UniFirst Wins Two 2017 Stevie Awards for Sales Training Programs
March 01 2017 - 8:05AM
UniFirst (NYSE:UNF), an industry leader in the supply and servicing
of uniforms, workwear, and facility service products throughout the
U.S. and Canada, was presented with two Bronze Stevie® Awards
in the Sales Training or Coaching Program of the Year category at
the eleventh annual Stevie Awards for Sales and Customer Service.
The awards were presented during a gala banquet on Friday, February
24, at Caesars Palace in Las Vegas. More than 650 executives from
around the world attended.
The Stevie Awards for Sales and Customer Service are the world’s
top honors for customer service, contact center, business
development and sales professionals. The Stevie Awards organizes
several of the world’s leading business awards programs including
the prestigious American Business AwardsSM and International
Business AwardsSM.
The first of the two UniFirst bronze-winning nominations
centered on the creation and implementation of a new customer
retention program called Account Management Education (AME) that
teaches strategies and tools necessary to proactively build
relationships with customers. “UniFirst continually strives to
optimize our customer retention percentages as part of our
‘Customers for Life’ philosophy,” said Jeff Brandli, UniFirst sales
training specialist. “Our location managers are among the best in
the industry and we wanted to further enhance existing strategies
with new and improved ways to strengthen customer relationships. In
our first year of deployment, we noticed a marked improvement in
customer retention—a direct reflection of program’s success.”
UniFirst’s second bronze-winning entry was a new program the
company developed to help the sales team improve telephone skills
when talking to prospective customers. UniFirst created the Phone
Skills Coaching Tool by tapping into existing technology resources
to engage sales managers in automated “prompt and response”
appointment setting attempts by telephone. “Developing successful
telephone sales skills takes a great deal of practice,” said Julia
Davis, UniFirst sales training specialist. “We believed that
helping our sales teams began with ensuring our sales managers were
confident about their own skills. UniFirst found a creative
solution to help our sales managers increase their confidence on
the phone and get excited about coaching and developing their
teams. We created a program that not only helps them get the
practice they need, but also leverages our existing technology
resources for maximum value and efficiency. We have seen major
improvements in our sales managers’ telephone skills along with an
increase in appointments set by more than 90% when the practices
are applied in the field.”
More than 2,300 nominations from organizations of all sizes and
in virtually every industry were evaluated in this year’s
competition, an increase of 10% over 2016. Finalists were
determined by the average scores of 77 professionals worldwide,
acting as preliminary judges. Entries were considered in 61
categories. More than 75 members of several specialized judging
committees determined the Gold, Silver and Bronze Stevie Award
placements from among the Finalists during final judging earlier
this month. Finalists were determined by another 77 judges.
Details about the Stevie Awards for Sales & Customer Service
and the list of Stevie winners in all categories are available at
www.StevieAwards.com/sales.
About UniFirstHeadquartered in Wilmington,
Mass., UniFirst Corporation (NYSE:UNF) is a North American leader
in the supply and servicing of uniform and workwear programs, as
well as the delivery of facility service programs. Together with
its subsidiaries, the company also provides first aid and safety
products, and manages specialized garment programs for the
cleanroom and nuclear industries. UniFirst manufactures its own
branded workwear, protective clothing, and floorcare products, and
with over 240 service locations, 300,000 customer locations, and
13,000 employee Team Partners, the company outfits nearly 2 million
workers each business day. For more information, contact UniFirst
at 800.455.7654 or visit www.unifirst.com.
About The Stevie Awards Stevie Awards are
conferred in seven programs: the Asia-Pacific Stevie Awards, the
German Stevie Awards, The American Business Awards, The
International Business Awards, the Stevie Awards for Great
Employers, the Stevie Awards for Women in Business and the Stevie
Awards for Sales & Customer Service. Stevie Awards competitions
receive more than 10,000 entries each year from organizations in
more than 60 nations. Honoring organizations of all types and sizes
and the people behind them, the Stevies recognize outstanding
performances in the workplace worldwide. Learn more about the
Stevie Awards at www.StevieAwards.com.
Contact:
Donna Kish
PR/Communications Specialist
UniFirst Corporation
68 Jonspin Rd.
Wilmington, MA 01887
978.527.3871
Donna_Kish@unifirst.com
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