Bradford business awards deadline is looming

One of the latest is from Polar Ford, a Bradford car dealership which is entered in the Medium/Large Business of the Year category, sponsored by Bradford Chamber.

With the deadline on Friday February 11, there’s still time to enter your own business in one of the ten categories.

Entry is by the online form at www.telegraphandargus.co.uk/bradfordmeansbusiness, where you can also find out about all the categories.

Polar Ford is based on Canal Road, Bradford, and employs more than 100 people. They say in their entry: “Despite a double whammy of the economic recession and the end of the Government backed car scrappage scheme, Polar Ford Bradford had a record year in 2010.

“We continued to recruit, employing two new Apprentices and two new sales executives during 2010, bringing total staff numbers to 107. Our share of the Bradford-area new car sales market increased.

“In 2010 all of our 107 employees completed an innovative customer care training programme called Moments of Truth, gaining an NVQ or Diploma in Customer Care, making the dealership one of the first in the country to gain the Institute of Customer Service’s nationally recognised training mark.

“We achieved a 92 per cent complete customer satisfaction score based on independent research under-taken in 2010.

“Customers are contacted within 24 hours of their new car purchase and asked to rate their experience. If a problem arises, dealership staff are informed immediately and will rectify issues.If a problem arises, staff are informed and will rectify issues. Pivotal to our ‘customers for life’ approach is ensuring every customer fully understands the finance options available to them when purchasing a new vehicle. At the point of purchase, we provide a settlement figure which guarantees their car’s value at the end of their finance period. This means customers can budget for their vehicles and are not left with the prospect of negative equity at the end of their initial payment period.”

Do you think you can compete in this category? It’s sponsored by the Bradford Chamber, who are our partners in the Bradford Means Business Awards 2011, along with Bradford Council. For the first stage of the competition, we want entrants to fill out the form online and include – in the space provided – a write-up of no more than 1,000 words as to why you fit the bill for that particular category.

The deadline for this first wave of entries to reach us is this Friday. When we’ve got all the first-stage entries in, they will be passed to the panel who will assess their suitability for the next stage of the awards.

All those entrants who are deemed to be suitable for their chosen category will be contacted again and asked to fill in another form which will ask for more specific information and which will allow the judges to properly score each entrant on a level playing field. These forms will need to be in by NOON on MONDAY, FEBRUARY 28.

Then the panel will convene and sort through all the second-stage entries, and will draw up a short-list of three finalists in each category, which will be completed on or around MONDAY, MARCH 7.

The shortlisted entrants will be contacted that week, and then it’s just the wait for the final on Saturday, March 26, when the winners will be announced at a glittering awards night at the Aagrah Midpoint restaurant in Thornbury.

Entries have already been flooding in to our Bradford Means Business Awards 2011.

To enter, go to telegraphand argus.co.uk/bradfordmeans business – you have TWO DAYS left to enter the first-stage nomination process.

The awards will culminate in a glittering night on Saturday, March 26, which will be held at the Aagrah Midpoint restaurant in Thornbury.

Before that, there’s a lot of work to be done, and it’s vital that you get your entries and nominations in. Entrants to fill out the form online and include – in the space provided – a write-up of no more than 1,000 words. The deadline for this first wave of entries to reach us is FRIDAY, FEBRUARY 11.