshine Cafe at Chesterton Bowls Club and Varsity Hotel.

So, to all you shop owners and workers out there, be proud but beware…

You never know who is going to walk through your door again!