The undercover customer service survey happened earlier this year at the Creative Media Centre, as well as at the Innovation Centre – another Sea Space-owned business centre in St Leonards.

The Creative Media Centre’s Commercial Manager Linda Jeffcoate comments: “We’re always looking for innovative ways to maintain our high levels of service and customer satisfaction. Shopper Anonymous provided us with excellent feedback from their mystery shopping survey”.

Shopper Anonymous – lead by Managing Director Jonathan Winchester – also ran a focus group involving many of the centre’s resident companies. This provided a confidential, unbiased environment for feedback and suggestions to improve the service provided by the business centre.

Innovation Centre Commercial Director Jenny Haley praised how the mystery shopping and focus groups were received within the buildings:

“Our clients were impressed that we’d taken the time to find out how they felt… we will definitely be holding more focus groups and doing further mystery shopping.”

For more information about how mystery shopping and customer focus groups can benefit your company, visit http://www.shopperanonymous.co.uk or call 01424 858 230.

Matthew Noble, NCAS Legal’s managing director, has been working with Conveyancing Direct since September 2008, delivering Council for Licensed Conveyancers (CLC) courses and continuous professional development training. NCAS Legal is a registered provider of the CLC syllabus and is accredited by the CLC as a CPD trainer.

Andrew Palmer, Operations Director of Conveyancing Direct said: “We have had excellent results in a much faster timeframe than other training providers can offer. In the most recent exams there were three commendations and a distinction with the joint highest mark in the country!”

NCAS Legal has used the training suite at the Creative Media Centre in Hastings to provide the courses, and Matthew Noble credits the relaxed and pleasant atmosphere as one of the reasons for his client’s success. “As a company that specialises in legal training, we also tutor clients towards professional examinations,” says Matthew. “This training can take place either at the client’s premises or at the Creative Media Centre’s facilities; the quality of our training facilities is therefore not only fundamental to our success but also a reflection of our brand.”

For more information on NCAS Legal’s services, call 0872 040 9150.

This means local companies in both towns can take advantage of dedicated, high speed connections on a fibre link from 10Mbps (megabits per second) up to 1Gbps (Gigabits per second) easily, quickly, at competitive prices and with a choice of provider.

The Creative Media Centre and Innovation Centre are among the first buildings in the area to benefit from this new high speed internet service. A fibre link which can deliver up to 100Mbps has been installed at the Creative Media Centre to service both Centres.

Linda Jeffcoate, Commercial Manager of the Creative Media Centre comments: ‘This new internet connection will provide us with nearly double the speed of our current service for the same cost. Initially, we will use a 10Mbps service but there is the capacity to increase this as required in the future.

‘Having a high speed, unlimited connection is vital with so many creative companies in the Centre. They rely on the internet for doing a lot of their business, including sending large files. Because we can quickly and easily upgrade, we are now able to offer a home to creative companies that require super fast broadband.’

Andy Conibere from Call Flow Solutions, which provides the internet and telephony service in the Centres, adds: ‘We are delighted to be able to offer this high speed service to the Centres and the installation went very smoothly. It has resulted in an immediate improvement in the speeds available to client companies.

‘We are excited about the possibilities it offers for other businesses in the area who have requirements for high speed internet. Our next challenge is to let them know about the services we offer, including our cost effective radio internet solutions that cover over 60% of Hastings and St Leonards.’

Whilst larger companies and business centre clients can benefit from fibre broadband, smaller companies don’t need to miss out on improved internet speeds. Beaming, an internet service provider based in St Leonards, has also recently launched an ADSL 2+ service which provides speeds of up to 20Mbps download and 2.5Mbps upload.

Sonia Blizzard, Director, explains: ‘It is exciting that fibre broadband is now available in the area and this solution will be right for some of our larger clients.

‘However, when it comes to smaller businesses or growing SMEs, the price for a fibre link could be prohibitive. Our ADSL2+ service is the next step on from SDSL, providing a half-way house for companies who need reasonable speeds but do not want to go to the expense of fibre broadband. This service can be provided uncontended (not shared with other users) just like the fibre link and can be installed within a few days.’