Judging
Judging Love Chesterfield Awards
There are multiple stages that go into judging the Love Chesterfield Awards to assess the many aspects of the businesses and to try to ensure an independent approach in selecting the winners. No judges or members of the Destination Chesterfield team are involved in more than one part of this process.
There is no cost to enter the Love Chesterfield Awards and all businesses in Chesterfield are encouraged to enter a suitable category.
For the categories that involve nominations, the aim is to recognise the businesses that are both popular with the public and also have a robust plan for the business – now and into the future. In order to showcase the diversity of businesses across the town, Destination Chesterfield may decide to limit the number of categories in which a business can be selected as a finalist.
Applications
Businesses entering the following categories will be asked to complete an application form: Apprentice of the Year, Regeneration Award, Sustainability Award, Accessibility Award and Entrepreneur of the Year. Apart from the Accessibility Award, These categories are open to all businesses in Chesterfield.
The judges may wish to speak to the entrants for further information and if this is the case, all finalists will be contacted by the Destination Chesterfield team to arrange telephone or in person interviews with the judges.
To find the winner of the Accessibility category, the three finalists will be asked to receive 2 mystery visits, providing for each of the 2 visits – 2 complimentary drinks, 2 complimentary main courses and 2 complimentary starters or desserts (4 of each in total).
Public nominations
Members of the public are invited to nominate their favourite food and drink and high street businesses for one or more of the Love Chesterfield Awards.
A business may encourage customers to nominate them, but any establishment found offering incentives or competitions to nominate their business for an award will be disqualified. Promotion of Destination Chesterfield’s competition is of course permitted.
Internal judging
For the categories that require public nomination, the team at Destination Chesterfield will score each nominated business by looking at the number of votes received from the public, Trip Advisor or Google ratings and reviews, Facebook and Instagram, the company’s website, any awards they have achieved and for food and drink businesses the food hygiene rating (which must be 3 or higher). Three finalists are shortlisted in each category based on the three highest scores.
External judging
Nominated finalists are contacted by social media or email and visited by two separate independent mystery shoppers, who score the establishment based on their experience on the day. The judge may be an individual or they may be accompanied by family, friends of colleagues.
Businesses in the food and drink sectors will be asked to provide a complimentary meal and drink to the judge. This will be confirmed before the judging period begins.
Finalists of the Retailer of the Year and Independent High Street Business of the Year will be asked to complete an application form alongside the mystery visit(s).
The external judging scores are combined with the internal judging scores to find the winner of each category.
Judging of Food Producer of the Year
For this category, Destination Chesterfield will write to all nominated businesses located within 10 miles of Chesterfield town centre and ask the business to take part in a tasting event. The judges at the event are made up of local businesses known as Chesterfield Champions. Businesses taking part in the event will also be required to complete an application form to be scored by the Destination Chesterfield team.
