Creating a BID‑Wide Customer Service Strategy to Support Ongoing Improvement

Creating a BID‑wide customer service strategy is one of the most effective ways to protect footfall, improve levy‑payer loyalty and demonstrate tangible value back to your local business community. When done well, it turns individual “good” interactions into a consistent, recognisable standard across your town or city centre.

Why You Need a BID‑Wide Customer Service Strategy

Business Improvement Districts sit uniquely between public, private, and community interests, meaning customer experience is never just about one business or one street. Visitors judge your town or city on the whole journey – from the way they are welcomed and how well the streets are signposted to how safe and comfortable they feel walking around, and the overall service they receive in levy‑paying businesses.

Without a clear, BID‑wide approach, service standards can vary significantly across streets, sectors, and businesses. This makes it harder to build a strong identity or demonstrate the difference the BID is making. A simple, structured strategy provides evidence of where the BID is raising standards, where additional support is needed, and how improvements are affecting spend, dwell time, and overall reputation.

Key Elements of a BID‑Wide Strategy

A tailored customer service strategy for BIDs is usually built on four core elements: clear standards, consistent measurement, practical support for levy payers and visible recognition.

Define What “Great” Service Looks Like

Start by agreeing on a small set of service principles that reflect your BID’s vision – for example, warm welcomes, proactive help, knowledgeable staff and inclusive experiences for all visitors. These should apply whether someone is visiting a cafe, an independent retailer or a historical venue, so your town or city centre feels coherent and distinct.

Measure the Experience Across Levy‑Paying Businesses

You can’t improve what you’re not measuring. Proinsight helps BIDs assess, improve and monitor the customer experience across levy‑paying businesses through mystery shopping, levy-payer satisfaction surveys, and on‑street engagement surveys. Together, these programmes create a rounded picture of how visitors experience your town or city – from first impressions and cleanliness to staff attitude and product knowledge.

Support Levy Payers with Targeted Development

Data alone won’t change behaviour. By using customer service-related workshops and tailored training sessions, BIDs can equip levy-payer teams with practical tools. By aligning workshop content with mystery shopping reports and survey findings, BIDs can focus on the moments that matter most – such as greeting, problem‑solving or upselling – and track whether these behaviours are improving over time.

Celebrate Excellence and Champion Best Practice

Recognising high‑performing businesses is a powerful way to build buy‑in and momentum. Many BIDs use awards, case studies and social media campaigns to spotlight those who consistently deliver outstanding experiences, using mystery shopping results and visitor feedback as evidence. This not only rewards individual businesses, but it shows the wider community what “good” looks like in your area and encourages others to do the same.

Using Insight to Drive Ongoing Improvement

A BID‑wide customer service strategy isn’t a one‑off project; it should underpin continuous improvement. Proinsight’s programmes give Business Improvement Districts a clear view of service performance, highlight high‑performing businesses and identify development opportunities in a structured, repeatable way.

By turning insights into action through regular reporting, BID teams can quickly see where standards are strongest and where additional support might be needed, whether by street, sector, or business size. Practical and prioritised recommendations make it easier to focus resources on the changes that will have the biggest impact, from improving wayfinding and refreshing staff training to reducing response times to complaints.

When you track improvements in customer‑service scores alongside case studies, testimonials and, where possible, spend or footfall trends, it becomes much easier to demonstrate the BID’s impact to levy payers and wider stakeholders. The insights that Proinsight provides help BIDs show tangible value to their business communities, while empowering levy payers to improve standards and deliver exceptional experiences.

This data‑led approach is particularly powerful in the run‑up to renewal, when you need to show that continued investment in the BID is driving visible change on the ground.

Choosing a Registered British BIDs Supplier

Choosing the right partner is critical whenever you’re investing in improving customer experience at a BID‑wide scale. Proinsight has recently been registered on the British BIDs Suppliers’ Portal and has experience supporting BIDs nationally.

The Suppliers’ Portal is designed to provide BIDs with a user‑friendly and accurate information base on suppliers who are already working within the BID industry or with local authorities in the UK. Suppliers are uploaded following scrutiny of their services and standards, giving BID teams confidence that listed suppliers understand the unique environment in which they operate. For BIDs, working with a British BIDs‑approved supplier such as Proinsight means:

• Confidence in experience – Proinsight is already supporting a wide range of BIDs across the UK, helping them improve and manage their customer experience.

• Reduced procurement risk – The due diligence carried out by British BIDs helps reassure boards and partners that you are choosing a credible, sector‑experienced provider.

• Sector‑specific insights – Since Proinsight focuses on customer experience, its programmes and reporting are tailored to the realities of BIDs.

We are proud to say the Proinsight team will also be attending the British BIDs conference on 4th November, providing an opportunity for BID leaders and teams to discuss their customer service challenges and ambitions face‑to‑face. For many BIDs, this is a chance to review their current approach, explore how others are tackling similar issues and understand how a structured partnership could support them.

Working with Proinsight

If you’re ready to create a BID‑wide customer service strategy, Proinsight can help with a tailored programme of mystery shopping, surveys and research that reflects the needs of your levy‑paying businesses. Our work with BIDs and local authorities focuses on providing clear, independent evidence of what the experience actually feels like on the ground and where improvements will have the greatest impact.

You can use this insight to benchmark streets or sectors, identify high‑performing businesses, and target support where it’s needed most; whether that’s training, marketing activity or operational changes. By turning findings into practical actions and tracking progress over time, at Proinsight, we help BIDs move from one‑off projects to a continuous cycle of improvement.

Get in touch with our team to discuss your objectives, explore recent BID case studies, and plan the first phase of a customer experience programme that will support you going forward.