ALPHABET GB has announced the first winners of their inaugural ‘Alphabet Supplier Awards’ with Sytner Group crowned overall ‘Alphabet Service Provider of the Year’ as well as winning ‘Dealer Group of the Year’.

The event took place to recognise and celebrate the achievements of Alphabet’s network of service providers over the past 12 months.

The awards evening in the unique surroundings of the Old Chapel at the Beaumont Estate, Old Windsor, was hosted by Alphabet’s chief operating officer Matt Sutherland, along with comedian and TV personality Ed Gamble.

During the evening, awards were presented to the leading suppliers for the year in eight categories which included LCV Converter, Rental Provider, Dealership, Dealer Group and Fleet Service Provider – as well specific awards for Innovation, Collaboration and Service Excellence. The event culminated in the crowning of Sytner Group as overall winner as Alphabet’s Service Provider of the Year for 2017.

The Awards were the culmination of a process which began last year when nominations were sought from across the entire Alphabet business and customer base. These nominations were then shortlisted and winners decided based on additional scoring criteria which included Key Performance Indicator (KPI) and Satisfaction scores from Alphabet customer interactions.

The Sytner Group’s awards were collected by Vince Floyd, director of corporate sales .

He said afterwards: “We’re tremendously proud to have received the Alphabet Service Provider of the Year award, especially as this is the first time that they have recognised their suppliers in this way.

“I think the award demonstrates the collaborative and customer oriented approach that the two organisations share, as well as the incredibly strong professional relationships that have developed between the two companies and their employees.

“To be celebrated as Alphabet’s outstanding Service Provider for 2017 is testament to all the Sytner employees around the UK who every day go above and beyond to meet the needs of Alphabet and their customers. This award is well-earned recognition of the dedication, knowledge, enthusiasm and ‘can-do’ attitude of the Sytner team who are involved with Alphabet.”

Alphabet chief operating officer Matt Sutherland commented further: “The new world of business mobility – with its increased levels of complexity and connectivity, as well as the multitude of customer touchpoints and interactions – demands a strong network of like-minded, customer focused and innovative companies in order to meet the real-world challenges and demands.

“As a business we understand the vital role that our supplier partners play in delivering the sheer breadth of services that our customers require around the clock, 365 days a year. As a business we succeed or fail depending on the strength and quality of our third party relationships.

“To our customers, these suppliers represent Alphabet and how they do so is absolutely vital to how customers feel about us and the service we provide.

“Alphabet’s mantra is ‘to keep the customer at the heart of everything we do’ and these awards celebrated those suppliers partners that demonstrate and deliver this on a daily basis. The whole purpose of the awards is to recognise and reward the vitally important role that our suppliers and their employees play.

“This is the first year that we’ve held these awards which reflects our increased focus in this area since the establishment of our supplier relationship management team over a year ago.

“There were some very tight calls in the judging process and fine margins between winning and losing. But personally I feel this reflects the quality of the supplier network we now have in place.

“One of the most pleasing aspects of the evening for me was the number of organisations who missed out on winning but expressed a very firm commitment to develop, improve and innovate further in order to win next year. Ultimately, the whole purpose of these awards is to drive innovation, collaboration and service excellence to benefit Alphabet’s customers and their drivers – delivering a real win-win for everyone.”