GILL — In recognition of her outstanding customer service, Karen Timberlake, facility manager of The Mill on Route 2, has received a 2022 Store Operator Award from the New England Convenience Store and Energy Marketers Association.
“The customer service award is a great honor,” New England Convenience Store and Energy Marketers Association Executive Director Peter Brennan said in a statement. “Karen knows most of her customers by name and has trained her team to do the same. She takes pride in creating these relationships and makes sure that everyone who visits The Mill has a ‘customer experience,’ not just a shopping experience. We are proud to recognize her professionalism and outstanding work in the community.”
The New England Convenience Store and Energy Marketers Association, the region’s largest convenience store and service station trade organization, honored six store owners across five states for their excellence during its Store Operator of the Year Awards Ceremony in Norwood earlier this month. The annual celebration “was designed to highlight and recognize the outstanding employees in (convenience) stores throughout our region,” according to a statement provided by Marketing Director Lisa Lawinger Brown.
“Our NECSEMA awards program looks to recognize the outstanding employees behind the chains and owner-operated stores, and as any of our retail members would agree, these exceptional employees are the key to achieving success,” Lawinger Brown wrote. “So within the program and metrics, (Timberlake’s) scores were the highest of all nominees in this category.”
Timberlake has been working in the convenience store industry for five years, all with Summit Distributing LLC, according to Lawinger Brown. Timberlake, who has managed The Mill since it opened in 2018, said winning a Store Operator Award was a “weird experience,” but a sweet fruit of her labor.
“It felt amazing because it’s something I strive for every day,” she said, “so to be recognized for it, it meant a lot.”
Timberlake said she aims to ensure that when customers leave her store, “they have an experience they can tell other people about.”
“Summit Distributing also gets to recognize and honor Karen, and when the word gets out, we find many other people will want to visit winning stores if they are in the area, increasing awareness and bringing new customers,” Lawinger Brown added.
New customers that come to The Mill can expect not only to be greeted warmly, but to be remembered warmly, too. In true small-town fashion, Timberlake has stressed to her team the importance of making customers’ visits personal. When a customer returns to the store after a prolonged absence, she and her staff make an effort to ask how things have been, she said.
“Being a store in a smaller community makes the award that much more significant, as the guests can take pride in this honor as well because they are part of the town and part of the reason the honoree has been chosen,” Lawinger Brown wrote.
In addition to Timberlake being recognized for her customer service, she was also recognized for her “outstanding” staff training, according to Lawinger Brown.
“We’ve become a family,” Timberlake said of her team. “Without the team I have, I probably wouldn’t have been as successful as I have.”
Reach Julian Mendoza at 413-930-4231 or jmendoza@recorder.com.