Ōtaki – Reader’s Digest today released the names of New Zealand businesses whose outstanding customer service excelled during a year of unprecedented recovery and rebuilding.
In releasing the Quality Service Award results, Reader’s Digest acknowledged that for most businesses, covid and the subsequent lockdowns impacted heavily on daily operations.
Yet the customer service teams of businesses listed as Quality Service Award winners for 2023 rallied, building success by placing their customers’ needs at the centre of all business responses, says Reader’s Digest editor-in-chief Louise Waterson.
She says while the pandemic may have shifted the standard markers of business achievements, customer service and corporate social responsibility has remained core among those success markers.
“This year has witnessed a greater focus and determination among customer service teams to ensure their customers’ needs, no matter how complex, are resolved quickly and with trouble-free solutions.
“For the award-winning businesses this means successfully delivering assistance in an innovative and savvy manner, while at the same time remaining approachable simply by upholding levels of kindness and understanding as central to assisting individual customers properly.”
Gone are the days of leaving customer service to remote call centres, where the person answering the call isn’t across the local annoyances and pressures facing the customer.
Today, customer service is the front door of all commercial, retail and service providers. Customers want an experience that resolves their concerns, and leaves the feeling of being valued by the business.
Reader’s Digest commissioned independent market research company Catalyst Consultancy & Research to survey New Zealanders’ opinions of a range of service providers.
A total of 1620 New Zealanders of a mixed demographic were asked to rate their experience of service provided by businesses / organisations.
Running since 2015, the survey identifies the most satisfied customers across 35 different categories, from funeral insurance to loyalty cards and banks to mobile phone providers. The award recognises companies that truly understand consumers’ needs.
The full list of award winners can be seen here https://qualityserviceawards.co.nz/results/.
