Place Management Measurement

Independent civic auditing enabling Placemakers to improve public spaces.

Name: Serve Legal
Address: Audley House, 13 Palace St, London, SW1E 5HX, GB
Telephone: +442070911080

Offering a broad spectrum of specialist audit and market research services for BIDS, Councils, Retail Centres, Civic Markets and Events, Storecheckers and Serve Legal enable UK Placemakers to gain indpendent insight to improve their portfolio of public investment.

Trained national auditor network acting as everyday visitors for a realistic view of your place

Bespoke programmes aligned to your local goals, from high street routes to market and BID member feedback

Decades of place and experience measurement expertise through Storecheckers (established 1989)

Actionable evidence that supports better planning, investment decisions and community engagement

Our Services

How Serve Legal Helps

We provide data insight to place managers with bespoke audit services including safety and environmental perception audits, market research, event feedback, mystery shopping, BID survey, events experience and safety testing. Our auditors act as everyday visitors, providing a realistic view of how safe, welcoming, and well-managed your area feels. From high street routes, civic markets to BID members feedback, we adapt our approach to align with your goals.

Environmental Mapping Perception Audits

This highly proven audit enables city managers to assess how the local environment impacts a visitor’s perceptions and experience of their town centre.

Leveraging audits along public realm walkways to benchmark key factors such as pavements, cleanliness, refuse, litter, bins, overflowing, signage, safety, street sellers etc.

Mystery Shopping

A very popular and proven audit tool that enables BID managers to actively support their cross-sector levy payer communities with highly valuable insight into their own customer’s full experience, share best practice and celebrate staff excellence and awards.

The results have helped BIDS to increase Levy payer engagement, strengthen profitability , provide strong PR and increase BID awareness.

Levy Payer Consultation

This specialist market research enables BID managers to gain key insight from their levy payers of all elements of the BID term cycle which can cover BID ballot preparation, Mid-term and New BID / BID area extension. Phone based and in-person interviews provide in-depth insight on issues such as awareness of BID activities, future changes, general views / appetite, projects & voting intentions.

Safety Perception Audit

This much leveraged audit allows city managers to assess and enhance how safe visitor’s feel in their town centre with a focus on key nighttime economy routes and activity.

Typical key safety factors measured are Impacts of Local Initiatives, Car Parking, Lighting & Visibility, Maintenance works, General Walking Routes and Initial /Final Impressions. These audits are successfully being used to specifically support efforts to improve women's safety in towns and cities.

Event Feedback

Running an active events programme is a key aspect of a vibrant BID term, this specialist feedback audit allows BIDs to assess how successful their events have been, either their own or others they partnered with.

Intercept field surveys give impactful insight from attendees and levy payers on economic impact, spend levels, experiential views, travel points & future development.

Staff Security and Theft Prevention

With retail crime a huge challenge and top of the agenda, this audit enables levy payers to monitor and support staff being vigilant over stock loss and theft prevention.

Delivered via covert in-store audits covering key elements such as staff visibility / attentiveness, blind spots, customer activity, exposed stock, customer walkouts and payments etc, to help future proof their trading environment.

Focus Groups

We have a rich legacy in delivering successful Focus Group research that has given Civic Managers very sharp and in-depth insights from targeted audiences into the key issues facing an organisation.

Facilitated through Zoom based focused groups they have proven a popular and cost-effective tool to unpick issues and devise effective action plans.

Market Centre Research

Provides Civic Managers with crucial feedback from visitors to their Town Centre to help evaluate previous actions and make informed decisions on plans to enhance the full visitor experience.

Multiples in-depth insights are taken from visitors in situ covering NPS, Frequency, Dwell time, Spend, Like/Dislikes, other centres & Socio-economic profiles.

Learn More about our Data and Analytics Offering

Data and Analytics Reporting

We don’t just run audits, we turn them into live, actionable intelligence. Our investment in data, software and automation goes far beyond industry norms, giving our clients faster insight, lower reporting costs, and a genuine competitive edge. Take a look at our reporting ecosystem, combining interactive Power BI dashboards, AI-powered data assurance and a developer-friendly REST API, helping you take control of compliance performance across your organisation.

Learn More about our Data and Analytics Offering

Our success stories

“We have worked with Serve Legal since 2008. During that time they have conducted over 14,000 audits to all of our stores in Scotland, North of England and Northern Ireland. Several stores are in very remote areas, as far north as Wick and Thurso. Serve Legal has always been able to visit any store that we have requested no matter how challenging the location. The audit reports are always delivered in an accurate and timely manner and the management team have a pro-active approach and are always looking for ways to improve their service to their customers. We would have no hesitation in recommending Serve Legal to others.”

