Customer Service Awards Blog

The final entry deadline for The 2012 International Business Awards, the world's premier business awards competition is 27 June. (All individuals and organizations worldwide may submit nominations to the IBAs. If you haven't already done so, you can request your entry kit today.)

Here we highlight three customer service awards tips to help you showcase your organization's customer service excellence.

1. Review the business awards categories.
There are three customer service award categories being celebrated at the 2012 IBAs including:

• Customer Service Department of the Year
• Customer Service Team of the Year
• Customer Service Executive of the Year

There are a number of other IBA categories that may be of interest to customer service professionals, including many of the annual report awards and other literature categories, website awards categories, and live event awards categories.

2. Review the entry submission criteria.
Information to be submitted online for entries in these categories include:

• An essay of up to 500 words describing the nominee's accomplishments since 1 January 2011
• A biography of the nominee or the leader of the nominated company, department, or team of up to 100 words, and
• Optional (but highly recommended), a collection of supporting files, work samples, and web addresses that you may upload to our server to support your entry and provide more background information to the judges.

3. Contact us.
If you have any questions about the 2012 IBAs, email us at help@stevieawards.com or call us at + 1 703-547-8389.

The 2012 International Business Awards will include the Second Annual People’s Choice Stevie Awards for Favorite Companies, in which the general public worldwide will vote for their favorite companies. Each company honored with a Gold, Silver or Bronze Stevie Award in The International Business Awards’ company of the year categories will automatically be included in people’s choice voting, which will open in late July.

Winners of the competition will be celebrated at the ninth annual awards banquet on Monday, 15 October at the Ritz-Carlton Hotel in Seoul, South Korea.

Leave us a comment and let us know how our corporate awards categories will help you to highlight your organization's successes.

The final entry deadline for The 2012 Stevie Awards for Sales & Customer Service is November 18.

Submitting entries for sales awards and customer service awards is easy:

1. Request your entry kit here.
2. Decide what you would like your company to be recognized for. There are more than 90 categories, honoring sales excellence and customer service excellence for individuals, teams, and departments, plus new categories this year for products and service and solution providers.
3. Submit a winning entry!

Want more sales and customer service resources? Here are some great sales and customer service tips and tools to help succeed in The 2012 Stevie Awards for Sales & Customer Service:

1. 10 Reasons to Enter the Stevie Awards for Sales & Customer Service
2. Answers to Frequently Asked Questions

Still have questions? Contact us at help@stevieawards.com, we'd love to hear from you!

Gonna miss the November 18 deadline?  Don't panic. Late entries will be accepted through January 18 with payment of $35/entry late fee.

As the deadline for The Stevie Awards for Sales & Customer Service approaches on November 18, we've created 9 simple tips to help you submit entries that are worthy of receiving a Stevie Award for Sales & Customer Service:

1. Request an Entry Kit
The entry kit contains everything you need to know to be able to prepare and submit your entries.  Click here to request yours.

2. Watch our How to Enter the 2012 Stevie Awards for Sales & Customer Service Video
Our brief video gives an overview of the world's premier customer service awards and sales awards, with a step-by-step guide to how to select categories, prepare entries, and submit them.

 

3. Determine Who or What You Want to Nominate, and in Which Categories
Decide which individuals or teams in your sales organization that you will nominate, then select the most appropriate categories for those entries. 

4. Prepare Your Entries
Take the time to tailor each entry for each category you apply for.

Stevie-winning entries are:

a. Well-written.  They are terse and succinct.  Their tone is modest, even when describing the most impressive accomplishments.
b. Focused on a few accomplishments.  Describe in detail just a few accomplishments, instead of listing many accomplishments in brief.

Stevie-winning entries are not:

a. Fluffy and hyperbolic.  Avoid flowery language and overblown claims.  The judges tend to deduct points for immodesty.

Want to read entries that judges have scored highly in the past? The full-text of most Stevie Award-winning entries are published on the web site. Start by looking through the 2011 winners.

5. Submit Your Entries By The Entry Deadline
The final entry deadline for The Stevie Awards for Sales & Customer Service will be November 18, 2011.  Late entries will be accepted through January 10, 2012 with payment of a $35 late fee per entry. When you're ready to enter, begin here...

6. Subscribe to the Free Stevie Awards Email Newsletter
The weekly email newsletter is the best way to stay informed about entry deadline extensions, new categories, and other announcements from the organizers of The Stevie Awards.  We have a very strict privacy policy, so we will not share your email address with anyone else for any reason.  Click here to learn more.

