The winner of the Customer Excellence Award, sponsored by Greater Anglia, at the Norfolk Business Awards 2022 will be a local business that shows a clear understanding of its customers' needs and exemplifies outstanding customer service.
The finalists for this year's award have been announced, and here we find out who has been shortlisted.
Potters Resorts
Potters Resorts offers the UK’s only all-inclusive short breaks at its sites in Hopton-on-Sea and Maldon, Essex.
Now in its 102nd year, Potters boasts a team of 700 employees, providing comfortable accommodation, delicious food and drink, activities, sports and leisure facilities, plus nightly entertainment.
The judges were interested to learn how the launch and development of Potters’ all-inclusive 'product' has been developed from extensive customer feedback.
They said that, given the volume of guests each week, Potters demonstrates “a tremendous consistency of service being provided”. They were also impressed with the high staff to guest ratio.
Overall, the judges felt that Potters’ 'mission to entertain' philosophy is embedded in its customer service culture and reflected in the ways that it looks after its teams and its high level of staff retention.
Fosters Solicitors
Founded in 1761, Fosters Solicitors is an all-service law firm providing specialist support to both individuals and businesses, covering their property, personal and commercial legal needs.
The business employs just under 150 people across its three branches in Norwich, Wymondham and Lowestoft, and boasts a variety of community and sporting partnerships with key local and national organisations.
The business aims to set itself apart on customer service in a competitive sector, and the judges noted that Fosters has “invested considerably” in the customer journey and onboarding staff.
All client-facing staff at Fosters receive customer journey and client emotions training to ensure that they have the skills needed to help each individual client and the judges were impressed with its Net Promoter Score (NPS), which is above the sector average.
Lovell Partnerships
Lovell is a leading developer of partnership and open-market housing working in Norfolk and beyond. With expertise in housing-led regeneration, open market and refurbishment as well as later and assisted living, it has been building homes and working with its local supply chain in the region to deliver excellence for 20 years.
Praising Lovell’s core value of putting the customer first, the judges said that the company demonstrated a “clear and comprehensive 20-step plan for the customer journey, from reservation to handover”.
Lovell has listened to customer feedback and developed new practices and processes as a result, including the creating of a home demonstration video for customers to refer to after handover.
The judges also said that everyone at Lovell “understands their role in the process” and praised the business’ training programme.
MAD-HR
MAD-HR is a leading HR consultancy with offices in Ipswich, Norwich and Chelmsford, known locally and nationally for its ‘Make A Difference’ brand of HR.
Launched in 2014, the business is underpinned by a dedicated customer-first ethos and its team members hail from a variety of sectors, enabling MAD-HR to serve businesses of all shapes and sizes.
The judges said that MAD-HR demonstrated its business values with "a clear focus on solving clients' objectives” and is “in it to build long-term partnerships,” with no plans to dilute its service as it grows.
MAD-HR's staff structure and recent recruitments help to ensure that there are no gaps in service when colleagues are on annual leave, for example, and the judges added that MAD-HR was “able to demonstrate a clear operational plan focussed on client satisfaction”.
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