BNZ Great Lake Taupō Business Awards launched in 2012

MEDIA RELEASE

4 April 2012

BNZ Great Lake Taupō Business Awards launched in 2012

The BNZ Great Lake Taupō Business Awards programme was revealed at an exclusive function at BNZ Taupo on Tuesday night.

The awards programme, created originally by Towncentre Taupō, began in 2009 as a way of recognising and rewarding Towncentre businesses for service excellence.

Since its inception, the programme has grown to include businesses district wide thanks to the involvement of Taupō’s Chamber of Commerce and Enterprise Great Lake Taupō.

“There are hundreds of fantastic businesses within our town centre - businesses that deliver great service to their customers, stock quality products, and offer a world class experience. These outstanding businesses will be recognised through the Service Excellence Categories” said Towncentre Taupo General Manager, Traceylee Hooton.

The Business Excellence section of the Awards programme encourages businesses across the whole Great Lake Taupō district to get involved.

Independently judged by Auckland based business growth centre; The ICEHOUSE, the Business Categories are an application based process. Businesses complete a simple yet robust application, designed to help business owners better understand their business and how they could improve it. “With 30 applications received, we were really pleased with the response to the inaugural Business Excellence Categories last year and are keen to build on this in 2012,” commented Taupō’s Chamber of Commerce President, Rob Marshall.

Guests at the Awards launch received an outline of the Awards programme, including the timeline for the awards, and the nomination and judging process. An educational seminar series has been added this year to help mentor businesses through the application process.

A facebook page has been set up so that people can tell their stories. “We’ve engaged in social media as a way to connect with the whole community this year,” said Ms Hooton. “The community is already out there talking about what they love and they don’t love so much about the service and doing business in our town. We wanted to provide an avenue for the community to tell us what businesses could do better and use it as a vehicle to encourage them to up-skill and meet the needs of the customer.”The community will discover posters around Taupō’s town centre indicating those businesses that have entered the Service Excellence Awards. You are able to scan QR codes found on the poster with a smartphone, taking you directly to the awards facebook page. “The use of technology this year is exciting,” commented Ms Hooton.

The public are encouraged to nominate their favourite businesses for the Service Excellence Categories and have up until 10 April. To nominate people can:

• Text BIZ Business Name to 559

• Thru the facebook page

• Thru the links on the website: www.taupochamber.co.nz and www.towncentretaupo.co.nz

Once nominations close, all businesses in the service excellence categories will be mystery shopped by a panel of independent anonymous judges, who will assess the nominees on a variety of criteria including customer service, store layout and merchandising, and follow up service.

Businesses have until June 15th to download the application form for the Business Excellence Categories and submit them to The Icehouse for judging.

2012 SERVICE EXCELLENCE CATEGORIES (nomination based):

• More FM Best Independent Retail Business

• Taupo Times Best National/Franchise Retail Business

• Destination Great Lake Taupō Best Hospitality Business

• ME Creative Best Service / Trade Business

2012 BUSINESS EXCELLENCE CATEGORIES (application based):

• Enterprise Great Lake Taupo Best Medium/Large Business – t/o over $1m

• Strettons Best Small Business – t/o under $1m

• Unison Overall Business of the Year – Overall winner from the Business Excellence Categories

ENDS

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