Ecmod Award Winner 2014

Winner of Best Business in the Home category

We are very pleased to say that we have won an Ecmod Award for the second year running. After winning the Outstanding Customer Service Award last year we tried to win it again this year. Sadly we didn’t win the customer service award – something I am still disappointed about! – but we did win the Best Business in the Home category. This covered a wide range of companies, from home furnishings to food and drink, and stationery of course! We are very chuffed to be a multiple award winning company now and who knows what awaits us in 2015?!

The event itself was a more summery affair this year, having been moved from April to June. After last year’s event in bowels of Stamford Bridge this time we were off to the Hurlingham Club down by the river in Fulham. Never having been there before it certainly lived up to expectations on the way in – all the beautiful people playing tennis as our taxi drove through the very smart grounds.

As something of an awards-veteran now of two years, this one followed the same format as last year – champagne reception, very nice meal, interesting chit chat with whoever you are sitting next to, awards (and the winner is….Bureau Direct), a quick handshake with Dermot Murnaghan, a dodgy photo that I hope never to see, an award that was quickly whisked back out of our hands (to be engraved and sent back a few weeks later) and the truly awful moment of having a video interview. What do you say when you really don’t expect to win? I must prepare just in case next time!

My last memory of the evening, long after Jo had left me all alone, long after I personally had won a prize in the charity draw, and long after I had had one too many glasses of wine, was sitting on the tube going home in my black tie with a bottle of champagne by my feet and wondering what on earth I looked like. The fact that I think I fell asleep and woke up at my stop with the champagne still there was very lucky.

A last note – the reason this has only been written now is that I have been waiting and waiting for a nice little winners award badge that I can post to the website and the  blog but Ecmod haven’t sent one through. We have our award back – where’s our badge?

And the winner is…

The 2013 ECMOD Awards

We’re probably the least showy company around, and at times it is almost as though we go out of our way to avoid the limelight, but I took the decision to raise our profile last year. Small can be beautiful but we have to survive as well! We love what we do, we are very proud of what we do, and although not perfect, we do try and offer something better than you will find elsewhere. When an industry awards competition came up last month, we decided to put ourselves forward for an award, and Outstanding Customer Service seemed a suitable award to show how we try and do things a little differently. Given that the submission for the award came on the same day we were moving premises, it was something of a mad rush to get the entry prepared and in on time. It was therefore a bit of a nice surprise when we were shortlisted for our award, and invited to a glitzy ‘do’ at Chelsea Football Club. I can’t ever remember winning anything previously – maybe a tombola prize, and I did score the required three penalties at the school summer fair a couple of years ago to win something – so it was something a shock and slightly surreal when Dermot Murnaghan called out our name. Hopefully the video interview afterwards will never see the light of day.

The honest response to winning is a mixed one – I personally do believe that we go beyond the usual empty customer service promises that you find around. We may also make a mess of your order, but will take personal responsibility to resolve it if we do. However, I also feel that we have a lot of improving to do, so nice as it is to get such an award, we will hopefully do a much better job of it over the next 12 months and beyond.

A big thank you to anyone who has submitted positive feedback as we did use this as part of our submission, to show how we tried to establish relationships with customers. The feedback was very nice to receive, and it demonstrated that we were trying to do something that others were glad to receive – real people who were prepared to be helpful and available and to treat you as we would expect to be treated. Here’s to a better future for Bureau and yet more exciting stationery coming your way.