Gew on, give us a smile yow'm in Cradley Heath

Cradley Heath may have changed a lot in the last few years but a survey has shown that the town hasn't lost its Black Country charm.

The centre is now dominated by a huge Tesco Extra store but the results of a recent mystery shopping exercise has put it as 12th in a league of 57 friendly towns – ahead of Cheltenham, Colchester and Mansfield.

In April and May, Cradley Heath was visited by mystery shoppers from Skillsmart Retail. They surveyed more than 50 shops and market stalls to judge how well they performed in areas such as customer service and window displays.

Results showed 98 per cent of staff were polite and friendly with 82 per cent of mystery shoppers saying they would return to the town. The news was met today with a mixture of amusement and bemusement by people in Cradley Heath.

Debra Coley, 41, grew up in Cradley Heath and says it is one of the friendliest places she has ever been.

"When you work in a small town like Cradley Heath everyone is friendly and you end up having a great laugh and joke with the customers," says Debra who works at Bakers Kitchen in the High Street. "I worked for a while in Oldbury and the other staff were not friendly or welcoming to new people – Cradley Heath is better by a mile."

Many said they feared the rise of the supermarket was killing off smaller shops and putting the personal touch under threat. Beverley Hill, 39, of Sutherland Road in Cradley Heath, shopping with her and her son Michael Edwards, 16, said: "I would never have expected Cradley Heath to be in the top 20 as there are not many shops left here due to the big Tesco.

"However, the staff that are left in the shops are friendly and helpful and people you know say 'hello' and wave."

The results were unveiled at a recent meeting at the Salvation Army HQ in Cradley Heath. An assessment of the town centre was also included in the study, which is designed to find how easy it is for a stranger to get around. Everything from car parking, eating out, public toilets and street signage was scrutinised.

Assessors did identify some areas for consideration, including the fact that only four out of the 104 interviewed were visiting from more than five miles away and less than a third of people had seen improvements to the town in the past two years.

Carole Taylor, 63, who lives on Butchers Lane in Cradley, works at The Pork Shop in Cradley Heath High Street. "It is the people that make Cradley Heath a friendly place as they love to pop into the shop and have a chat with me - they share my wacky sense of humour," she says.

"I've been shopping here since 1973 and I love the town – I know where the friendly stores are and those are the ones I stick to."

Amy Burrows, 22, lives on Newark Road in Netherton and has worked in a number of fish and chip shops in Cradley Heath.

"The great thing about Cradley Heath is that a lot of people have lived here for years and so they all know each other," she says.

"There is a good network of friendly people and because it is a small town they run into each other every day – and new people to the area get caught up in the positive vibes."

But it's not all good news – some people were positively grumpy about the survey.

Freda Hine, 73, of Congreaves Walk in Cradley Heath said: "It is a load of rubbish.

"If I was to mark it out of 10 for friendliness I would give it a low score – like one."