7. Get Social with The Stevies
Connect with The Stevie Awards on Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, and YouTube for latest announcements, blog postings, photos, and videos regarding our awards programs.

8. Participate in the Judging Process
Apply to be a preliminary-round judge.  As a judge you will be able to see the entries submitted by many companies around the world, and you will develop a better sense of the types of entries that judges score highly.  (You will not be allowed to judge entries in categories in which you have submitted entries, however.)  Click here to complete the application form.

If your application is accepted you will be assigned categories based on your function and experience.  As a preliminary-round judge you will be able to judge as few or as many nominations as you like, at your convenience, over the Internet in November-January.

9. Contact The Stevie Awards
Contact us with your questions about the most appropriate categories, entry fees, and so on.  Our phone number is +1 703-547-8389, and our email address is help@stevieawards.com. Note, the first question we’ll ask you is: what do you and your organization want to be recognized for?

What has helped you write successful entries for The 2012 Stevie Awards for Sales & Customer Service?

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The final entry deadline for the 2011 Stevie Awards for Sales & Customer Service is extended through January 7, and after Finalists are announced next week, voting will open on January 14 for the second annual edition of the People's Choice Stevie Awards for Favorite Customer Service. To be notified when voting opens, click here.

For the general public, this means you get to help decide who should be honored for providing you with great customer service over the past year.  For nominees in the awards, this means that you have an opportunity to win two awards: a Stevie Award, as voted by business professionals, and a People's Choice award, as voted by the general public, including your own customers.                   

In each of the seven competitive, peer-judged Customer Service Department of the Year categories in the 2010 awards, voting was also opened to the general public for the first People's Choice Stevie Awards for Favorite Customer Service. More than 87,000 votes were cast from January 13 through February 12. Winners of the first People's Choice Stevie Awards for Favorite Customer Service are:

Airlines, Distribution & Transportation: Fedex, Memphis, TN
Financial Services: Family Heritage Life Insurance Company of America, Cleveland, OH
IT & Telecommunications: Qualtrics Labs, Inc., Orem, UT
Leisure & Tourism: Hilton Worldwide, McLean, VA
Public Services & Education: U.S. Postal Service, Washington, DC
Retail: Macy's, Cincinnati, OH
All Other Industries: PetRays Veterinary Telemedicine Consultants, The Woodlands, TX

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With the final deadline for the 2011 Stevie Awards for Sales & Customer Service extended through January 7, we thought you should have one last opportunity to view the recording of the webinar we held back in October about how to enter the the world's premier sales awards, call center awards, and customer service awards.

The video is about 50 minutes, and covers the history of the awards, the types of categories they include, how to choose categories, how to write great nominations, how the judging process works, pitfalls to avoid, and tips to adopt.

The entry deadline won't be extended past this week, so get your entries in now.  Finalists will be announced next week, and the final results announced at a banquet at the Eden Roc Renaissance Hotel in Miami Beach on Monday, February 21.

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The following professionals have joined the customer service awards final judging committee for the 2011 (5th annual) Stevie Awards for Sales & Customer Service, the world's leading competition for sales awards, contact center awards, and customer service awards.

The final entry deadline for the 5th annual competition is December 31.  Get your entry kit here.

Bob Botelle, Executive VP - Merchant Services & Chief Customer Officer, Litle & Co.
Ana Castellanos, VP-Human Resources, Oakwood Temporary Housing
David Cuthbert, CEO, Alteva
Kevin Dominque, VP-Customer Services, TRUMPF Inc.
Ron Essig, VP-Global Owner Products & Services, Marriott Vacation Club International
Paul Everett, Senior VP-Customer Service, Ceridian
Gina Giordano, VP-Customer Feedback, Macy's
Jennifer Mullins, Business Systems Analyst, ADTRAN, Inc.
James Nagle, VP-Card Services, Kohl's Department Stores
Jo Phillips, Assistant VP-Operations Quality Assurance  & Compliance, Marsh U.S. Consumer
Raul Ruiz, Director-Operations Center, Virtual Radiologic
Anita Samojednik, Director of Customer Service, TheLadders.com
Vin Seunath, Director of Training and Professional Development, SMART Technologies
Alec Stern, VP-Strategic Market Development, Constant Contact
Chris Tepas, Chief Marketing Officer, EMKAY Incorporated

These distinguished customer service professionals join the Board of Distinguished Judges & Advisors that will perform the final judging in late January to determine the 2011 Stevie Award winners, who will be announced at a banquet in Miami Beach, Florida on Monday, February 21.