This coming Friday, February 23 we'll celebrate the 12th annual Stevie® Awards for Sales & Customer Service with a gala event at Caesars Palace in Las Vegas, Nevada USA.  More than 600 professionals from around the world are expected for the presentation of the world's top honors for customer service, contact center, business development and sales professionals.  Grand, Gold, Silver, Bronze and People's Choice Stevie Awards will be presented in a wide variety of categories.

The presentations will be broadcast live via Livestream, starting at 5:15 pm Pacific time.  We thank our sponsors for their support of the event: HCL Financial Services, Rant & Rave, Sales Partnerships, Inc. and ValueSelling Associates Inc.

Below you'll find a list of the organizations currently registered to attend the event.  Before we get to that, though, note that entries for the 2019 edition of the awards will open in July.  Add your name to the mailing list and we'll email the entry kit to you as soon as it's available.

60K Ltd. Sofia Bulgaria
Access One Inc Chicago IL
Achievers Toronto ON Canada
ActiveCampaign  Chicago  IL
Adestra  New York NY
Adobe Systems Incorporated  San Jose  CA
AFLAC Supplemental Insurance Columbus GA
Agilence Mt. Laurel NJ
AkSigorta Istanbul Turkey
Albridge  Pennington  NJ
AllClear ID Austin TX
Alliance Data Columbus OH
Allianz Global Assistance Richmond VA
Ally Bank  Detroit MI
American Airlines Ft. Worth TX
ARIIX  Bountiful  UT
Asurion Nashville TN
AWeber - Email Marketing Chalfont PA
BambooHR Lehi UT
Betta Group São Paulo Brazil
BIREVIM A.S. Istanbul Turkey
Borusan Otomotiv Ithalat ve Dagitim A.S.  Istanbul  Turkey
Bottomline Technologies Portsmouth NH
Brainier Solutions  Inc.  Minneapolis MN
Carbonite Inc. Lewiston ME
Care.com HomePay Austin TX
CareerArc  Burbank  CA
Chewy.com Hollywood FL
Cisco Systems Inc. San Jose CA
CKR Property Management  LLC  Houston  TX
ClearSlide San Francisco CA
Clio - Practice Management Software  Vancouver  BC  Canada
Collective Health  San Francisco  CA
Comcast Philadelphia PA
ComEd Oakbrook Terrace IL
Competence Call Center Vienna Austria
Con Edison New York NY
Convergys Cincinnati OH
Cross Country Home Services Fort Lauderdale FL
CSA Travel Protection-Generali Global Assistance San Diego CA
CSS Corp  Chennai India
CubeSmart Self Storage Malvern PA
DAT Solutions Beaverton OR
DataCore Software Fort Lauderdale FL
Dell Technologies  Bangalore  Karnataka  India
Delta Air Lines  Atlanta  GA
Delta Defense  West Bend  WI
Delta Vacations Minot ND
Deutsche Bank  London United Kingdom
DiCentral Corporation Houston TX
DISH Network Roseland NJ
Donan  Louisville  KY
Dorel Juvenile  Columbus  IN
Druva Inc.  Sunnyvale  CA
EMKAY Inc Itasca IL
eMoney Advisor LLC Radnor PA
Etech Global Services Nacogdoches TX
EXTRA Loyalty Solutions  Istanbul  Turkey
ezCater Boston MA
First American Database Solutions Santa Ana CA
FIS Jacksonville FL
Flight Centre Montvale NJ
Fluxx San Francisco CA
FreshBooks Toronto ON Canada
Future Generali India Insurance Company Ltd. Mumbai India
GEICO  Washington DC
GNResound  Bloomington  MN
GoDaddy Scottsdale AZ
Google Fiber Inc Mountain View CA
Grand Rounds  San Francisco  CA
Grosvenor Services Dublin Ireland
Grovo  New York  NY
GuideWell Connect  Jacksonville  FL
HCL Financial Services  Sunnyvale CA
HomeServe USA  Norwalk CT
Hospitadent Dental Group  Istanbul  Turkey
HUB International Chicago IL
IBM Armonk NY
iHeartMedia  Inc.  New York  NY
Imparta Inc. Austin TX
Infinity QS International Fairfax VA
Innovative Group Miami FL
InsureMyTrip Warwick RI
Intelenet Global Services Mumbai India
Intellis (formerly Warshaw Group  Inc.)
Intuit Inc. Mississauga ON Canada
iProspect  Boston MA
iQor St. Petersburg FL
ISN Dallas TX
Istanbul Metropolitan Municipality  Istanbul  Turkey
Jado Solutions  Chicago IL
Janek Performance Group  Las Vegas  NV
JB Bush  Newport Beach CA
John Hancock Financial Services  Boston MA
