Smitty’s receives five awards at national conference
Honours range from service and quality to sales growth for local restaurant
It might be one of Moose Jaw’s best kept sort-of secrets: the Town ‘n’ Country Mall location of Smitty’s Restaurant is literally one of the best of it’s kind in Canada. That’s not hyperbole, either – the local franchise was honoured with five service and sales awards at a recent national conference attended by general manager Mark Abbey, in addition to long-time owners Norm Hales and Dave Hill receiving 45year service plaques. “Service-wise, I’d say we’re up there, and sales-wise we’re in the top 10,” Abbey said when asked how his restaurant ranked nationally. “For being in the market of Moose Jaw compared to stores in places like Winnipeg and Edmonton, we’re doing pretty well.”
“We strive to have the best customer service that we possibly can, that way customers will want to come back,” he added. “I think we have the best staff in town and we’re very fortunate to have the staff we have, both front and back... I’m really grateful for the situation that we have right now.”
The majority of the awards came from Smitty’s Mystery Shopper program: four times a year, patrons representing Smitty’s visit each location in Canada, with manag- ers getting a report back on how they fared from each visit.
The news was glowing each time Abbey received word.
“So I kind of knew we had a chance (at the awards),” he said. “I knew we did fairly well with the reports we received, so I was thinking we might get some kind of award, but I wasn’t expecting as many as we did get.”
The list:
Mystery Shopper Award – highest 2017 overall scores.
Mystery Shopper Award – suggestive selling scores
Mystery Shopper – food quality, cleanliness and speed of service scores Sales Achievement Award – highest sales increase 2017
Sales Achievement Award – highest percentage annual growth.
Given how long the local franchise has been in existence – as represented by the 45-year plaques presented to Abbey on be- half of Hales and Hill – it might come as a bit of a surprise to see sales increase and growth percentage awards, but that’s all a product of the hard work the Smitty’s team puts into the equation.
“I always tell the girls we want to make sure the customer is happy,” Abbey said. “It’s not always going to be perfect all the time but we’re always trying our best.” This isn’t new ground for the Town ‘n’ Country Mall location, either. They won five awards at the same conference in 2017.
“So this is two years in a row we’ve done very well at that part of it,” Abbey said. “It’s always nice to go to a national convention and do that well; I was getting bugged going up there, everyone was wondering if I had sore legs from all the walking I had to do.”
Awards season isn’t done for Smitty’s, either. Next up are the MJBEX awards this week, where Smitty’s is looking to win their first honour in the customer service category.
“That would be nice, it would be great to see that support from Moose Jaw,” Abbey said. “There are a lot of great business in Moose Jaw, so if you can compete with those guys and do well, that’s fantastic.”