LeasingWorld

CUSTOMER SERVICE EXCELLENCE AWARDS

ENTRY FORM 2020

AWARD CATEGORY

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THE ENTRY PROCESS

Entries must be submitted to Leasing World at editor@leasingworld.co.uk by 5pm on Friday August 28th. No exceptions. All entrants will be notified about the status of their submissions within a week of their submission.

This entry form must not exceed seven pages in length. In addition to this form, you may send up to five PowerPoint slides to illustrate points made here.

Thank you for participating and good luck!

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www.leasingworld.co.uk VOL 13 I NO 150 2020 29

BACK IN THE OFFICE

>backintheoffice

Stop Press: Customer Service Excellence 2020 Awards

The Leasing World Customer Service Excellence Awards exist to give recognition and reward to asset finance teams and individuals that have achieved exceptional standards at delivering customer experience and service. In this respect, 2020 has been a monumental year for stretching our industry to new heights, making these awards all the more deserved, yet the same adversary that led us to this greater effort has caused social restrictions that forbid us attending a convivial and exciting evening of large-scale celebration.

Well, we believe that awards to recognise 2020’s Customer Service Excellence stars are still in order, but without any health risks! We will ensure that we hold and open the 2020 CSE Awards to all nomination entries as normal, that our judges ensure that strict standards are applied to the contenders, that winners receive their coveted trophies, and that our media channels fully broadcast the shortlisted and victors to all.

The winners will be revealed in September’s edition of Leasing World, a very special edition of the magazine dedicated to the CSE awards, and the winners will receive their statuettes with their September magazine. To cap it all, we will Zoom-record each winner’s feedback and present them on our website, so it’s going to be exciting!

Looking at the list of award categories, many might be thinking, “We deserve that Award this year.” 2020 features new categories like The Go the Extra Mile (“GEM”) award, Outstanding Customer Service award, Outstanding Leadership award, as well as established categories such as Customer-centric Champions, Best Use of Technology for Service Excellence, Outstanding Operations Team, Best New Digital Tools, and Top Broker/Funder Partnership.

So, we can confirm that nominations are now open, and forms can be downloaded from the Leasing World website. The entry fee is £195 for a single awards category, or £295 for unlimited entries. Shortlists will be announced on 1 September, entries will be judged by our panel of top judges, and all the contenders profiled in Leasing World magazine.

Our headline sponsor Aldermore Asset Finance is committed to the principle of Customer Service Excellence, and is greatly assisting us with keeping the CSE awards as a focus for our industry. At the same time, and with cautious optimism, we have booked the Sky Garden for next year’s CSE awards dinner, on April 27th, 2021. We love the venue, and our guests last year told us that they loved it too, so we want to be there again, one day.

Pictures from last year’s Leasing World Customer Service Excellence Awards, at the Sky Garden

THE CHALLENGEThe challenge is open to direct and broker funders who take a customer-centric approach to business: putting end-users and intermediaries at the centre of their business. Funders are invited to enter a range of categories, allowing them to nominate their teams, departments, and individuals for recognition.

The categories are as follows:

1. Top use of customer feedbackAwarded for the customer feedback programme that most effectively collects the voice of the customer, develops valuable insights from feedback, and applies those insights to influence decisions and achieve positive business change. What we’re looking for: Initiatives that use customer feedback in various forms (structured and unstructured, solicited and unsolicited) to drive change in the organisation. Approaches to ensure that decision makers act on feedback, as well as solutions to measure and analyse customer sentiment.

2. Top in customer engagementAwarded to the organisation with the best approach to building, and maintaining relationships with end users or intermediaries. What we’re looking for: Approaches that bring the company closer to its customers. Programmes that generate trust and loyalty by making external partners and end-users an integral part of the business.

3. Top customer-centric cultureAwarded for the programme or initiative with the greatest success at embedding customer-centricity in the company’s culture. What we’re looking for: Initiatives that shape the culture of the organisation through hiring, training, communications, rewards, recognition, and celebrations of customer centric behaviour.

