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AMSG at Hillstreet Shopping Centre, Middlesbrough, shortlisted for the SCEPTRE Awards Customer Services Team of the Year
Hillstreet is at the heart of Middlesbrough’s shopping experience with top high street brands including Monsoon, Pandora and M&S. Our security and housekeeping staff at the centre have been shortlisted for a national customer service award, which is quite an achievement in itself for a small shopping centre.
On Tuesday, 20th June, at the awards presentation event in The Dorchester London, the AM Services Group (AMSG) team will be competing against much larger schemes across the country, such as Blue Water, Metro Centre and Meadow Hall.
AMSG provides security, cleaning, maintenance and car park services, for the client, retailers and visitors at Hillstreet to make them feel safe, comfortable and assured through a positive customer experience. This has been achieved by the staff truly embracing AMSG’s ‘one team one goal’ ethos. Everyone works together to ‘go above and beyond’ and continuously take customer service to the next level. The business benefits have been clear: “Because of better interactions there is a better environment which encourages repeat visits. An increase in footfall can be seen over past year since AM took over the contract,” says Hillstreet’s Property Manager.
As the face of Hillstreet, all AMSG staff undergo training to become World Host accredited. However the desire to go beyond good and to achieve excellence is demonstrated with the team’s recent training in dementia awareness. All staff wear Dementia Friends badges, and have allocated 36 parking bays identified with the ‘Forget me Not’ logo, painted by AMSG staff. The increased awareness of mental health has greatly helped staff to interact with all visitors, and particularly vulnerable people.
The security team has worked hard to ensure that, against reduced local police staffing, statistics for recorded instances/arrests have not increased. The Police Transformation Fund Project have commented: “Strong links have been established between the police and retailers to tackle crime and anti-social behaviour. It is worthy of note how the security and cleaning staff at Hillstreet have contributed to that.” AMSG has also worked on a new initiative ‘Choices’ to tackle the increase in young women shoplifters and support the town’s shopping experience through increased partnership working.
AMSG’s technological real-time reporting on cleaning schedules not only ensures that the centre is in tip-top condition for customers but also supports the centre to dismiss potentially costly claims of accidental injury.
The centre has been praised by customers for the tip-top standards of its washrooms, which have been awarded ‘Loo of the Year’ and the security team has received praise from tenants such as Sports Direct, saying: “Nothing is ever too much trouble for the guards from providing information on known offenders or communicating with the tenants as they are always on hand to give advice and help.”