Kansas Turnpike Authority  Wichita  KS
KT Seoul South Korea
Learning Tribes Miami FL
Legacy.com Evanston IL
ListenFirst New York NY
LoftSmart  New York  NY
Loop Communications  Charlotte  NC
MarketBridge Bethesda MD
Marriott Intermediary Partner Care Omaha NE
MBX Systems Libertyville Illinois
MediaRadar Inc. New York NY
Medical Guardian  LLC  Philadelphia  PA
MetTel New York NY
MHT Partners  San Francisco CA
Mitsubishi Electric US Inc Visual and Imaging Systems Division Cypress CA
Mixpanel San Francisco CA
Moody's Analytics New York NY
Mozy by DELL  Draper  UT
MTC Performance Schaumburg IL
MTM  Lake St. Louis  MO
National Insurance Corporation of India  Kolkata India
NCR Corporation  Duluth GA
Network Alliance  Inc.  Reston  VA
Nisbet Associates  Cambridge United Kingdom
nThrive  Alpharetta GA
Nuance Communications Inc. Burlington MA
Oi S/A  Rio de Janeiro  Brasil
OmniUpdate Camarillo CA
OneCause Indianapolis IN
OneWest Bank  Pasadena  CA
Optum Eden Prairie MN
OptumRx Costa Mesa CA
Other World Computing  Woodstock  IL
Overstock.com  Midvale  UT
Park Place Technologies  Cleveland  OH
Periscope Data  San Francisco CA
PlanGrid San Francisco CA
Prov International Tampa FL
Pushpay Holdings Limited  Redmond  WA
Rant & Rave  Coventry United Kingdom
Response Lindon UT
Riva CRM Integration  Edmonton  AB  Canada
Riversource Life Insurance at Ameriprise Financial Minneapolis MN
RizePoint Salt Lake City UT
Runzheimer Waterford WI
RXBAR Chicago IL
sahibinden.com Istanbul Turkey
Sales Partnerships  Broomfield CO
Samsung Electronics America  Ridgefield Park  NJ
Sandler Training  Kansas City MO
SAP America  Newtown Square  PA
SAP America Newtown Square PA
SCAN Health Plan Long Beach CA
SelectAccount Eagan MN
ServiceMax  Pleasanton CA
ServiceNow Santa Clara CA
Seven Corners Carmel IN
SGEi Las Vegas NV
ShopKeep Inc. New York NY
Simpson Healthcare Executives  LLC  Old Lyme  CT
SmartLinx Solutions Edison NJ
SoFi Healdsburg CA
SoftPro Raleigh NC
SolarWinds Austin TX
Sprout Social  Chicago  IL
Standard For Success Cloverdale IN
Stanley Black&Decker Türkiye  - Istanbul  Turkey
Stewart A Xerox Company Mount Laurel NJ
Sun Basket  San Jose  CA
Sungard Availability Services Wayne PA
Symetra Bellevue WA and West Des Moines IA
Teachable New York NY
Tel  Salvador Brazil
The SAVO Group Chicago IL
Travelzoo New York NY
TTEC  Englewood  CO
Ultimate Software  Weston  FL
United States Equestrian Federation Lexington KY
UnitedHealthcare  Minnetonka  MN
UPMC Health Plan Pittsburgh PA
USHEALTH Group Inc. Fort Worth TX
V Digital Services  Phoenix AZ
Value Prime Solutions  Rochester NY
ValueSelling Associates  Rancho Santa Fe CA
Verified Volunteers Fort Collins CO
Visualize  Birmingham MI
Vivint Solar  Lehi  UT
VIZIO Inc.  Irvine  CA
VMware  Palo Alto CA
VPay Plano TX
VXI Global Solutions  Los Angeles  CA
Wayfair  Boston  MA
Wells Fargo Treasury Management Client Delivery San Francisco CA
WePay a Chase company Redwood City CA
Wheels Inc. Des Plaines IL
Wolters Kluwer's ELM Solutions Houston TX
WP Engine Austin TX
Wyndham Vacation Ownership  Orlando  FL
Zelis Payments Clearwater FL

Votes Determine Public’s Favorite Customer Service Providers of the Year

Winners of the 2018 People's Choice Stevie® Awards for Favorite Customer Service, a worldwide public vote, were announced today. Voting was conducted from January 19 through February 9, with the highest number of votes deciding the winners in 13 industry categories. More than 124,000 votes were cast this year.

All organizations honored in the Customer Service Department of the Year categories of this year’s Stevie Awards for Sales & Customer Service were eligible to be included in voting for the People’s Choice Awards. The Stevie Awards for Sales & Customer Service, now in their 12^th year, are the world’s top honors for customer service, contact center, business development, and sales professionals.

This year’s People’s Choice winners, who will each receive the coveted crystal People’s Choice Stevie Award, are:

• Airlines, Distribution, Transportation: DHL Express Bangladesh
• Computer Hardware: Dell Technologies
• Computer Services: Dell Technologies - Advanced Resolution Group
• Financial - 100 or More Employees: John Hancock Financial Services
• Financial - Up to 100 Employees: Care.com HomePay
• Healthcare/Pharma: Zelis Payments
• Leisure & Tourism: Travelzoo
• Other Industries: CubeSmart
• Public Services & Education: Standard For Success
• Retail: Chewy
• Software - 100 or More Employees: Carbonite, Inc.
• Software - Up to 100 Employees: FieldEdge
• Telecommunications: Loop Communications

Nicknamed the Stevie for the Greek word “crowned,” the awards will be presented to winners at the 12^th annual Stevie Awards for Sales & Customer Service awards banquet on Friday, February 23, at Caesars Palace Hotel in Las Vegas, NV. Tickets for the event are now on sale. More than 600 executives from around the world are expected to attend. The presentations will be broadcast live via Livestream.

Sponsors of the 12th annual Stevie Awards for Sales & Customer Service include HCL Financial Services, Rant & Rave, Sales Partnerships, Inc., and ValueSelling Associates, Inc.

Gold, Silver and Bronze Stevie Winners to Be Announced in Las Vegas on February 23

Finalists in the 12th Annual Stevie® Awards for Sales & Customer Service, an international competition recognizing excellence in disciplines that are crucial to business success, were announced today.

A diverse group of organizations and individuals around the world are among those recognized in the customer service awards, contact center awards, business development awards and sales awards categories. Organizations with five or more finalist nominations include 60K Ltd. (Sofia, Bulgaria), Albridge (Pennington, NJ, USA), Allianz Global Assistance (Richmond, VA, USA), BlueCat Networks (Toronto, ON, Canada), Carbonite, Inc. (Lewiston, ME, USA), Dell Technologies (Bangalore, Karnataka, India and Round Rock, TX, USA), Delta Air Lines (Atlanta, GA, USA), Delta Defense (West Bend, WI, USA), Delta Vacations (Minot, ND, USA), Deutsche Post DHL (worldwide), Druva Inc. (Sunnyvale, CA, USA), eMoney Advisor, LLC (Radnor, PA, USA), FIS (Jacksonville, FL, USA), GNResound (Bloomington, MN, USA), GuideWell Connect (Jacksonville, FL, USA), HomeServe USA (Norwalk, CT, USA), IBM (Armonk, NY, USA and Tokyo, Japan), iHeartMedia, Inc. (New York, NY, USA), Imparta Inc. (Austin, TX, USA), John Hancock Financial Services (Boston, MA, USA) Mass Mutual Life Insurance Company (Springfield, MA, USA), Mercer Consumer, (Des Moines, IA, USA), NCR Corporation (Duluth, GA, USA), nThrive Education (Los Angeles, CA, USA), Overstock.com (Midvale, UT, USA), Response (Lindon, UT, USA), Sales Partnerships, Inc. (Broomfield, CO, USA), SmartLinx Solutions (Edison, NJ, USA), Sun Basket (San Jose, CA, USA), TTEC (Englewood, CO, USA), UPMC Health Plan (Pittsburgh, PA, USA), VakifBank (Istanbul, Turkey), VIZIO Inc. (Irvine, CA, USA), VXI Global Solutions (Los Angeles, CA, USA), Wells Fargo Treasury Management Client Delivery (San Francisco, CA, USA) and Wyndham Vacation Ownership (Orlando, FL, USA).

For a full list of finalists by category, visit www.StevieAwards.com/Sales.

All finalist nominations ultimately will be named Gold, Silver and Bronze Stevie Award winners. The placements will be revealed during a gala banquet on Friday, February 23, at Caesars Palace in Las Vegas, NV. Tickets are on sale now.

The awards are presented by the Stevie Awards, which organizes several of the world’s leading business awards shows including the prestigious International Business Awards® and American Business Awards.

More than 2,500 nominations from organizations of all sizes and in virtually every industry were evaluated in this year’s competition. Finalists were determined by the average scores of more than 150 professionals worldwide in seven specialized judging committees. Entries were considered in 89 categories for customer service and contact center achievements, including Contact Center of the Year, Award for Innovation in Customer Service and Customer Service Department of the Year; 60 categories for sales and business development achievements, ranging from Senior Sales Executive of the Year to Sales Training or Business Development Executive of the Year to Sales Department of the Year; and categories to recognize new products and services and solution providers.

Beginning today through February 9, the general public may vote for their favorite providers of customer service in the People’s Choice Stevie Awards for Favorite Customer Service. Voting is open at http://peopleschoice.stevieawards.com. Winners of the People’s Choice Stevie Awards in multiple industries will be determined in mid-February and honored at the awards gala in Las Vegas on February 23.

Judging of the 2018 Stevie® Awards for Sales & Customer Service will be conducted through January 15 by more than 150 professionals worldwide.  Their average scores will determine the Finalists to be announced in mid-January, and the Gold, Silver and Bronze Stevie-winner placements among the Finalists.

2018 Jury Chairs:  these professionals will lead the judging of the 2018 awards.

Customer Service & Contact Center Individuals
Chair: Lisa Oswald, Senior Vice President, Customer Service, Travelzoo, New York, New York, USA
Lisa P. Oswald is senior vice president of customer service at Travelzoo and leads a global portfolio including customer and client services, product operations, and voice-of-the-customer programs in support of Travelzoo’s 28 million members worldwide. Lisa is a Director of SOCAP International, the customer care industry’s leading professional development association, and an Advisory Board member with Execs In The Know, a global community of customer experience executives. She is a Gold Stevie Award winner, and was named Customer Service Executive of the Year in 2013 by The American Business Awards.  She is extremely pleased to be serving the Stevie Awards community as a Judging Committee Chair in 2018.

Customer Service & Contact Center Teams and Customer Service Success
Chair: Art Gairo, Senior Vice President, Evolve IP, Wayne, Pennsylvania, USA

Art Gairo is a Client Operations Executive with over 20 years of experience in building, transforming, and leading world class customer service organizations. Art currently serves as Senior Vice President of Client Operations at Evolve IP, The Cloud Strategy Company™. In this role, Art is responsible for leading the entire client experience, while directly leading client care & support, technical services, project management, service delivery and client activations.  

Prior to joining Evolve IP, Art was the Senior Vice President and Head of Customer Experience at Broadview Networks, with responsibility for all Service, Repair, and Care Centers; the Enterprise Customer Support Division; Field Operations; and the Agent and Wholesale Support Divisions. Before joining Broadview, Art was Vice President of Customer Operations at ATX Communications, which was acquired by Broadview in 2006. Art was also Vice President of Client Implementation at Allegiance Telecom prior to his time with ATX Communications. 

A multiple award-winner, including for Customer Service Team of the Year, Art holds a 6 Sigma Black Belt Certification and dual Master’s Certifications in Lean 6 Sigma and Organizational Leadership from Villanova University. He is currently enrolled in the Executive Leadership Program at Notre Dame’s Mendoza School of Business. Art served as the Chair of the Customer Service Judging Committee in The 2011 American Business Awards.

Art told us: “I’m honored to be selected for the second time to serve as a Judging Committee Chair for the Stevie Awards. My first experience was a remarkable opportunity that provided me with many wonderful memories that I cherish to this day.  I look forward to having the opportunity to recognize the past year’s accomplishments by customer service practitioners around the world that truly demonstrate the capabilities of this ever-evolving industry.”

Customer Service Departments & Achievements
Chair: Matt Medina, Senior Director OF SMB Customer Service, Dun & Bradstreet, Tucson, Arizona, USA  

As the Senior Director of Customer Service at Dun & Bradstreet, Matt enjoys developing leaders and taking care of customers. In 2017, Matt was recognized for spearheading teams that resulted in improved Net Promoter Scores, handled millions of customer contacts at an 82% service level, and contributed over $100 million in sales, saves, and collections.

Matt was named Contact Center Manager of the Year in the 2017 Stevie Awards, and in 2007 was awarded the Scott Cook Innovation Award from Intuit for TurboTax Solutioneering.

In his spare time, Matt enjoys coaching high school soccer and watching Club Atlético River Plate.

New Products and Solution Providers
Chair: Ben Martin, Vice President, Client Support, Network Alliance, Reston, Virginia, USA

Ben Martin currently serves as a member of the Network Alliance executive management team.  He directs the Network Alliance Client Support Center, which specializes in offering white glove technical support, system management, and professional services for a wide spectrum of Cloud Desktop, Cloud Infrastructure, and Cloud VoIP environments.  Ben previously served as Vice President of Customer Care at Parature, Inc. (acquired by Microsoft), where he directed technical support operations serving Parature's global customer and partner network.

Prior to joining Parature, Ben was the Director of Investor Services at The Morino Institute Netpreneur Program, an organization dedicated to helping entrepreneurs fund and grow their technology businesses. During his four years at The Morino Institute, Ben worked with technology entrepreneurs, angel investors, and early stage venture capital firms to identify early stage investment opportunities within the Mid-Atlantic region.

Ben began his career in Information Technology as a technology analyst with the Advanced Technology Department of the American Chemical Society. He earned an MBA in Corporate Finance and an MS in Information Technology from The George Washington University in Washington, DC. He also holds a BS in Corporate Finance and a BA in Philosophy from West Virginia University.

Sales Achievements & Business DevelopmentChair: Jay Fortuna, President & Chief Learning Officer, Jado Solutions, Chicago, Illinois, USA

Jay Fortuna has been helping transform the Learning and Development industry through a blended learning approach that incorporates micro-learning and other innovative techniques.  The curriculum and courses that Jay has created are not only effective and immersive, but are engaging and enjoyable.  Jay is becoming a recognized name in the Learning and Development (L&D) field and received multiple awards in 2017.  This includes winning the Gold Stevie Award for Sales Training Program of the Year, and Bronze Stevie Awards for Sales Training Product of the Year, and for Sales Training or Education Professional of the Year in the 2017 Stevie Awards for Sales & Customer Services for his work with the Horton Group. In addition, Jay and his team were named a Finalist by the Institute for Excellence in Sales (IES) for Sales Innovation of the Year.  Recently, Jay was named as one of Workforce Magazine’s 40 under 40 Gamechangers in 2017 for his accomplishments and the future impact that they believe he will have in the human resources and L&D arena.

Jay’s career started in an industry where many young men dream of working one day: professional sports.  Though his own dream had been to be a professional athlete, he instead learned many early lessons from his time as a Media Relations Intern with the Minnesota Twins that have helped him get to where he is today.  He received some words of wisdom from the team’s General Manager, which still resonate with him today: “Learn enough to become dangerous.”  As a result, Jay is a perpetual student of new trends and effective techniques that can be applied to L&D. 

The next steps in Jay’s career allowed him the opportunity to use his charismatic people skills and competitive nature to soar. He succeeded in multiple sales roles at Enterprise Rent-A-Car and various financial institutions, including JPMorgan Chase and Associated Banc-Corp.  At Associated Bank, Jay’s true passion for L&D was nurtured by his Director, Penn Vieau.  With Vieau’s coaching and mentorship, Jay was able to develop his craft as a facilitator and to garner a deeper understanding of how to run a successful L&D department.  Jay took the lesson’s that he learned from Associated Bank and joined HUB International, where he became Training Manager and was able to create the curriculum for the Business Development Team from the ground up.  Curt Vondrasek, a fellow Gold Stevie Award winner, encouraged him to embrace the Training Manager opportunity at HUB International. Jay launched a training program that took new inside-sales representatives and trained them to become successful sales leaders in their insurance verticals.  It was here that Jay continued to hone his craft of training Sales, Service, Leadership and Support staff through a blended learning approach. He teamed up with Chris Condon, VP of Sales Training for HUB International, and together with the Sales Force Development Team, they took on the Insurance Brokerage Firm’s largest goal, growing sales organically.  The early success achieved by this new approach brought attention to Jay’s talents, which propelled him to his next role, Director of Training and Development at the Horton Group.  Jay didn’t just focus on the issue of organic growth at the Horton Group: he helped the company modernize and reinvent their training as a whole, which has allowed the company to be recognized as an insurance brokerage firm industry leader from Assurex Global, the world’s largest privately held commercial insurance, risk management, and employee benefits brokerage group.

Jay is honored by the opportunity to Chair one of the Stevie Awards for Sales & Customer Service Awards Judging Committee.  He tells us that he is looking forward to seeing the best that the world has to offer in Sales and Business Development.

Sales Individuals & Sales DistinctionChair: Tiffany Wagner, Global Process Executive for Account Planning, SAP, Newtown Square, Pennsylvania, USA

Tiffany Wagner has worked in sales, consulting, and sales operations leadership roles in the software industry for 25 years.  Her experience crosses over both start-ups and fortune 500 companies.  She has been with SAP since 2006, and is responsible for the largest demand-generation program in SAP strategic and large enterprise accounts.

Tiffany won the Gold Stevie® Award for Software Sales Distinction in the 2017 Stevie Awards for Sales & Customer Services, and was recently asked to provide the keynote for Enterprise Ireland on Sales Planning.  

In her personal time, she volunteers at multiple non-profit organizations in the San Francisco bay area.

Sales Teams
Chair: Dan Stalp, President, Sandler Training, Kansas City, Missouri, USA

Dan Stalp is known as the consummate sales training professional. As the president of Sandler Training of Kansas City, he excels as a transformational sales trainer and sales coach, a highly sought-after speaker, and respected business writer. For more than 12 years, Dan has been one of the most successful sales trainers in the Kansas City metro area. He has built a loyal client base, many of which not only continue with him year after year, but also refer him to their clients and business associates. They do this because Dan has helped them become very astute and highly successful non-traditional sales professionals. In the 2017 Stevie® Awards for Sales & Customer Service, Dan received the Gold Stevie Award for Sales Training or Education Leader of the Year in the Sales Individual Awards category.

