Judging

Dr. Osman Khan - Chair of judges

Osman has worked with a number of multinational firms in industries such as, airlines, travel and tourism, hospitality, telecommunications and software. He is currently a Senior Lecturer in the University of East London Royal Docks Business School and has completed a MBA and a PhD in Marketing at the University of Bradford. Osman has published 3 books on customer experience marketing and customer loyalty. With an 8 year history of academic and industry related experience Osman has conducted many executive training courses and has produced several business related publications. Osman started his business career as a marketing manager in IT. Since then Osman has progressed on to teaching Marketing, International Business and Human Resource Management programs and has taught at various institutions throughout Asia and the UK. He will use his experience, knowledge and expertise to impartiality oversee the judging for the UK Theme Park and Visitor Attraction Awards.

Stephanie Edwards

Stephanie has advised The English Tourist Council on their Welcome to Excellence Programmes and has developed “Welcome Management” and “Lead, Motivate and Succeed”. She judges for the National Customer Service Awards and the Customer Service Professional of the Year for the National Tourism Awards. Stephanie Edwards' qualifications include an MA in Marketing, BA in Business and Administration and a Certificate in Education from the University of London.

Stephanie has worked in Higher Education for over 15 years, developing customised training programmes for companies in the UK and overseas. She became a subject matter expert in customer service for the Institute of Customer Service (ICS), and specialises in helping organisations in both public and private sectors, in the UK and globally, to become more customer focused. She supports organisations in the creation of a customer service culture, developing customer service standards and a variety of customer service related products at all levels. Stephanie is proactive in the development of the Governments UK National Occupational Standards in Customer Service at 3 levels.

Stephanie has recently written “The Best Practice Guide for Customer Service Professionals (2006),” mapped to the UK 2006 National Vocational Qualifications in Customer Service level 2 and has just completed “The Best Practice Guide for Customer Service Managers (2009)” mapped to the UK 2006 National Vocational Qualifications in Customer Service level 3. These books have also been customised for the National Initiative of Service Excellence in Barbados, to be used in conjunction with the delivery of Customer Service NVQs. Stephanie and her team also develop resources for the awarding body LCCI in Singapore. The Best Practice Guides have been translated into two other languages for global clients. Stephanie has recently led a team to update the National Occupational Standards and they will be launched in 2010.

Terry Houlihan

Terry is the Managing Director of TDI International. TDI specialises in assisting countries and organisations to ‘improve the experience’, within the tourism industry. They have designed and delivered programmes that encourage innovation and ‘improving the experience’ for customers since 1997 in the UK and for the last 7 years in the Middle East, Europe, Africa and the Caribbean. TDI The mission of TDI International is “To inspire organisations to develop a culture for the growth and implementation of Ideas for the benefit of customers, staff, the whole organisation and the environment”. Terry will use his knowledge in this industry sector to judge the UK Theme Park and Visitor Attraction Awards 2010.

Richard Saward – Attractions Consulting

Richard Saward has spent a professional lifetime in customer facing roles from first jobs with Little Chef and wedding caterers through pub / restaurants to working in two of Yorkshire’s well known attractions, Eureka! and the National Coal Mining Museum. He has a firm belief that customer service will make or break a business and knowing that the only way to find out what customers think is to really listen to them.

While at the National Coal Mining Museum, visitor numbers doubled and customer satisfaction levels of over 90% were achieved for visitors being very satisfied. The Museum was White Rose Award (Yorkshire Tourist Board) Winner for Large Attraction in 2007.

Benchmark report

All entries submitted correctly, will receive a benchmark report. As we all know, "feedback is the breakfast of champions!" We know all great business people love feedback, whether they are doing well or things aren't quite going to plan. The benchmark report will be individual to your entry. It will be based on the scores allocated by the judges and will include comments and show how you did, compared with the scores of other entries. Feedback will be given for all entries. For non-finalists, the comparison point will be the lowest scoring finalist. For the finalists the score will be against the winner. For the winner the report will be against the average score of the finalists.