The Motor Ombudsman launches Garage Stars 2021 Awards

The Motor Ombudsman has launched its 2021 Garage Star Awards. The awards follow a successful inaugural 2020 recognition programme, which attracted more than 800 online customer nominations for Motor Ombudsman-accredited garages and dealerships across the UK. Cornwall-based Dukes AutoTech was crowned the first national winner. Two new awards have been added to the scheme for 2021, with 40 vehicle manufacturers accredited to The Motor Ombudsman’s New Car Code and 13 businesses that are part of the Vehicle Warranty Products Code eligible for two separate Customer Service Star Awards.

Consumers can put forward an individual or accredited business over the next six weeks via the nomination form on The Motor Ombudsman website to win one of the eight regional trophies on offer. Customers will be asked to write a short account of how a person or organisation, such as an independent garage or car dealership, went the extra mile to assist them on one or more occasion during the past 12 months.

The two new Customer Service Star Awards extend the scope of the scheme, encompassing the broad range of businesses accredited to The Motor Ombudsman’s long-standing Chartered Trading Standards Institute (CTSI)-approved Motor Industry Codes of Practice. This will allow motorists to also nominate one of the 40 vehicle manufacturers accredited to The Motor Ombudsman’s New Car Code, and one of the 13 businesses that are part of the Vehicle Warranty Products Code, in recognition of outstanding customer service.

The four-strong judging panel, which counts two new members for the 2021 contest, will have the task of jointly selecting a total of 11 winners in this year’s competition from a shortlist of three entries per award compiled by The Motor Ombudsman according to pre-defined criteria. For the Garage Star Award categories, the panel will select eight regional winners and the highly commended honours in each of these geographical areas. The national Garage Star Award trophy recipient, which can be a business or individual, will then be chosen from this pool of eight regional winners, and they will also receive a £500 voucher in recognition of their achievement.

Similarly, judges will pick the very first Customer Service Star Award winners and highly commended entries for the vehicle manufacturer and warranty provider categories from a shortlist of three nominations compiled by The Motor Ombudsman for each of these awards.

Bill Fennell, chief ombudsman and managing director of The Motor Ombudsman, said: “Following the popularity and high level of engagement with our inaugural awards in 2020, we are growing the competition to allow every one of our accredited businesses to be nominated across our four Codes of Practice. Therefore, as we cast the net wider in terms of eligible entries, it will be exciting to see what this year’s submissions bring in terms of the exceptional work and service delivered to customers by our accredited businesses and individuals up and down the country. We look forward to announcing the winners in a couple of months’ time, and we expect it to be a very close contest.”

Customer nominations can be submitted until 15 October 2021, and the winners of the 2021 Garage Star Awards will be announced in November.