4. Best use of technology for service excellenceAwarded to the organisation with the best implementation of technology to support customer service. What we’re looking for: Use of technology in any part of the

organisation to enable the company to elevate customer service to a new level.

5. Best new digital toolAwarded for the most innovative digital tool for customer service, launched to the asset finance market during the last 12 months. What we’re looking for: Innovative digital tools, apps, and resources that transform the experience of end-users and/or intermediaries.

6. Top Broker/Funder Partnership modelAwarded to the organisation whose model demonstrates the most outstanding or innovative collaboration with brokers, leading to service excellence.What we’re looking for: Organisations that are genuinely committed to collaborative partnerships with brokers (in general, not specific brokers).

7. Outstanding operations teamAwarded to the department or team that demonstrates the most dedication to driving up standards in customer service.What we’re looking for: Teams that go above and beyond to raise the standards in customer service in their organisations, applying creativity and passion in their approaches to drive company-wide change.

8. The GEM AwardThe Go the Extra Mile award will go to an individual (or team) that presents the best example of maximum possible effort to achieve a great service outcome and a delighted customer.

9. C.O.O. of the YearAwarded to the C.O.O. who has done the most to raise the bar on service excellence.What we’re looking for: A Chief Operations Officer who combines vision, customer focus, operational excellence, technology, and innovation to lead a customer-centric organisation

The winner in each category will receive a prestigious Best In Class trophy. At the judges discretion, other entrants in each category may be singled out for a Special Commendation. The judging panel will consist of asset finance industry experts, together with established SME group, and Customer Service group advisors. The judges will assess the entries in each category according to clarity of approach, business results achieved, impact on end-users’ or intermediaries’ experience, degree of differentiation, and lessons learnt.

10. Leasing World Outstanding Leader MedalAwarded to an executive or manager who demonstrated inspirational leadership enabling teams to put their customers first at all times.

1) Describe the programme / organisation / approach / team / individual that you are entering for this award.

Please describe for your organization: What are the attributes of the programme / organisation / approach / team / individual? How did you develop it? How does it work? What is unique or special about it?

Please be as specific as possible. This should be the largest portion of the nomination form. You will be graded based on the clarity of the programme / organisation / approach described.

Question 1 response:

2) How has the programme / organisation / approach / team / individual improved your organization’s business results? Has it had any impact on your business processes and structure?

Please be as specific as possible about business benefits like increased revenue, decreased cost, increased customer retention, improved customer loyalty, better business processes etc.. Please specify how you measure those benefits and the magnitude of the benefits you measured.

You will be graded based on the clarity and magnitude of the business impact achieved.

Question 2 response:

3) How has the programme / organisation / approach / team / individual improved your customers’ experiences?

Please be as specific as possible about how the quality of the experience that your customers perceive when interacting with your organization has changed. For example, do you better meet their needs, make it easier to do business with you, or make it more enjoyable to do business with you? Please be as specific as possible about how you measured the benefits of those changes, and the magnitude of the benefits you measured.

You will be graded based on the clarity and magnitude of the customer experience improvements achieved.

Question 3 response:

4) How is the programme / organisation / approach / team / individual managed? Please include details of how different departments are involved, if it is a cross departmental initiative?

Please describe the individuals and teams inside your organization that are responsible and the roles that they play. Please explain if these roles and responsibilities had to change. Please also describe any vendors that are involved and the roles that they play.

You will be graded based on the clarity of your response.

Question 4 response:

5) What are the most innovative characteristics of your entry?

Please highlight one or two innovative attributes of the programme / organisation / approach / team / individual that make it stand out from the competition. What are the best of breed prac-tices that you chose to use? How have you innovated on top of these?

You will be graded based on your degree of innovation.

Question 5 response:

6) What are lessons learned, i.e. which advice would you give to other organizations to make their customer service programs successful?

Please provide one or two specific pieces of advice that you would give to another organization or individual, based on this entry.

You will be graded based on the quality of your advice for other organizations or individuals.

Question 6 response: