Finalists in the 8th Annual Stevie Awards for Sales & Customer Service, the world’s top honors for customer service, contact center, business development, and sales professionals, 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, and sales awards categories.  Organizations with Finalists in multiple categories include AllClear ID, Bluegreen Vacations, Cars.com, Delta Air Lines, DHL Express, EMKAY, FedEx TechConnect, Canada's FreshBooks, John Hancock, Lennox Industries, LiveAnswer, Marriott Vacation Club, Marsh U.S. Consumer, Parlant Technology, PetRays Veterinary Telemedicine Consultants, Property Insight, Richardson, Salesforce, SoftPro, SurePayroll, Inc., Turkey's Turk Economy Bank, ValueSelling Associates, VIZIO, Inc., Turkey's Vodafone, and Wyndham Vacation Ownership. For a full list of Finalists by category, visit www.StevieAwards.com/Sales. 

Gold, Silver and Bronze Stevie Award winners will be announced during a gala banquet on Friday, February 21 at the Bellagio in Las Vegas, Nevada.  Tickets are now on sale.

More than 1,500 nominations from organizations of all sizes and in virtually every industry were evaluated in this year’s competition, an increase of 36% over 2013.  Finalists were determined by the average scores of 129 professionals worldwide, acting as preliminary judges.  Entries were considered in 43 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; 43 categories for sales and business development achievements, ranging from Senior Sales Executive of the Year to Sales Training or Coaching Program of the Year to Sales Department of the Year; and categories to recognize new products and services and solution providers. 

More than 100 members of seven specialized judging committees will determine the Gold, Silver and Bronze Stevie Award placements from among the Finalists during final judging, to take place January 27 - February 5.  

Beginning today, the general public will be able to cast their votes for their favorite providers of good customer service in the People’s Choice Stevie® Awards for Favorite Customer Service Department.  Voting is open at http://www.stevieawards.com/Service.peopleschoice. Winners of the People’s Choice Stevie Awards for Favorite Customer Service in multiple industries will be determined in mid-February and honored at the awards gala in Las Vegas on February 21.

About The Stevie Awards
Stevie Awards are conferred in five programs: the Asia-Pacific Stevie Awards, The American Business Awards, The International Business Awards, the Stevie Awards for Women in Business, and the Stevie Awards for Sales & Customer Service.  A sixth program, the German Stevie Awards, will debut later this year.  Honoring organizations of all types and sizes and the people behind them, the Stevies recognize outstanding performances in the workplace worldwide.  Learn more about The Stevie Awards at www.StevieAwards.com.

Sponsors and supporters of the eighth annual Stevie Awards for Sales & Customer Service include the BusinessTalkRadio Network, Competence Call Center, and ValueSelling Associates.

The following seven executives have been appointed to head the final judging committees that will determine the Gold, Silver, and Bronze Stevie® Award winners in the 2014 Stevie® Awards for Sales & Customer Service.  (All the category groups can be viewed in more detail here.) The winners will be announced at the awards gala on Friday, February 21 at the Bellagio in Las Vegas, Nevada.

Becky Johns, Vice President of MarketBridge in Bethesda, Maryland, USA, is Chair of the Final Judging Committee for the Sales Achievement and Sales Individual categories.

Becky Johns works with clients to improve marketing and sales productivity by developing and executing integrated data-driven marketing and sales strategies. At MarketBridge, a global provider of digital marketing, sales enablement, and customer analytics solutions, her experience centers primarily on building brand loyalty through customer acquisition, engagement and retention programs and developing online and social media communities. Becky recently led her MarketBridge teams to win back-to-back Gold Stevie Awards for Sales Training Program of the Year in the 2012 and 2013 Stevie® Awards for Sales & Customer Service Awards, as well as a Silver Stevie for Brand Experience of the Year in The 2013 American Business Award.

George Orr, Vice President of Client Services at kCura in Chicago, Illinois, USA, is Chair of the Customer Service & Contact Center Achievement Final Judging Committee.

George Orr is vice president of client services at kCura, a developer of web-based e-discovery applications for managing large volumes of electronic evidence during litigation or investigations.  A member of the kCura team since 2007, George’s department is responsible for much of the company’s client-facing activity. Over the past few years, George has helped the team’s processes evolve from “brute-force problem-solving” to a set of polished procedures that ensures a positive customer experience every time. Prior to taking the reins of kCura’s client services department, George worked as the messaging systems manager for Rotary International, a Chicago-based non-profit organization specializing in humanitarian funding programs.

George is a graduate of the University of Illinois at Chicago. In addition to being a Relativity Certified Administrator, George also has extensive Microsoft and infrastructure training and is certified in both arenas.

Mike Ortegon, Director of Global Sales Operations at HomeAway.com in Austin, Texas, USA, Chairs the Final Judging Committee for the Sales Team and Sales Department categories.

Mike Ortegon joined HomeAway in March 2012. As the Director of Global Sales Operations, he is responsible for supporting sales leaders across the globe to help them make well-informed business decisions and to run effective and efficient teams while aligning to corporate strategy.  Throughout his career, Mike has been in management, operational, sales, and marketing roles in North America, EMEA, Latin America, and APAC. 

Sanjeev Garg, Global Head of Customer Care, Commercial Vehicles Business Unit at TATA Motors in Mumbai, India, is Chair of our Customer Service & Contact Center Individual Final Judging Committee.

Sanjeev Garg has been the Global Head of Customer Care for the Commercial Vehicle Business Unit of Tata Motors since December 2011. His customer care group is spread across four continents and supports more than 3 million Tata Motors vehicles through 2,300-plus service touch points and over 33,000 retail networks of spare parts. In 1996, Sanjeev joined General Motors Ltd and was instrumental in launching new initiatives for the customer satisfaction index and new Competitive Intelligence processes. His work at GM encompassed global geographies including South East Asia, the Middle East, Latin America, and the South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation (SAARC). Under his leadership, GM was ranked No. 1 in customer satisfaction in the Middle East, ahead of Toyota, Honda, and Nissan.

The Chair of our Customer Service Department Final Judging Committee is Kelly Thomas, Assistant Vice President, Client Relations at OppenheimerFunds, Inc., in Englewood, Colorado, USA.

Kelly Thomas began working with OppenheimerFunds 29 years ago and currently is assistant vice president of Client Relations at its Denver Campus.   Her leadership philosophy is to act with integrity and pursue excellence.  She believes a leader should be able to take risks, to challenge the status quo, to inspire others, and to create a healthy work environment that will encourage and foster team collaboration. In addition to her leadership role within OppenheimerFunds, Kelly serves as the president of the City of Centennial Chapter for the National Association of Professional Women. 

Ben Herkenhoff, Customer Interaction Center Manager at Outsell, LLC in Minneapolis, Minnesota, USA, Chairs our Customer Service & Contact Center Team Final Judging Committee.

Ben Herkenhoff has been the manager of the Customer Interaction Center at Outsell for the past two years.  Outsell LLC is a digital marketing Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) company that is transforming the way brands engage with consumers. Its Digital Engagement Platform offers clients the ability to consistently engage with consumers across distributed sales networks from the national to local level. Ben’s team at Outsell won the Stevie® Award for Contact Center of the Year in the 2013 Stevie® Awards for Sales & Customer Service.

Ben tells us he is “excited to get started” on the final judging, and has worked hard to put together a great committee.

The Chair of our Final Judging Committee for the New Product & Service and Solution Provider categories is Ansa Sekharan, Senior Vice President, Global Customer Support at Informatica Corporation in Redwood City, California, USA

Ansa Sekharan is senior vice president of Global Customer Support at Informatica Corporation, an independent provider of data integration software and data masking technology. He is responsible for establishing Informatica as a trusted partner for customers worldwide by ensuring their success with Informatica's products.  Ansa has a very busy schedule, dividing his time between Redwood City, California and Bangalore, India, as well as other global Informatica locations.

The Stevie® Awards is pleased to announce that videos clips of the 6th annual Stevie Awards for Sales & Customer Service, the world’s leading sales awards, customer service awards, and contact center awards program are now available to view on YouTube.

Watch the 2012 Stevie Awards for Sales & Customer Service awards presentations here.

More than 350 professionals attended the business awards banquet which took place on Monday, February 27th at Caesars Palace in Las Vegas, Nevada. Our 2012 sales award & customer service award video clips showcase business award acceptance speeches made by individuals and organizations from around the world, including:

Rob Jeppsen of Zions Bank, Winner of the Gold Stevie Award for Sales Director of the Year
Rob's speech started the night off by recognizing the team effort behind all individual awards.

MarketBridge, Winner of the Gold Stevie Award for Sales Training or Coaching Program of the Year
MarketBridge's enthusiastic team accepts the Gold Stevie Award and expresses their gratitude for their strong partnerships.

Joey Romaine of Groupon, Winner of the Gold Stevie Award for Young Customer Service Professional of the Year
Honored for his efforts as a young professional, Joey Romaine keeps the awards show lively and the audience entertained.

Vodafone Turkey, Winner of the Gold Stevie Award for Sales Department of the Year, Telecommunications
Traveling from Istanbul, Turkey, Vodafone Turkey's humble speech brought to light the importance business awards have globally.

International Checkout Inc., Winner of the Gold Stevie Award for Telesales Team of the Year
Jackson Strobel, VP of Sales & Operations at International Checkout, and his "lean machine" sales team show the audience that size doesn't matter.

The 6th annual corporate awards banquet was the first to showcase our three levels of distinction: gold, silver and bronze as part of our 10th anniversary celebration. Previously, only overall category winners have received Gold Stevie Awards.

Want more sales and customer service awards celebration? Watch all acceptance speeches, listen to the live recording and view photos from the event.

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Enter the 2011 Stevie Awards for Sales & Customer Service, the world’s premier awards, with more than 90 categories recognizing call center, customer service, and sales excellence.  To enter,

1.    Review the online entry kit
2.    Choose your categories and write your nominations
3.    Submit your nominations

Questions?  Contact us at info@stevieawards.com.

Finalists will be notified and announced next week, and this year's Stevie Award winners will be announced at a banquet in Miami Beach, Florida on Monday, February 21.  (Attendance is not required to win.)