The Star Awards

Welcome to The Motor Ombudsman’s Star Awards

The Motor Ombudsman’s Star Awards have been designed to celebrate the achievements and recognise individual team members and Motor Ombudsman-accredited businesses across the country, that have gone the extra mile and beyond the call of duty to assist customers.

The 2023 Garage Star and Customer Service Star Award winners have now been announced! Find out who they are!

If you’re a business that wants to find out more about the Star Awards, click here.

 

Hear from Bill Fennell, The Motor Ombudsman’s Managing Director and Chief Ombudsman launching the 2022 Awards.


FAQs: The Motor Ombudsman’s Star Awards

Which businesses are eligible for the Star Awards?

There are two types of Star Awards: 

The Garage Star Awards are open to any independent garage or car dealership that is accredited to The Motor Ombudsman’s Service and Repair and / or Vehicle Sales Codes. Eligible businesses are listed on our Garage Finder.

The Customer Service Star Awards provide motorists with an opportunity nominate one of the 41 vehicle manufacturers accredited to The Motor Ombudsman’s New Car Code, and one of the 16 businesses that are part of the Vehicle Warranty Products Code, in recognition of outstanding customer service.

Additionally, ther is a Customer Service Star Awards category for head offices of franchised dealer groups, independent garage groups and body repair centres, where you can nominate a particular member of staff or the company as a whole.

Unfortunately, businesses that are not accredited to our Codes of Practice cannot be considered for a award. Please refer to the Rules of Entry for further information. If your business is interested in becoming accredited to The Motor Ombudsman, you can find out more information about how to join here.

If consumers have had great service from more than one person or business during the year, can they submit more than one nomination?

Yes, that is absolutely fine, as the way that the business or individual has assisted the consumer will always be judged on its own merits.

Can consumers submit a nomination by email or post?

Nominations should be submitted via the online form on The Motor Ombudsman website. However, if there are any reasons that the online form cannot be completed, such as accessibility issues, then please call us on 020 7344 1694 to discuss alternative methods for submission.

Can businesses nominate themselves, their teams or their staff members?

Unfortunately, individuals or businesses are not able to nominate themselves for any of the awards. We can only accept nominations from consumers.

When will the judging of entries to choose the winners take place?

The judging will take place after the nomination closing period in October.

How can consumers nominate an individual or business for an award?

Consumers can nominate an individual or business for an award by completing the online form, which will be available from 2nd May 2023.

When will the winners be announced?

The winners of the 2023 Garage Star Awards will be announced in the last week of November 2023.


FAQs: The Motor Ombudsman’s Garage Star Awards

Garage Star Awards

Who can consumers nominate for a Garage Star Award?

Consumers can nominate a staff member at a Motor Ombudsman-accredited business or a Motor Ombudsman-accredited business for one of eight UK regional awards (i.e. the area in the UK in which the business is located).

The eight regions that we are accepting customer nominations for are as follows:

  1. East
  2. Midlands
  3. North
  4. Northern Ireland
  5. Scotland
  6. South
  7. Wales
  8. West

How will the Garage Star Award winners be judged?

All nominations received from consumers will be verified to ensure that they meet our entry criteria, and are related to one of our accredited businesses.

They will then be assessed according to ‘Stage One’ of the Judging Criteria (please refer to the Judging Criteria below) to create a shortlist of the three top nominations for each of the eight regional awards.

The panel of judges will collectively choose one winner and two runners-up for each of the eight regions based on ‘Stage Two’ of the Judging Criteria.

As businesses vary in size and location, please note that the nominations will not be judged on how many the individual, or business has received from customers.

From the group of eight regional winners, the judging panel will then crown the overall “National” winner of the 2022 Garage Star Awards (based on ‘Stage Three’ of the Judging Criteria), and the business will receive £1,000 in Lifestyle Vouchers as part of their prize.

Consumers who submitted a nomination for the overall winning region will be entered into a draw to win £250 in Lifestyle Vouchers.

What is the judging process?

The Judging process for the 2023 Garage Star Awards is as follows:

Stage ONE: Compilation of the nominations shortlist for each of the eight regions

Three nominations per region will be selected internally by The Motor Ombudsman to create a shortlist for review by the judges to determine the winner and the two runners-up for each of the following eight regions:

  • East
  • Midlands
  • North
  • Northern Ireland
  • Scotland
  • South
  • Wales
  • West

What is the Judging Criteria?

In order to reflect the diversity and achievements of the prospective winners, the creation of the shortlist of 24 nominations will be based on the following Judging Criteria:

  1. The information required for the nomination and entry to the competition is fully complete;
  2. On a scale of 1 to 10, with 1 being what is “readily expected” of a business, to 5 being “worthy of praise”, to 10 being “exceptional”, to what extent has the individual or business has gone beyond the call of duty to ensure that the customer received exceptional standards of work or service during the past year.
  3. Scores will be aggregated internally by The Motor Ombudsman for each nomination based on the metrics above, and the three highest scoring nominations per region will be put forward to the judges to determine the eight regional winners and the two runners-up for each region.
Stage TWO: Selection of eight regional winners and runners-up

All four judges will each be provided with the three nominations per region (i.e. a total of 24) for their review a few days before they are brought together (see below).

The nominations presented to the judges will take the form of the name of the business or the name and title of the nominated individual, the details of the business where relevant, plus the testimonials written by consumers.

The judges will participate in an online meeting to reach a general consensus as to who should be the winner, and who should be the two runners-up for each of the eight regions.

Stage THREE: Selection of the national winner

From the eight regional winners, the judges will then discuss and select the national winner based on the achievements of the winners in each of the regions. This will once again be a joint decision amongst the four judges.


FAQs: The Motor Ombudsman’s Customer Service Star Awards

Who can be nominated for a Customer Service Star Award?

The categories for 2023 are:

  1.  Vehicle manufacturers
  2.  Vehicle warranty providers
  3.  Head offices of franchised dealer groups, independent garage groups, and body repair centre groups (e.g. Protyre, Servicesure, Formula One).

Consumers can nominate an individual, or the business as a whole for each of the above categories of business.

What is the judging process?

The Judging process for the 2023 Customer Service Star Awards is as follows:

Stage ONE: Compilation of the nominations shortlist 

Three nominations for each Customer Service Award category will be selected internally by The Motor Ombudsman to create a shortlist, which will then be reviewed by the judges to determine the winner and the two runners-up for each category.

In order to reflect the diversity and achievements of the prospective winners, the creation of the shortlist  will be based on the following factors:

  1. The information required for the nomination and entry to the Competition is fully complete;
  2. On a scale of 1 to 10, with 1 being what is “readily expected” of a business, to 5 being “worthy of praise”, to 10 being “exceptional”, to what extent has the individual or business has gone beyond the call of duty to ensure that the customer received exceptional standards of customer service during the past year.
  3. Scores will be aggregated internally by The Motor Ombudsman for each nomination based on the metrics above, and the three highest scoring nominations will be put forward to the judges to determine the overall winner and the two runners-up for each category.
Stage TWO: Selection of  the winners and runners-up

All four judges will each be provided with the three nominations per category for their review a few days before they are brought together.

The nominations presented to the judges will take the form of the name of the business or the name and title of the nominated individual, the details of the business where relevant, plus the testimonials written by consumers.

The judges will participate in an online meeting to reach a general consensus as to who should be the winner, and who should be the two runners-up for each of the three categories.

As businesses vary in size and location, please note that the nominations will not be judged on how many the individual, or business has received from customers.