The ACR News Customer Service Award is run purely online, with nominations and voting done by anyone and everyone within the acr industry. This year's nominations are laid out below, and voting is now open - scroll down to the bottom of the page to log your vote. The closing date is the 31 January, and the winner will be announced on 26 February at the ACR News Awards, with live coverage on the evening, on Twitter.

Nick Beal - Coolair Equipment

Telereal Trillium manage and provide services to properties nationwide for banks, local authorities, central government departments and agencies, and some of the UK’s most respected private companies. In order to ensure operational effectiveness and compliance with the European ‘ODS’ regulation, I was tasked with managing the assessment of all our R22 systems, and replacing them where they posed a risk to our client’s operational effectiveness. 
During this process I worked with many AC companies both large and small, but found that the service I was receiving did not meet my expectations. I wanted to be able to phone someone, and get an answer to a technical issue straight away. I wanted to have the assurance that the person managing my projects would reflect the core values of Telereal Trillium while on site and dealing with our clients. Nick Beal exemplified these qualities and provided a service that I was extremely happy with. On more than one occasion Nick answered my calls while on holiday. Nick certainly exhibits a customer focused approach and he ensures operational excellence with his work, as a customer that makes me feel confident that my clients and I will get an outstanding service, and any issues will be his top priority to resolve. For these reasons I feel that Nick Beal would be a worthy winner of the ACR News Customer Service Award.

Liam Davies - Bitzer UK

In just four years with Bitzer, Liam has developed into a representative of the company that puts customer service at the top of his responsibilities. He has demonstrated this throughout his short career with us and latterly has been an important member of the team in completing the change in sales strategy from direct sales to distributor sales through Dean & Wood, RSL and Thermofrost Cryo.
On joining Bitzer Liam worked in the pack building and condensing unit section of the factory. Liam was always ready and keen to assist his work mates and the office administration. Liam's early career saw him express great interest in learning more about refrigeration in general and building condensing units. He was quickly given the responsibility of assisting customers with spare parts in an office based role and it became evident from customer feedback that the support he offered was very well received.
Bitzer recognised his attributes and concurrently Liam put himself out to attend college courses to learn more about refrigeration systems.
His dedication was rewarded with a promotion to Internal Sales Engineer. In this capacity he worked closely with the external sales team and the national sales manager, generating quotations and providing technical support for many key accounts including OEMs such as Beacon, Space and DCI.
Liam also attended a number of training courses at the company's head office in Germany, including Compressor Skills and CO2 technology. These again reflected his desire to acquire the necessary attributes to both assist his customers and further his career.
In 2013, Bitzer moved to sales through three key distributors. Ensuring that these companies received the highest levels of customer and technical support would be key to the new strategy. Liam was identified as having a major role to play within this and his most recent promotion has seen him taking up the position of Sales Representative.
In this external role he regularly visits Dean & Wood, RSL and Thermofrost Cryo delivering lectures and training on many different aspects of BITZER technology. He also provides technical support and is still involved in selection, pricing and quotations.
Liam is now responsible to Business Line Manger, David Bailey, who says:  “Throughout his career with us, Liam has demonstrated a clear headed approach to all aspects of his work, but with particular emphasis on customer service. There have been several occasions where he has clearly thought ahead about customers' requirements, whether for a replacement part or a technical support question that needs answering.  With this dedication and mind-set his progression through the BITZER UK organisation makes him a worthy candidate for this award.'
Some Bitzer customers have also offered their support to Liam’s nomination:

• James Ogden (MD) - G&O – “Liam is always quick to respond and if he doesn’t know the answer, he will find out and reply immediately.”
• Paul Hallett - Space Engineering – “Excellent speedy replies to our inquiries with great technical knowledge.”
• George Austin - DCI – “Always a great response from Liam.”
• Mark Hammamatt – Beacon – “When we need a quick price, technical or delivery information, Liam never lets us down.”
• Paul Beattie – Stonegrove – “Liam goes the extra mile.”

In conclusion, Liam generates customer satisfaction for any clients he deals with at only 22 years of age.