“We use Serve Legal regularly to carry out tests on our compliance with age restricted sales. This includes tobacco and the recently introduced tobacco display ban. They deliver a reliable and efficient service within agreed deadlines and with very few data errors. They are able to swiftly provide accurate analysis of our data which helps with our training and future testing programs.”

“We have worked with Serve Legal since 2014 and they have significantly helped us to combat illegal broadcasting in the UK and Ireland. Their knowledge, expertise and robust auditing in conjunction with the prompt supply of infringement data has generated over 8,000 leads; which has led to valuable leads for our sales force and investigation team to defend our investment in exclusive sports content. Serve Legal have consistently delivered against agreed KPIs.”

“We have worked with Serve Legal since 2009 and they have helped us to significantly reduce our risk with age-restricted sales. They have played a key role in monitoring our risk across a range of age-restricted products. Their knowledge, speed of service and flexible data provision helps us to sharpen our training and inform our future approach to compliance.”

“The Serve Legal information is extremely useful, informative and well presented. The issues with sites not using ‘Challenge 25’ can now be dealt with the backing of evidence of where they’re failing. I am most pleased with how the surveys are being conducted and appreciate the detailed information provided.”

“Using an independent test purchase service such as Serve Legal demonstrates to the local authorities that I am taking the issue of underage sales seriously. The due diligence provided is invaluable and has played an important role in defending my license in a recent licensing hearing.”

“We have worked with Serve Legal since 2008. The visit reports are always delivered in an accurate and timely manner. The accuracy and consistency of the information provided has allowed us to identify training needs, target resource, protect our business and improve our compliance. I would have no hesitation in recommending Serve Legal to others.”

“We use Serve Legal monthly to conduct test purchases of alcohol, in order to monitor our adherence to our Challenge 25 policy. This is also extended to campaigns of test purchasing on other age-restricted products. The professionalism and flexibility they offer has assisted us in improving our compliance levels, and where required, using targeted activity. The online portal provides easy to read data in a timely fashion for reporting.”

“We have worked with Serve Legal since 2009 and they have helped us to significantly reduce our risk with age restricted sales. They have played a key role in monitoring our risk across a wide range of age restricted products. Their knowledge, speed of service and flexible data provision helps us to sharpen our training and inform our future approach to compliance.”

“Serve Legal was appointed by my company in order that we gain valued feedback from a licensing perspective. The relationship between Serve legal and my business is friendly, professional and feels personal. The feedback we have gained is invaluable to our operation, we have been able to use the data to make changes in our business to ensure a risk free operation. I would highly recommend.”

Frequently asked questions

Who are these audits for?

These audits are to support councils, BIDs, retail centres, civic markets and the education sector (including campuses). We are able to tailor audits to support any team responsible for managing a place experience.

What can you measure during a Place Management Audit?

Safety perception, environmental standards, visitor experience, events and stakeholder sentiment — with the scope tailored to your goals and priorities.

What methods can be included?

A flexible mix including perception mapping, safety and environmental perception audits, mystery shopping, event feedback, BID surveys, levy-payer consultation, focus groups and wider market research.

What kinds of issues do these audits help uncover?

Everyday factors that shape perception and behaviour — cleanliness, signage, lighting, accessibility and visible management — before they undermine safety perceptions and engagement.

Our Awards

Don't just take our word for it, see the awards that back up our claims of excellence.

Elite Business Finalist 2025

Moneypenny Customer Service of the Year Award

Elite Business Award Winner 2025

Top 100 SME Businesses - #8 in the UK

Growing Business Awards Winner 2023

Customer Experience and Loyalty Award

The Golden Grocer Awards 2022 Finalist

Business Initiative of the Year

Growing Business Awards Winner 2022

B2B Business of the Year

Business Champion Awards 2022 Finalist

Business Community Award

About us

In early 2006, Ed Heaver and Julian Sargeson were alcohol retailers with a problem. The local authority had decided one of their sites was consistently serving underage people.

They wanted to check their staff, measure the site performance and demonstrate to the authority they were taking the issue seriously. They couldn't find a company providing a cost-effective service, so they decided to do it themselves.

The business has since grown to become the market leading provider of compliance auditing services in the UK & Ireland, and a leading voice in the conversations around age-verification and food allergy policy.

Our Customer Experience Allergen audit has been designed in collaboration with an experienced Environmental Health Practitioner and is approved by Trading Standards.