Following well over 1,000 customer nominations, the Motor Ombudsman has announced the regional and national winners of this year’s Garage Star Awards and inaugural Customer Service Star Awards.
The awards recognise businesses accredited to its four Motor Industry Codes of Practice, and individual team members working within these organisations, who go the extra mile to provide an exceptional level of work and service to customers.
From the finalists shortlisted by The Motor Ombudsman, judges then selected the winners of both the eight regional Garage Star Award trophies and the inaugural Customer Service Star Awards
Regional winners and the reasons for their success:
- North: Westmoor MOT Centre in Newcastle Upon Tyne (Tyne and Wear), for going the extra mile to source a spare part for the customer’s electric vehicle, and for taking the time to keep the customer fully informed as to the work needed on their car;
- South: Crown Honda Bushey Heath in Bushey (Hertfordshire), for the business carrying out a thorough diagnostic to identify the issue with the customer’s vehicle at short notice, whilst providing a caring and personal approach to reassure them of their safety when using the car;
- East: Frettenham Service Station in Frettenham (Norfolk), for travelling to the customer’s location to change a flat tyre, due to them being unable to visit the garage in person;
- West: Cadley Garage in Marlborough (Wiltshire), for putting in several hours of work until the problem with the customer’s vehicle was fixed, and for keeping costs to a minimum;
- Midlands: Clarkes4Landys in Market Drayton (Shropshire), for helping a customer to source a replacement car at very short notice, enabling them to visit a family member before they passed away;
- Northern Ireland: JC Halliday & Sons in Eglinton (Londonderry), for ensuring the highest level of safety for customers during the pandemic, and for donating a significant amount of Personal Protective Equipment (PPE) to their local NHS Trust;
- Scotland: The Garage (Whitburn) in Whitburn (West Lothian), for their unrelenting commitment to providing customers with the highest level of customer service, for hosting vehicle maintenance classes for local motorists, and for their charitable work and support of the surrounding community;
- Wales: FRF Toyota Haverfordwest in Haverfordwest (Pembrokeshire), for providing a consistently highly level of service on every occasion that the customer visited the business, which included clear communications from the time of booking through to when repairs were conducted.
National winner:
The Garage (Whitburn) was chosen by the panel as the recipient of the overall 2021 National Garage Star Award after winning the Scottish regional trophy for the second year in a row