The nominations for the Customer Services Award are in, and voting is now open.
Scroll down to read the nominations. Voting will close on 24 January2014.
 

Mohamed Salem Badi (Electrotech, Mauritania)
Mohamed is wonderful with the local customers. He is a real professional and I have a lot of respect for how he is able to understand and reply to customer.
I guess his secret could be resumed into one thing : be listening.'

Natasha Eley (Stonegrove Refrigeration, UK)
I would like to nominate Natasha Eley from Stonegrove Refrigeration for the excellent first class service she give all her customers and suppliers.

Going out of her way to keep everybody updated and informed and informing people about new options and products available.
Natasha is an excellent example to the industry of what customer service is about.

Nadege Gicquiaud (GEA, France)
I'm Export Manager for South East Asia for ice machine. SEA are quite dynamic market which demands fast response. It's also competitive and customer service can give us the edge.

To perform my job successfully, I rely on support and information from our factory in France. Therefore, I would like to nominate Ms Nadege Gicquiaud because she is...
-Exceptionally quick response
-Very good accountability, If I attach her in an email, I know she will follow through

It goes without saying and all direct request for help or handle promptly professionally and in a friendly manner. She really does care. She's a STAR.

David Livingstone (Panasonic, UK)
David has worked relentlessly over the past two years. To ensure the highest standards are met for our air to water products. He has trained hundreds of installers in the correct way to size and install the units, and was instrumental in setting up our call centre ensuring that the very best support is offered by the staff there.

As well as supporting the business's development, David takes personal responsibility if a unit is not performing in the field working with the home owner or installer to find a the best not always the cheapest or easiest solution.

As you can see David is a very busy chap but that doesn't deter him from giving his mobile number out to whoever may need it homeowner, installer, designer and working on after office hours to try and make sure he supports each and every one of them.

I hope you will consider this highly motivated highly committed individual for your award he really does go above and beyond.

Robert Long (Starfrost, UK)
Salesmen are notorious for being your best friend when you have an order to place but then vanishing once the order is placed or not wanting to know you if you don't place orders.

And so for those that lose an order after working very hard to try and secure it, well, these never forgive you and certainly don't waste their time in staying in contact.

In my experience, that is true in all cases except one: Robert Long of Starfrost. Although I have never placed any orders with him, we have always stayed in contact and also been very friendly and what is more, helpful. If ever I need any information, even about the job he lost, if I contact Robert he is always keen to help and provides me with more than the information I have requested.

It is for this reason that I would like to nominate him.

Tony Martin (AJM Ventilation)
Tony and his team have worked for me over the last 20 years. He is an excellent ambassador to any company that he sub-contracts to and is highly disciplined in safety, quality and customer satisfaction. He is a skilled ductworker but can also be used as a contract lead when other sub-contractors are involved around his work. My main comment regarding Tony is that if he says he cannot do it then it is impossible to do.

Excellent pricing, great site discipline, punctual with a quality that has yet to be beaten in my eyes.
I have used others when Tony has not been available but in my experience there is no better ductwork contractor in the country.

Ken Osmann (Ivey Mechanical Company, USA)
He not only has the best customer service and care that I have ever found, he is also a trusted advisor in building and planning. He was instrumental in advising me on a recent building project, saved me a lot of money, and the final product is superior to the plans that another contractor originally developed. When ever I need guidance or advice, Mr. Osmann is my first choice.

Ken Osmann makes me look like the expert because I take his advice; if the truth is known, Ken is the real expert and I succeeded primarily from his excellent guidance.

Disa Shearer (Logicool, UK)
In 2012 Logicool embraced Apprenticeships with the addition of Disa Shearer to our team.
Although Disa did very well in the Interview it was clear that there were confidence issues that needed to be overcome. Based on this we did not expect to be in a position today where we would be nominating Disa for such an illustrious award. It gives the Directors of the business great pride to do so as we passionately believe in people and training.

Disa joined Logicool in March 2011. At the time of writing Disa has been employed by Logicool for less than 21 months.

In that time Disa has completed NVQ Level 2's in Business Administration and Marketing. She is now commencing a Level 3 NVQ of the latter and is responsible for our new website, marketing strategy, advertising and marketing budgets.

One thing that stands out is that Disa will be often be the first person to answer the phone regardless of her workload. There is never any negativity in her voice when speaking to customers or suppliers. She emits a positive enthusiasm at all times. Working at the Coal Face in sales and distribution means that there will always be challenging situations especially when there are logistics issues to deal with. Disa never complains, never shirks from the task and continues to deal with everything in a very professional and enthusiastic manner.

