Customer Service

Maintaining a high standard of customer service is a top priority at The Trafford Centre. In total, 40 full and part-time staff are employed within this department and each one plays a crucial part in ensuring that customers get the very best out of each visit and leave with a positive impression about the Centre.

Careful planning and attention to detail has resulted in an enviable range of customer services, which we believe are among the very best provided within the shopping centre industry. These include:

• A crèche and play area for two to under eight year olds sponsored by Wall’s
• The Barney Bear club, a loyalty scheme for children - members of the club are able to benefit from a number of special offers and gifts
• Children’s pushchairs and fun buggies available from our Customer Services Desks
• Security ID tags for parents and children
• Unisex parent and child toilets
• Baby changing facilities and breast-feeding rooms
• Bottle-warming facilities in a special unit in The Orient
• Meet and Greet Services - five friendly meeters and greeters are employed at the Centre.

Customer Literature

It is vitally important to provide customers with relevant information and this is achieved using a combination of literature and other information-based communication programmes. All of these have been developed as a result of sound research and customer feedback and they aim to provide on-the-spot information as well as details of forthcoming events.

Information sources include:

• General mall guide
• Electronic information pods situated around the Centre at main entrances and strategic points on the malls
• Speciality leaflets – these include Designer Brands, Gift Card Scheme, What’s On and Transport
• The Trafford Magazine
• Customer announcements
• The Trafford Centre website - www.traffordcentre.co.uk

The Customer Service desks are located in the main dome and Peel Avenue and are open during retail hours. As well as providing information on every aspect of the Centre, staff deal with lost and found property, complaints and the reporting of incidents. They also provide free loan of pushchairs, child safety wristbands and sell Trafford Centre Gift Cards. Children’s fun buggies are also available to hire from the desk in Peel Avenue. 

Customer Comfort

The Trafford Centre team strive to make the customer’s visit to the Centre run as smooth as possible from the moment they arrive on site.

The security control room makes it possible to monitor traffic in and around the surrounding roads, liaise with traffic police and communicate with car park staff. By means of electronic signs, the ‘Vehicle Messaging System’ from the motorway slip roads, customers can be directed to a section of car park where space is available. Visits to our viewing gallery are conducted by a member of The Trafford Centre team highlighting safety and security procedures.

Once inside the Centre the emphasis on comfort and caring continues. In The Orient, for example, catering staff are always ready to assist wheelchair users and people with young children – in fact, anyone requiring a helping hand is assisted.

Many staff are fully trained first aiders, some to advanced level, and they can competently deal with emergencies, large or small.

Mobility Services

There are car park facilities for visitors with disabilities around the Centre. Battery operated scooters and manual wheelchairs can be borrowed from the mobility service unit. This unit is proving very popular with visitors and currently has the highest number of registrations in the UK. All the public areas, toilet blocks and lifts are designed for wheelchair use.

Customer Enquiries

The Trafford Centre’s Customer Services department has a very efficient complaints procedure that deals promptly with any problems. Individual departmental managers are informed of any complaints, feedback is provided to the customer and improvements are introduced where appropriate.

The Trafford Centre prides itself on becoming the most prestigious shopping and leisure destination in Europe. By listening to customers and basing service provision on this feedback, the management team believes the Centre can maintain its prime position.

Customer Complaints Procedure

Any customer complaints received about The Trafford Centre or one of its many retail or catering partners are dealt with by the customer service team and follow a strict procedure. Over 95% of all complaints received are resolved immediately by our highly qualified team who take time to listen to the problem and offer advice and solutions to help dispel any issues.

Complaints that are made in writing are acknowledged by a written response that outlines the Centre’s policy and procedure for dealing with such matters and a timescale is supplied to advise on when the matter will be formally addressed. Again, the majority of written complaints are resolved within 24 hours.

For more serious complaints it is sometimes necessary for an investigation to take place and in these cases customers are advised of timings for when the problem will be resolved. They are then contacted with an update on the status of the investigation and any outcomes.

Complaints that are made against retailers and caterers are passed on to the Centre’s Retail Liaison Manager and Catering Manager who then addresses the problem with the appropriate partner. The company in question will then deal with these complaints, and The Trafford Centre can only act in an advisory capacity in these situations.

The Centre’s policy is that all complaints are dealt with as quickly as possible and are logged onto a computer system that records all necessary actions that have been taken and subsequent outcomes.