The WOW Awards for Outstanding Customer Service

I Want One of Those.com win 2006 WOW! of the Year Award

And well deserved it was! After working very closely with I Want One of Those over the past seven months we have had over three hundred WOW! Award nominations for them. This is absolutely incredible.

I Want One of Those(IWOOT) have been around since January 2000 and since then their extremely unique style and friendly service has won customers over. And not just in the UK, all over the world!

But this year not only did they WOW! their customers, they also WOWED! the judges which resulted in them being awarded The WOW! of the Year 2006 at the National Customer Service Awards.

The award was presented to Maria Constantinou of IWOOT by Rob Wilson of Norwich Union, our proud sponsors for the 2006 WOW! of the Year Award.

Congratulations to IWOOT!!!!

The photo above shows our winner Maria Constantinou of IWOOT with Rob Wilson of Norwich Union, Declan Curry from BBC Business News, Julia Bradbury from BBC Watchdog and Derek Williams of the WOW! Group.

To read about everything I Want One of Those have been doing, please see the winners page and see it from the customers point of view.

What are the WOW! Awards about?

It's not enough for the customer to be 'always right' any more. He or she shouldn't have to argue the case. Dazzling customer service is the only way to guarantee customer loyalty. Price competition and product promotion have a role to play, but the smartest companies are recognising that their greatest assets are their own people and their existing customers. When they work well together, business snowballs.

Superior customer service doesn't have to cost much. It can be as simple as remembering a name or giving a customer a call to see how they are getting on with their new purchase.

The WOW! Awards™ recognise those companies that go further and deliver awesome service. They understand that customers are their lifeblood and treat them how they would wish to be treated in an ideal world. At this website, you can read the inspirational stories of WOW! Award winners and can nominate a winner yourself. If you run a business, you can discover our services to help you add WOW! to your business.

Live dangerously and enjoy the adventure!

Derek Williams

Starshooter!

Looking for the '3-Dimensional Care' Workbook?

Derek Williams' workbook will help you bring WOW! to you business and it's only available from us. View a chapter-by-chapter guide and a free extract to download or click here to order your copy.

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Get monthly updates and be inspired by regular stories of companies who excel at customer service. Discover ideas that you can use in your own organisation to improve customer service and team happiness.

Each day I receive a little report that tells me about new people who've signed up to receive The WOW! Awards™ newsletters. And what I find fascinating is to look at the places around the world where these people live.

Last week I was absolutely delighted when Mohammed Hersi joined us. Mohammed is General Manager at the Whitesands Hotel in Mombasa.

We regularly get new members from the UK, the USA and Australia. But Mohammed is our first new member from Mombasa. And it thrills me to think that we have this community of people around the world who are passionate about customer service. In fact, there are now people in at least 31 countries who receive these newsletters.

Many of the people who receive these newsletters are in business. And in addition, college lecturers and trainers in customer service use these articles as case studies with their students.

If you enjoy reading these newsletters, and get real value from them, then please do pass them on to your friends, your colleagues and other people who would like to improve their customer service.

Anyone can receive these newsletters completely free of charge simply by registering their e-mail address

"Just to say that this month's newsletter really hit the spot."

Carrie Marshall - Foster

How Do You Do The WOW?

As you probably know, The WOW! Awards™ is now a very special category of The National Customer Service Awards. Special because it is the only category that is based purely on customer nominations.

So I regularly have businesses calling me, asking me how they can enter The WOW! Awards™. The simple answer is that they can't. But they can of course tell their customers about the awards and invite them to make a nomination.

Just think about this for a moment.

How about saying to your customers, "If we have given you poor service then tell us. Or if we have given you excellent customer service please tell The WOW! Awards."

This becomes a powerful invitation to your customers for them to provide feedback. In itself it is also a powerful team commitment to your customer service.

And imagine how your team will feel when they start to get nominated for The WOW! Awards™. If they received a nomination for excellent service do you think that their service commitment would increase or decrease?

There are many ways in which you can tell your customers about The WOW! Awards™. A feedback page with a link to The WOW! Awards™ on your website might be one way. Or a feedback form at your place of business could work well.