Asda sweeps board in supermarket Oscars

Long-standing Grass Roots client ASDA has swept the board with three top prizes at the The Grocer's annual awards.

In addition to scooping Lowest Priced Supermarket for an incredible 11th year in a row, ASDA also picked up the Best for Service Award and the Best for Availability Award, an industry first.

A further award was made for the firm's commitment to local sourcing.

Grass Roots has been providing mystery shopping visits for Asda for many years now and in March linked the programme of measurement to a new training initiative, for some 100,000 employees under the banner 'Always Happy to Help'.

Based around three key behaviours, Always Warm, Always Interested and Always Willing, staff at each store - or colleagues as they are referred to by Asda - were schooled by the Grass Roots training team in the attributes of these key behaviours and how they would make a difference for the customer.

The Grass Roots creative team also produced a suite of materials including visible reminders of the training room experience, in the form of table talkers, posters and '5 to Drive' cards, that were subsequently placed in store.

Department Managers were armed with 'Huddle cards' - 30 individual activities to complete in 5-15 minutes at morning Huddle meetings that embedded the behaviours and got the team practising key skills.

An accompanying DVD was included to help 'demystify' mystery shopping.

Grass Roots Director Nigel Cover believes the client's commitment to a holistic programme of customer service improvement has paid off: "Asda's reputation for keen pricing is well established, but the award for customer service is breaking new ground.

"It shows that low prices and high standards of customer service can co-exist and I'm convinced that 'Always Happy to Help' is making a real difference".

Head of Colleague Engagement at Asda, Owen Hickey said: "This is an outstanding achievement and a very proud moment for everyone at ASDA.

"This service award is a testament of the fantastic dedication of our colleagues and the introduction of our 'Always Happy To Help' engagement programme, has provided a real focus on our customers needs".

Adam Leyland, Editor of The Grocer, said: "This is the first time in the history of the awards that a single supermarket has won all three awards in The Grocer - for price, availability and service.

"ASDA has long been known to be the cheapest supermarket, but to marry that with the strongest availability and the best customer service is a great achievement.

"It's also vastly improved the range and variety of products.

"I'm really impressed with the turnaround.

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