Footwear Retailers Honored For Customer Service Excellence

Service. It’s what it all comes down to. When Footwear Insight launched the Gold Medal Service Awards in 2015, we wanted to identify – and reward – the independent stores that elevate service to an art form. And the good news is we found them, and they are thriving.

To create the list, we went wide. More than 120 shops were nominated by themselves or their vendor partners. (For this award, independently owned shoe stores and regional chains in the U.S. with a significant shoe business were eligible.) After evaluation, 124 were mystery shopped by Franklin Retail Solutions, a leading retail consultant firm. Shopped stores were rated on a list of criteria (to see the criteria, see page 28). Stores scoring a 70 or above were named Gold Medal Service Award winners. For 2018, four stores scored perfect 100s – or above, thanks to the bonus questions! – and were named the Waldlaufer Waldy Award winners for the year: Check them out on the facing page.

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