Highest Honour for Sentinel's Customer Service

29 September 2005 -

Sentinel Housing Association fought off competition from business giants, including Barclays, Sainsbury’s, British Airways, British Gas and P&O ferries, to clinch the title of Skill4 Customer Service Team of the Year at the prestigious Customer Management National Customer Service Awards.

Now in its sixth year, The Customer Management National Customer Service Awards aim to promote excellence, best practice and innovation in Customer Service and to highlight its importance in today’s business climate.

The awards are unique in that they are open to entries from companies across the whole spectrum of industry, commerce and the public sector and from organisations of all sizes.

The Skill4 Customer Service Team of the Year Award is the flagship Award of the programme and cannot be directly entered. The Award is presented to one of ten winners from the Customer Service Team of the Year categories to a truly outstanding customer service team whose level of professionalism and standing in their customer service roles makes them ideal as a role model and spokesperson for the customer service profession.

Miriam Morris, Sentinel’s Customer Services Manager, collected both the Customer Service Team of the Year Award and Public Services and Education Award, which is testimony to her teams’ commitment to high standards of customer service both through personal dealings with customers and by contributing to the overall customer care policy.

Miriam said: “Our success is attributed to two major factors, the focus on getting the right people and the focus on quality.

“Every member of the department is aware of the high standards expected of them and each is given the support, training and encouragement to ensure that they achieve them. The commitment, professionalism and genuine desire to provide excellent service comes from within every member of the team,” she said.

Winning the award made Sentinel a candidate for the programme’s top honour – the Skill4 Customer Service Team of the Year Award.

Martin Nurse, Sentinel’s Chief Executive, said: “This is an amazing achievement for Sentinel. This award bears witness to the dedication of the Customer Services Manager and team who have worked closely with residents to ensure Sentinel provide a first class service to all our customers.

“All the big companies were there but the little person won the night,” he said.

Sentinel’s Customer Service Centre is unique in that it serves a diverse range of residents with varying needs, including elderly people, single parent families, people with physical disabilities, learning difficulties, vulnerable people and young people leaving care.

The Customer Service Centre is highly regarded among housing associations and looked at as a source for best practice. Sentinel’s success comes from a strategy that allows no room for compromise.

Sentinel engages and consults with its customers to continually look at ways of improving the service. Mystery shopping is conducted using Sentinel’s customers to assess ease of contact, empathy, knowledge, rapport building, courtesy and politeness. These efforts, combined with input from customer surveys and direct feedback help reinforce Sentinel’s mandate to deliver first-rate service.

“The number of entries in the National Customer Service Awards 2005 was staggering,” said Don Hales, Chair of Judges. “In more than one category judges faced the very difficult task of identifying a winner among some top-calibre customer service practitioners. We are delighted that the Awards are an important part of the dynamic pushing customer service to the top of boardroom agendas.”