The Stevie® Awards has issued a call for entries for the 2018 (fifth annual) Asia-Pacific Stevie Awards, the only business awards program to recognize innovation in business throughout the entire Asia-Pacific region. 

The early-bird entry deadline is November 29. The final entry deadline is February 7, 2017, but late entries will be accepted through March 14 with the payment of a late fee. Complete entry details are available at http://Asia.StevieAwards.com.

The Asia-Pacific Stevie Awards are open to all organizations in the 22 nations of the Asia-Pacific region: Large and small, for-profit and non-profit, public and private. The awards focus on recognizing innovation in all its forms, wherever it is achieved in the workplace. Entries are accepted in seven languages.

• Annual Report Awards & Other Publication Awards
• Customer Service Awards
• Company/Organization Awards
• Human Resources Awards
• Information Technology Awards
• Management Awards
• Marketing Awards
• New Product Awards
• Corporate Communications, IR, and PR Awards
• Website Awards and Smartphone and Tablet App Awards
  …and more

REVIEW THE ENTRY KIT HERE.

New awards categories introduced for 2018 include Award for Innovative Management in Government, Award for Innovative Management in Non-Profit Organization or NGOs and Award for Innovative Management in Public Enterprises.

Asia-Pacific Stevie Award winners will be announced on April 18. Winners will be celebrated and presented their awards during a gala banquet on June 1 in Hong Kong.

Scores of professionals from throughout the region will participate in the judging process to determine the Stevie winners.

Some of the Asia-Pacific region’s most innovative organizations have won Asia-Pacific Stevie Awards in the past four years including ABS-CBN Corporation, Bangkok Health Research Center, Delta Air Lines, Freelancer.com, GE Indonesia, Globe Telecom, Hong Kong Tourism Board, Huawei, Maras Group, MetLife Asia Ltd., MSLGROUP China, Ooredoo, PT Petrokimia Gresik, Samsung, Seoul Metropolitan Government, Singapore Power, Sony, Telkom Indonesia, Xiaomi, and more.

The 2018 Stevie Awards for Sales & Customer Service are accepting entries. These are the world's top honors for customer service, contact center, business development and sales professionals. All organizations and individuals worldwide are eligible to submit entries to the 12th annual competition.

REVIEW THE ENTRY KIT HERE

The early-bird entry deadline, with discounted entry fees, is this October 18. The final entry deadline is November 15, but late entries will be accepted through next January 11 with payment of a late fee. 

• Best Sales Enablement Product - New
• Best Sales Enablement Product - New Version
• Best Sales & Marketing Mobile Application - New
• Best Sales & Marketing Mobile Application - New Version

A number of the existing sales and customer service categories have been split into multiple categories based on industry. These include:

• Sales Support Team of the Year
• Sales Training or Coaching Program of the Year
• Award for Innovation in Sales
• Back-Office Customer Service Professional of the Year
• Young Customer Service Professional of the Year
• Customer Service Team of the Year - Recovery Situation
• Customer Service Complaints Team of the Year
• Customer Service Training Team of the Year
• e-Commerce Customer Service Award
• Best Use of Technology in Customer Service

Learn more about what’s new and different in the 2018 edition of the awards.

When your windshield is suddenly chipped or cracked, it can quickly become a nuisance and a distraction from the road. A crack larger than a dollar can obstruct the road in front of you, endanger others and lower the integrity the overall safety of your vehicle.

That’s where Safelite AutoGlass comes in—they are the largest provider of vehicle glass repair and replacement services in the United States. In 2017 they won the Gold Stevie Award for Customer Service Innovation in the Stevie Awards for Sales & Customer Service for its new one-stop solution to calibrate ADAS cameras after a windshield replacement.

Over Six Million Lifetime Guarantees

With more than 7,800 mobile glass shops and stores in all 50 states, Safelite AutoGlass is the nation’s largest provider of vehicle glass repair and replacement services. Safelite spokesperson Katie Salvator recalls their previous year’s success in regards to speedy service.

“Last year, six million customers chose Safelite AutoGlass for its 24/7 national contact centers, advanced online scheduling, superior repair and replacement systems and the industry’s only nationwide lifetime guarantee.”

Safelite AutoGlass is a member of the Safelite Group family of brands, which together make a difference in the lives of 10 million customers annually.

Unbreakable Reputation

As the country’s largest service provider, their new one-stop solution to calibrate ADAS cameras after a windshield replacement made a huge impact in road safety across the nation.

