These are the people’s awards. They begin with someone taking the time to nominate a person or business because an experience mattered to them.

Reading the nominations with my fellow judges, Emma-Louise Veitch, Robert Touzel and Martina McGibney, was both heartwarming and difficult. There were so many deserving people to consider.

We looked beyond the numbers. When 200 people nominate the same company, that certainly gets your attention. But we also spent time understanding what people had written and why the experience had stayed with them.

The extra mile someone went. The phone call answered at a difficult time. The kindness shown when someone needed reassurance. The attention that helped a customer feel genuinely cared for.

We reread nominations, compared stories and spent hours discussing our decisions. Every finalist should feel incredibly proud.

For me, those stories also offer practical lessons for anyone leading a team or improving customer experience.

Three customer experience lessons for business leaders

1. Pay attention to the moments customers remember

When customers describe exceptional service, they often talk about a particular person and a particular moment.

Someone listened carefully. Someone noticed they needed help. Someone took responsibility for finding an answer.

My takeaway from judging these awards is that the everyday details deserve leadership attention. Your processes matter, but so does how a customer feels while moving through them.

Put it into practice: Ask your team to share one customer interaction each week that made a difference. Discuss what happened, why it mattered and what others can learn from it.

2. Make recognition specific

A nomination tells someone: “What you did mattered enough for me to tell others about it.”

That is powerful. It gives people a clear example of the difference their work makes.

As a leader, you can bring that same approach into everyday recognition. Explain what someone did and how it helped the customer. Give your team examples of the care and initiative you want to encourage.

Put it into practice: When thanking a colleague, name the action and its impact: “You took time to explain the next steps, and that helped the customer feel reassured.”

3. Listen to the stories behind your customer feedback

Numbers can help you spot patterns. Customer stories help you understand the experience behind those patterns.

During judging, the written nominations gave us context that a vote total alone could not provide. They showed us what customers valued and why.

That is a useful lesson for any organisation collecting feedback. Make time to read what people say, discuss it with your team and identify something you can act on.

Put it into practice: Alongside your customer satisfaction scores, review a small selection of customer comments. Ask: “What should we keep doing, and what needs to change?”