In addition to the above Disa is one of the most liked and respected members of our team by both colleagues and customers. Our challenge now is trying to fit her skills into all areas of the business as she excels in everything from Internal Sales and logistics to Spare Parts, advanced equipment selection and even basic VRF design. It is a challenge for the Directors of the business to stop Disa taking on too much work and trying to focus her on Sales and Marketing as she wishes to study this at Degree level. As an example, Disa recently walked in to my office and presented a VRF piping schematic she had drawn by hand and asked it to be checked for accuracy. As Disa is not involved in VRF application this was a surprise. Consequently there was only one minor error in Disa's design. As this is not part of Disa's role it is always encouraging to see staff members striving to improve and excel. In this instance the possibility of a future sales and marketing manager with first class knowledge of our industry is very exciting.

We receive a number of compliments from Customers about Disa. This is a regular occurrence and her name pops up time and time again when Directors or Sales Representatives of the business are talking face-to-face with clients.

This is particularly pleasing for the Directors of the business as Disa has dealt with adversity and overcome confidence issues to emerge as a very reliable and likeable employee, a detail for which she is often reminded and regularly rewarded.

This fact is not lost on people outside of the Company which is why we are confident that Disa will receive votes. As an example, our suppliers regularly offer positive feedback. When asked, Stephen Reece, Territorial Manager of Mitsubishi Electric commented 'I am delighted to be asked to write some words of recommendation about Disa. The feedback from everyone in MEUK regarding Disa, is exemplary. She is an asset to Logicool. Qualities that spring to mind when thinking of Disa are, bright, honest, professional, creative and caring. She demonstrates these to us, every day.

Sophie Swain (Climate Control, UK)
I feel absolutely excited to be able to recommend a person who to me is the best person and the most hard working customer service employee not just at the Climate Control but throughout this industry.

I base my statement in the following reasons: she is always there to deal with customer in a professional manner probably that's the reason when customers call us they want to speak directly with Sophie because she knows how to deal with them by listening first than responding professionally.

One skill among the others that I found at Sophie has is the know-how of the HVAC industry which for a women might surprise someone but she knows the industry like she was the engineer or technician that's the reason she understands the customer concerns immediately by listening their first and coming up with solution. Sometimes she even goes further by being accessible even when she is outside the country. For instance, just recently she was attending a conference organised by Daikin in Belgium, while she was in the conference she was dealing with customers here in the UK which makes her an outstanding candidate for the award.

All customers pretty match demands to speak to her all the time which I find absolutely amazing. If you were to speak with one of our clients they will definitely recommend her to enter in this award as she's understand them better than anyone in this industry. Not just customers but also our partners/suppliers/sub contractors everyone wants to work with her because she has been in this industry for the last 6 years and understand inside and out.

Furthermore, she's has dealt professionally with more than 700 clients up to now and everyone is happy with her service and expertise. If there is a need she even goes further by visiting the client on the site and trying to figure out problems with support of our skilled engineers.

I personally think that people like her needs to be recognised by the industry for the efforts and the hard work they bring in this industry. In addition, she could be a perfect role model for young people in particular young women who wants to go in this industry which for some is not an exciting one. She cares about our customers more than anybody else because she thinks that the main purpose of any business is to create and keep customer and she does this by delighting them not just meeting their needs and wants.

This helps the company to differentiate itself from the competition and therefore increase the bottom line. Let's take an example: when she is not in the office or not reachable things are likely to go wrong because nobody knows and understand customers better than her. Her role within the company is vital because we put customer at the centre at everything we do here at Climate Control that's the reason we won few awards such as a Best Customer Service company for the east of England.

Moreover, she always put customer needs first and tries to deliver the best possible customer service by building a relationship first. Given that people buy from people they trust, relationship building is another skill that Sophie posses. She understands perfectly well that a customer is the most important person ever in the office/person/mail and phone. She also thinks that we are not doing a favour by serving them but customers are doing us a favour by giving us the opportunity to do so.

Additionally, I've never heard her arguing with a customer because according to her nobody ever won an argument with customer because a customer brings his needs and wants and it is her job to deal with them professionally and profitably and that's why she thinks a customer needs to be treated like a real king.
Taking everything into account I strongly believe that she is the right person to be nominated for this award and deserves the industry recognition for having changed the way how companies should deal with their customers professionally.