“Winning a Stevie Award offers third-party credibility and recognition of our efforts to create a better customer experience.”

Katie also acknowledges Ed Sprigler, Safelite AutoGlass VP for Strategic Initiatives,, who has largely contributed to Safelite’s success.

“Ed is a problem solver, and no challenge is too big or too complex for him to eagerly roll up his sleeves and tackle it. It’s that kind of can-do attitude that helps make Ed an exceptional customer service award winner for leading the ADAS solution.

People Powered and Customer Driven

Safelite's core success can be attributed to their People Powered and Customer Driven strategy. “Being people powered means that we power our performance by thinking ‘people first’ and by having talented, happy and engaged people who deliver extraordinary results, Katie explains.”

Katie lists their four cornerstones to People Powered:

• Leadership
• Focus
• Talent
• Caring

Their Customer Driven success focuses on achieving extraordinary results by looking at their business through the eyes of their customer, making it easy for them to ensure their experience is memorable. Katie relays the four elements to being Customer Driven:

• Listen
• Focus
• Create
• Delight

With nearly 14,000 people employed across the United States, these two core mindsets have helped them continue to create memorable experiences for customers every day by demonstrating their Safelite Spirit.

Greater Than the Task at Hand

Having a greater purpose matters to people. At Safelite, their purpose is to make a difference and bring unexpected happiness to people’s everyday lives. Katie believes their purpose isn’t about what they do; it’s about the way they do it.

“It is something that motivates us to strive to achieve something greater than the task at hand ... and it influences the way we do it. When it comes to our customers, there’s a quote: ‘I may not remember what you said or even what you did, but I’ll always remember the way you made me feel.’"

Customers today can interact with organizations across multiple platforms. So how do you track the unique and complex experience of every customer? NICE Customer eXperience Analytics (NICE | cXa) created the digital and analytical transformation necessary for organizations to monopolize the global consumer-centric economy.

Their commitment to end-to-end visualizations of the customer journey has greatly helped organizations recognize pain points and engage insights to transform customer experiences. This is how they won the Silver Stevie Award for Best Cloud Contact Center Technology and the Bronze Stevie Award for Sales Performance Management Suite in the 2017 Stevie Award for Sales & Customer Service.

Elevating the Standard of Customer Journeys

Attempting to elevate the standard of customer journeys more broadly, using both innovative technologies and practical thought leadership, is a real challenge. Robert Zoch, head of Customer Journey Solutions, believes their ‘Total Voice of the Customer and Customer Journey Solutions’ are the most capable tools now available for helping large businesses optimize their customer experiences. Zoch shares why winning a Stevie matters in their industry.

“We can make our case loudly and continuously, but the judgment of professionals through the Stevie Awards will always mean more for a great many enterprise technology users.”

Keeping Up with Continuous Change

It's become imperative for brands to have technologies keep up an expanding array of channels by which customers interact with brands. NICE knows customers want low-effort experiences that are enabled by capable self-service tools; but NICE also knows they need to ensure brands can live up to these expectations. Zoch says NICE is proud of how long they’ve been able to meet these demands.

“NICE celebrated 30 years as a global brand. Our particular division finished 2016 with a bang, forging contracts to provide several global brands with Customer Journey Solutions. Among other highlights, we were able to demonstrate an annual ROI surpassing $130 million for five such brands, which include telecommunications, healthcare and financial services. That type of performance is hard to ignore, and these awards represent another rung in our climb to market dominance.”

People are Key to Our Business Success

NICE believes their client relationships are "partnerships," and not only does this help ensure they achieve their goals, but also provides insights to continuously refine solutions to serve the needs of their marketplace. Zoch explains how placing a strong emphasis on customer success with a special team ensures their technologies’ best practices and strategies to accomplish their goals.

“Our value proposition lies in helping brands understand their customer journeys, and fittingly, we apply that same principle to the way we interact with our customers.”

Zoch continues to say they also have a strong commitment to their own people and they're proud to offer benefits to their employees that “many companies do not have.” Just some of the benefits they offer include: paid travel insurance, legal and pet insurance, generous paternity leave, benefits for children with disabilities and much more.

“As a collective body we are deeply committed. So, we respect and listen to each other, drawing from our experiences and learning from our respective skills and backgrounds. That’s why people want to work at NICE.”

Do a web search for custom signage, and you’ll find a multitude of businesses from which to choose. Needless to say, it’s an industry where separating oneself from the pack can be a difficult proposition.

Since its inception in 2012, the management team behind Signs.com has believed an unparalleled level of customer service is a big part of the answer. From the beginning the company has guaranteed 100% satisfaction to its customers, many of them individuals and small businesses.

