Testimonials
Heather Carter
Managing Director - Visitor Attraction, Blenheim Palace
“Stephen Spencer + Associates, thank you for helping Blenheim Palace create an exceptional guest service charter. Your training transformed our hosts, ensuring our guests receive an unparalleled experience. We are grateful for your expertise and look forward to our continued partnership.”
Sarah Ward
CEO, The Giftware Association
"Stephen Spencer has been in this industry a long time, and his experience of developing such highly-successful concepts as the Buckingham Palace Shop (on a shoestring budget) is now available to retailers and suppliers of all sizes.
Stephen shared some of his expertise via the Giftware Association during the Covid lockdowns and he continues to be focused on how businesses can make the most of their assets and deliver experiences to create customer delight and loyalty. Stephen Spencer + Associates represents a formidable team and a great asset to the giftware industry."
Freda Newton MBE
Managing Director, An Talla and Loch Ness by Jacobite
“Stephen played a pivotal role in helping us develop An Talla from an idea to reality. He facilitated the journey of looking closely at what could make our brand unique, who were the customers who would love it, how we fit in alongside the competition, and how we deliver the brand proposition throughout the customer journey.
Above all, his extensive knowledge and experience of developing successful niche and premium retail experiences gave us the confidence to turn the dream into a business that people love. Stephen Spencer + Associates offers an impressive breadth of experience and I'd be delighted to work with Stephen and his team again in the future.”
Paul Evans
Chair, Cogges Heritage Trust
"Stephen joined us as Interim Director responsible for the day-day operation of the business (Cogges Manor Farm) at a time when we were looking to recruit and appoint a new General Manager following the departure of the previous incumbent.
During his time with us, Stephen brought stability and leadership as well as developing a business and events plan for the following year. He achieved this by rapidly gaining an understanding of the business and by providing much needed structure, encouragement and motivation to the staff team and volunteers. Stephen also ensured there was a smooth handover to the incoming General Manager thus providing continuity.”
Emma Andrews
Delivery Lead, Heritage & Culture, Warwickshire County Council
“After a major refurbishment, Market Hall Museum offered a great experience and a popular cafe, while our retail, although small and perfectly-formed, lacked impact. Stephen worked creatively and collaboratively with our team to help us reimagine what the total experience could be, enabling us to become a cultural destination and increase engagement, repeat visitation, and revenue.
He helped us see the concept through to implementation, advising on everything from range development, product marketing and sales, to sourcing a suitable shop designer and fitter. It's been a pleasure working with Stephen and we would happily recommend his services.”
Kevin Smith
Founder and owner at HALO 2020 Consulting
“I have known and worked with Stephen for over 10 years in the capacity of employer and client. Stephen has fulfilled a number of projects for, and with me, covering a range of services including site management, customer experience development and retail development and delivery. We have collectively worked on a number of signature projects including the Emirates Air Line Cable Car, London, Spinnaker Tower, Portsmouth, The Real Mary King's Close, Edinburgh, Oxford Castle, and York's Chocolate Story.
Stephen has a great attention to detail in all of his outputs and always considers each project on an independent basis rather than applying a fixed mindset to the development. I continue to keep Stephen in mind when I have specific project requirements and have no hesitation in recommending his services to any potential client.”
Rosie Jacobs
Director, Independent Oxford
“Stephen worked with us to create a workshop for Independent Oxford members to help them build great customer experience and communication into their businesses.
Stephen’s workshop was brilliant, he has unrivalled knowledge and vision when it comes to the customer experience, and his creativity and attention to detail is second to none. We really enjoyed working with him, and look forward to working together again on future projects. He is extremely professional, and I would highly recommend him to anyone looking to create a great customer experience.”
Heather Golding, Founding Director, TonyG Ltd
Award-winning production house to the premium retail sector
“After 18 years of continual growth working very much in reaction to demand, we felt as a team we were frequently in chaos on our own individual hamster-wheels.
Stephen and team rounded us into a cohesive whole, clarifying some significant core values we could all identify with and that connected us together better. Introducing us to tools that helped recognise each other’s different communication styles was really useful too and we still make reference to those techniques today.”
Shane Bartley
Basildon Borough Council (Chelmsford Museum) / ICT and Change Manager
“I engaged Stephen to help me motivate and direct teams of staff across three different museums. Each has their own challenges to overcome to make the shops make increased contributions to the Museum. Stephen shared with us his philosophy and we could then draw on his broad depth of knowledge to help us determine our way forward. Moreover, as he has such a range of experience he was willing and able to talk with passion and enthusiasm about each of his experiences. This rubbed off onto the people being trained and by the end of the 2 day workshops they were feeling empowered and ready to make a positive contribution to their Museum.
I am currently feeding the fire of this new found enthusiasm and encouraging them to look differently at our customers and products, and really take ownership of this key service. It's early days but I'm confident through the learning we gained from Stephen's workshops our retail businesses will go from strength to strength.”
Rebecca Howarth,
Sales and Marketing Manager, Darlington Hippodrome
“Stephen, John and Catrina are a pleasure to work with. They bring to the table a great wealth of knowledge and experience from high-profile visitor attractions, but don’t apply a cookie-cutter approach. In order to deliver their incisive recommendations they took time to understand our business model, our building, our operations and staffing structures, our customer base, and what we were seeking to achieve.
Recommendations were delivered alongside a clear and structured path to implementation, and Stephen and his associates took time to talk this through with us and make sure we felt confident to proceed. We now have a clear, workable and measurable strategy to move forward with. We would not hesitate to recommend Stephen Spencer + Associates to other arts, culture and heritage organisations.”