Celia Dickinson - Toshiba Air Conditioning

Celia has been part of the air conditioning industry for more years than she would care to admit. During a lifetime of service, however, one thing has remained constant: Celia leaves an indelible impression on every customer with whom she has contact. Having worked with her for more than 12 years, I can testify to the extraordinary commitment, care, energy and passion that Celia brings to everything she does. 
In all her dealings with customers, which can amount to dozens – and on occasion hundreds - of individual contacts each day, Celia brings her unique style, warmth and can-do approach. Her ability to win people over and transform commercial contacts into strong and lasting business relationships means she is an asset to our business, and (more’s the pity) effectively irreplaceable.
In her role as Operations Support Manager,Celia is responsible for some of Toshiba’s biggest customers. Every single one of them praise the support they receive from her, and her willingness to go the extra mile for them. She always answers her telephone regardless of pressure of time, and is diligent in calling customers back with promised information and updates. Over the past two weeks, I have been visiting customers old and new, up and down the county. I have been struck by the unanimous view people have of Celia. Everyone she has dealt with, even if it was more than 20 years ago or when working for a former company, comments on how well she has looked after them. As an illustration, on the strength of Celia’s involvement we have won new customers to Toshiba who previously dealt with her when at a previous company. Following her move to us, these customers have asked to open accounts - with Celiaas the main point of contact. That says a great deal about the quality of the service Celia provides, and the strength of her relationships.
Celia is not only excellent with external customers, she is also brilliant with internal ones. As the company changes and expands, new people come on board and everyone goes to Celia as first point of contact – as they know she will be only too happy to assist. Whenever we look to change something or launch a new scheme, we can rely on Celia to look at the proposals from a customer’s perspective - and ensure that what we are proposing works for them as well as the company. A recent customer satisfaction survey asked people to identify the best things about dealing with Toshiba. A high percentage of customers simply wrote 'Celia'.

Peter Lawless - Leeming ACR

I have worked for Peter over the last 2 years on a number of jobs as a sub-contractor. Pete pushes himself every day to keep his loyal customers returning over and over again.
His attention to quality is outstanding, even the distance apart to use cable ties. All pipe work bends have to be perfect and inline. He is defiantly a perfectionist. All he cares about is the customers and the quality of the equipment and  installation.
He works every day, he travels everywhere, he does his own sales and he has just become a Mitsubishi accredited installer. His passion goes unrecognised, the things he does even the customers won’t know, but he still does it perfectly every time.
He is an asset to the industry and fully deserves an award.

Laurence Zeyen - Emerson Climate Technologies

Emerson Climate Technologies, as with all Emerson divisions, is currently engaged in a program entitled ‘Perfect Execution’. This global initiative has a simple premise: to align the company’s performance with customer expectations. Everything we do today and everything we do in the future must come back to this starting point: the customer.
With this in mind, excellent customer service is a critical function for our success and this is why we welcome the ACR News award to recognise outstanding work in this field.
Our nominee for the award is Laurence Zeyen, based in Emerson Climate’s Distribution Centre in Welkenraedt Belgium. Laurence is Customer Communicator for UK and Ireland and thanks to excellent communication skills she has a very high reputation with our customers.
In the opinion of her peers and customers, Laurence addresses customers proactively, listening carefully to them and trying to pre-empt issues and problems that sometimes even the customer has not foreseen. In one example of an OEM customer she visited them to understand the timing of their internal planning meetings then organised supply and order updates from Emerson that would be supplied just before their meeting so the latest information would be available for production planning.
In another case, for a wholesaler, she resolved the need to answer recurring lead-time requests by providing an advanced customised lead-time chart. This enabled the wholesaler to respond to order enquiries fast. Laurence also introduced regular weekly or monthly telephone conferences to check on overall performance and to follow up ongoing challenges.
Commendations from colleagues and customers prove the point.
From a colleague in our sales organisation: “Since joining our customer services team, Laurence has transformed day to day communications with our customers. She has independently set up regular web based meetings in order to discuss order status and to resolve any problems ahead of time. By liaising between our Customer, Sales, Manufacturing and Operations, Laurence has been instrumental in improving our profile and overall service to our industry. I would have no hesitation in recommending Laurence for this award, as it would be well deserved.”
And from one of her distribution customers in the UK (APJ European Ltd): ‘The level of service we receive from Laurence Zeyen sets the standards that others can only hope to achieve. She is efficient and her attention to detail is excellent. Laurence consistently answers enquiries in a timely fashion and has a positive and happy customer approach, she is a pleasure to deal with’.

Voting has now closed.