Emerald Frog Marketing are happy to announce that have recently been asked by Cambridge City Centre Partnership, Love Cambridge to repeat the mystery shop exercise we carried out last year.

This year we will be mystery shopping the national chains across Cambridge and sponsoring the award for “Overall Best Customer Experience National Retailers”.

Here is the official release printed in this week’s Cambridge First newspaper.

A TEAM of mystery shoppers are heading to Cambridge to rate the city’s shopping experience.

The so-called Location Model – designed by Skillsmart Retail and the Sector Skills Council for Retail – is being used to assess how well Cambridge performs in a number of different categories from shop standards to town centre cleanliness.

As part of the project independent retailers will be given the chance to be mystery shopped.

Trained market researchers will visit independent shops twice during June to judge how well they are performing in areas including customer service, product knowledge and their window displays.

In addition 100 shoppers in the city centre will be interviewed to find out how satisfied they are with the service they receive in Cambridge’s shops.

And the city centre itself will be audited focusing on how easy it is for a stranger to shop in Cambridge to the availability of parking.

The Location Model has already been used to assess more than 80 British locations from Aberdeen to Wrexham.

The results will be used to see how the city can be developed.

The project is funded by the National Skills Academy for Retail and supported by Love Cambridge, the city centre partnership.

Head of tourism and city centre management at Love Cambridge Emma Thornton said: “The Location Model is a great way for us to find out about Cambridge shoppers’ experiences.

“Being a prime tourist location, the city attracts thousands of new visitors each year.

“It is vital these people get a great impression of Cambridge and its businesses to encourage them to return or tell friends about the city.”

The awards ceremony has been set for 15th September. When will we strike? Keep your eyes peeled!