By 2015, the Salt Lake City-based organization decided to take things a step further. Internally, the team posed a central question: “If we had the best customer experience in the world, what would we do?”

The answer to that question was creating a new mindset that put the customer experience front and center. In order to help make that happen, the customer service department was renamed the “customer experience department.” Instead of focusing on individual interactions, the staff would focus on the entire consumer relationship.

Shortly thereafter, the company hired Madison Page, its first Customer Experience Officer, to oversee the department and make that transformation a reality.

A Recipe for Success 

Among the new key decisions was opting to use live agents for its customer interactions, rather than following the trend for automated solutions. That approach made it easier to provide consumers with the level of service they sought.

To maintain a customer-first philosophy, the company has also formulated four habits for success that its team tries to uphold:

1. Easy

“Nothing is worse for our customers than going through a hard, cumbersome process to order signs,” says Page. “The customer experience department tries to make things as simple as possible so customers want to keep coming back.”

2. Helpful

One of the team’s priorities is consistently providing accurate, useful information. Representatives logged more than 50 hours of training in 2016, even learning about graphic design so they can aid clients on the fly with basic design issues.

3. Fast

Page has helped Signs.com achieve a company-wide chat response time of less than 10 seconds and an email response time of about 2.5 hours. That’s more than seven times faster than the industry average.

4. Friendly

“Part of giving clients a great Signs.com experience includes being kind and friendly no matter what outlet you’re using,” Page explains.

One of the keys to staying upbeat is maintaining a close-knit team that doesn’t take itself too seriously. After weekly meetings, for example, staffers can be found playing games like trying to eat donuts from a string or playing a fierce game of Spoons. The group even has gold and silver medals that get handed to the winner.

High Customer Satisfaction

The result of that emphasis on the consumer experience has led to overwhelmingly positive feedback on social media that helps attract even more customers. Of the 27,000 reviews it tallied as of December 2016, the average reviewer gave the company a 4.7 out of 5.

The company’s philosophy reflects a growing body of research suggesting that better customer care leads to increased loyalty, thereby lowering the cost of customer acquisition. For example, the research firm Access Development found that as many as 79% of customers would shop elsewhere within a week of receiving subpar customer service. 

At Signs.com, a consumer-centric strategy has clearly helped fuel the company’s rapid growth. Last year, Signs.com earned the No. 6 spot on the Utah Venture Entrepreneur Forum’s list of the top 25 companies in the state under five years old.

In February, the company added to its plaudits by grabbing the Gold Stevie^® Award for “Customer Service Department of the Year” in the 2017 Stevie Awards for Sales & Customer Service. In addition, Page received a Silver Stevie for “Contact Center Manager of the Year.”

“It is so nice to win, but it reminds and motivates us to keep innovating, helping and serving our customers,” Page says.

With the whole world going digital, many companies have become focused on their online activity, and customer service has become automated and frustrating. But for one of the original outgoing email service providers, SMTP2GO, their dedication to offering a friendly personal service to all clients is one of the many reasons why they won the Front-Line Customer Service Team of The Year award in the 2017 Stevie Awards for Sales & Customer Service.

Better Life = Better Business Sense

SMTP2GO provides 24/7 international customer support for servers across the globe. They’ve been listed by Deloitte Technology Fast 500 for five years in a row now and believe their success stems from their work-life balance values.

“Our employees' happiness directly affects their work performance and the customers, so we make sure that our team is happy.” SMTP2GO representative and fellow-blogger Louise Feaheny told us, “Our flexible positions, allowing them to work from home, or from a co-working space, means that they have the option to live their life around their jobs.”

Success and Giving Back

SMTP2GO is a business with a heart. Last year, a beach in the Abel Tasman National Park was almost sold and made private. SMTP2GO donated to the “Give A Little” project so they could purchase it and donate it to the people of New Zealand. Flexible work methods have also helped one of their customer support agents volunteer to foster abandoned puppies and kittens from an animal rescue center in Spain. Since she started, over 30 pups and kittens in the last year received loving attention in a home. SMTP2GO heard about what she had done and sponsored the shelter with a portion of the donation paying for a life-saving operation on an old abandoned Podenco dog named Amatxi.

SMTP2GO was pleased to say that Amatxi on the mend and looking for a home.

The Numbers Speak For Themselves

SMTP2GO also speaks to all of their employees on a regular basis to get feedback on anything they think is important. They then conduct annual reviews to make sure they're satisfied with their work. With over 90, 000 satisfied customers in over 140 countries, keeping employees happy is going well to say the least.

“Being kiwis, we're friendly!” Feaheny concluded, “We enjoy life and realize that problems and issues with work can affect your personal life, which is why we aim to resolve them as quickly as possible with little hassle. We get a kick out of helping people!”