Category: Customer Service Excellence
Who should enter?
Entries are invited from organisations (in private, voluntary or public sectors) that can demonstrate the crucial role that staff play in making customers feel valued by providing them with the best customer care and quality experience.
Entrants are encouraged to demonstrate how they are giving their visitors what they want, to provide details of training development or continuous improvement systems and how these align with their business culture and objectives. Examples should include the small touches and attention to detail that evidence the importance placed on going the “Extra Mile” to surprise and impress customers.
Category Criteria
- Please put all your answers in the boxes provided
- Responses should not exceed 500 words per question
(Words over this limit will be discounted and ignored)
Please provide as much detail as possible when illustrating your response to the following questions/tops to help facilitate judging of your entry:
- Your approach to developing and communications a customer service culture
- Staff skills and training delivery
- Evidence of staff and business recognition awards
- Local destination development and the ambassadorial role of your business.
In addition, we have provided examples and guidance on the type of information that would help to strengthen youranswer.
Each question is worth 10 marks with a total of 40 marks available for each category.
Additional Criteria
Please read the General Notes for Guidance and Tourism NI Best Practice Guidelines for further pointers to help you when formulating your entry answers. (Available on the website “How to Enter NITA 2017”)
Where possible, you should include evidence in your answers based on the information included in these documents.
How your entry is scored
Each question is worth 10 marks with a total of 40 marks available. Scores will be moderated by the judging panel based on the scoring matrix below.
Score / Justification / Score / Justification0 / Absolutely no evidence offered / 6 / Evidence is good (but could be better)
1 / Limited irrelevant evidence provided / 7 / Good evidence and benefits for the operator drawn out and understood
2 / More evidence offered but it’s irrelevant / 8 / Evidence and benefits for business well articulated
3 / Evidence offered had limited relevance to operator / 9 / Very good evidence and implications for operator very well presented
4 / Evidence does have some relevance but incomplete (or lessons for business are unclear) / 10 / Evidence exceptionally good and benefits for business very clear
5 / Evidence useful, but not enough of it to draw strong conclusions
Following initial shortlisting by the Judging Panel, shortlisted entries will then go forward to the final stage of judging, which for this category is assessed by Mystery Shop.
Applicant Information – This information iscompulsory
Contact Name:Title/Role:
Organisation:
Address:
Postcode:
Email:
Telephone Number:
Mobile Number:
Website/Webpage:
How did you hear about these awards?
Entry Information–This information is compulsory
Project or Business Name:Please provide a synopsis of the project/business/festival/event you are entering in approximately 20 words which will be used in publicity
Please provide a jpeg image of the property/business/festival/event you are entering which will be used in publicity
(If you are sending your image as an attachment when entering rather than inserting it to this document please make a note here)
Company Information – This information iscompulsory
Total Number of Employees:Number of Employees in
Owner/Management Roles:
Number of Full Time Staff:
Number of Part Time Staff:
Type of Organisation: / Small Private Business
(less than 10 employees)
Medium Private Business
(11-50 employees)
Large Private Business (51+ employees)
Association or Information Partnership
Multinational or Subsidiary
Community Organisation
Public Sector
Charity
Description and Nature of Business:
Number of years in business:
Question 1 (10 marks)
Culture
Evidence of a planned and systematic approach to a customer service culture at the core of your business operation.
N.B: What is your approach to customer service? Explain how you have developed a customer service culture within your business and specifically how you have communicated this to your staff and also to your customer? Tell us how you work together with your staff to empower them to keep the customer happy, and if you reward them and how you ensure your service standards and expectations are delivered by your team? How has this approach supported your overall business objectives?
NB: Each answer must not exceed 500 words. Words over this limit will be discounted and ignored.
Response:
Question 2 (10 marks)
Training
Evidence of customer service excellence e.g. training programmes; sharing best practice; benchmarking; awards or recognition schemes; recruitment practices.
N.B Give us evidence of training and development and a forward thinking approach which challenges your processes to facilitate your customer service culture. You may wish to include any awards, relevant qualifications, success or achievements that results from your staff training initiatives. Include management skills and results here too.
NB: Each answer must not exceed 500 words. Words over this limit will be discounted and ignored.
Response:
Question 3 (10 marks)
Results
Evidence that business performance and customer satisfaction has improved through the role of staff and how this differentiates you from competitors.
N.B Show us how you have worked hard to improve service quality and customer experience as a result of the commitment and investment you make in staff with examples relating to the last 12 months. What formats of gathering feedback do you use and why? Tell us if you use social media to assess how effective your customer service standards are. You could give us quantitative as well as qualitative information about how successful you have been. Use this section to highlight and ‘extra mile’ success stories you have where a customer has been ‘wowed’ by your business. Highlight how the ‘Extra Mile’ ethos was applied in this situation and the positive impact on the customer experience. This could include the resolution of a problem, the response to a specific request or a special detail that is offered on an on-going basis.
NB: Each answer must not exceed 500 words. Words over this limit will be discounted and ignored.
Response:
Question 4 (10 marks)
Partnership
Evidence of how your business contributes to local destination development through customer service.
N.B Provide evidence of how you have engaged with and been supportive of the development of your local tourism destination through your approach to customer service. Explain the ambassadorial role of your business, specifically giving examples of how and when staff integrate this into operational delivery e.g. through the use of local product knowledge, by sharing local stories and integrating local heritage and products into your business. You should also include networking and partnership initiatives that highlight your commitment to your local destination.
NB: Each answer must not exceed 500 words. Words over this limit will be discounted and ignored.
Response:
Declaration
I declare that the information supplied is correct to the best of my knowledge at the time of entry and agree to abide by the Terms and Conditions found on the website.
I accept the terms and conditions of this application as stated above.
PRINT/TYPE NAME: ______
CLOSING DATE is MONDAY 6th February 2017 at 5pm
Please email your completed entry form to
1