Newcastle-based Awarding Organisation, NCFE, was named as Awarding Organisation of the Year at the inaugural FAB Awards, which took place in Leicester.
Organised by the Federation of Awarding Bodies, the FAB Awards showcase the work its member organisations do for the benefit of learners’ futures, with categories including Innovation of the Year, Team and Individual Contribution of the Year, and Qualification of the Year.
NCFE overcame competition from fellow Awarding Organisations to come out on top in its category, which was sponsored by Cirrus Assessment.
One of the key reasons behind NCFE’s win was its strong focus on customer service. On the same evening as the FAB Awards, representatives from NCFE attended a gala evening at Old Trafford to celebrate its placement in the Top 50 Companies for Customer Service for the second year running.
This prestigious customer service benchmarking programme uses real customers to mystery shop and benchmark against the best in the business across multiple sectors. NCFE was again the only awarding body to be recognised in the Top 50, alongside big names such as Tesco and Sony.
NCFE has celebrated its best year yet for customer engagement. The results of its annual survey showed that overall customer engagement was 86% – a record high since the survey began in 2011 and an 8% increase on last year’s overall score.
David Grailey, Chief Executive of NCFE, said: “We’re delighted to have won Awarding Organisation of the Year at the FAB Awards, which recognises our colleagues who help to make NCFE the best we can be every day.
“We know that our success has been achieved through passionate people who understand customer needs and continually strive to innovate and improve our offering. This has also been reinforced by our placement in the Top 50 for Customer Service for the second year running, as well as the strong results of our 2015 customer engagement survey.
“We do see ourselves as an awarding organisation with a difference and we take pride in what we do; our culture, our heritage and proven track record in vocational awarding, our exceptional service, friendly approach, influence in the sector, and relationships that we’ve built with our fantastic customer base. We’re grateful for our success in both the FAB Awards and Top 50 in recognition of all of this.”
With the recent acquisition of the CACHE awarding business, assets and brand, NCFE is working towards becoming an even stronger awarding organisation.
David Grailey continued: “This is an exciting new chapter for us. We’re extremely proud of our recent achievements, but we are always striving to improve in every area so we won’t be resting on our laurels. We hope to improve our customer experience even further over the coming year to build on our recent award wins and successes.”
For more information on NCFE, visit www.ncfe.org.uk or call 0191 239 8000.