Outstanding service

Reader’s Digest has named its top outstanding customer service businesses for 2023.

The company’s editor-in-chief Louise Waterson says that for the majority of businesses, Covid-19 and the subsequent lockdowns impacted heavily on daily operations, yet the Quality Service Award winners for 2023 rallied, building success by placing their customers’ needs at the centre of all business responses.

She says that 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.”

Reader’s Digest commissioned independent market research company Catalyst Consultancy & Research to survey 1620 New Zealanders’ opinions of a range of service providers.

Category winners were:

The Co-operative Bank, AA Insurance, Avis, Robert Harris, Princess Cruises, Mitre 10, BestStart, Carpet Court, New Zealand Seniors, Kings Plant Barn, Electric Kiwi. AA Health, Bay Audiology, Landmark Homes, Skinny, ANZ, AIA NZ, Liquorland, New World Clubcard, Toyota Signature Used Cars, Fitfood, Specsavers, Resene, Petcover, Sal’s, Harcourts, Ryman Healthcare, AA Roadservice, New World, The Tile Depot, Southern Cross Travel Insurance, Bridgestone, Turners Cars.

DID YOU KNOW

Good customer service means consistently exceeding customer expectations and going out of your way to help people solve their problems.