phs Group has been recognised through a series of high-profile award wins for its Welsh team’s resourceful response to supporting customers throughout the pandemic.

Last month Customer Experience Lead John Hall was jointly crowned Support Person of the Year at the 2021 Welsh Contact Centre Awards. John was nominated for the award by his peers in recognition of being an outstanding role model, enthusiastic ambassador and problem solver, as well as the driving force behind two of phs’s service-improving projects.

As the volume of daily calls and email enquiries from customers grew by 12% during COVID-19, John used his expert knowledge of the business and strong internal relationships to overcome the pandemic challenges and further improve the team’s performance. Despite the increased pressures, John devised new ways to ensure phs could continue delivering its trademark great service by supporting customers in a timely and efficient manner during peak periods, all without increasing headcount.

phs Group also won a trio of golds at the CIPR PRide Cymru Awards for its COVID-19 response campaigns. As the UK’s leading regional PR awards, the judges singled out phs Group’s communications response to the global crisis in three key categories; Best Corporate and Business Communications Campaign, Best Use of Media Relations and Best COVID Response.

Working with Magic Wand PR, phs swiftly established itself as a trusted voice and industry expert during a turbulent time. Judges were impressed by the company’s ability to put “PR at the heart of delivering organisational goals” as well as its innovative use of consumer research and scientific data, which allowed the facilities service provider to become “a valuable regional partner” while helping organisations understand the practical steps needed to become COVID-safe.

In response to being declared one of the stars of the Welsh Contact Centre Industry, John Hall said: “Despite having worked for phs for 15 years, the last two have been a transformational journey. This period has seen me develop my new role to ensure we deliver the best service to our customers, introduce new ways to measure our performance and work with my team to support customers during one of the most challenging periods.

“To be recognised by the industry as well as my colleagues means so much. However, I’m lucky to work with amazing colleagues who are dedicated to maintaining our service levels and exceeding customer expectations, so this award really is recognition of our collective achievements.”

The awards follow a further two awards that were won at the Chartered Institute of Marketing Awards earlier in the year.

Matt Brabin, Chief Executive Officer of phs Group, said: “These awards demonstrate how phs has successfully used our in-house expertise to support customers when they needed us most over the last 18 months, and I’m extremely proud of all our teams for going the extra mile throughout the pandemic.”