Wedding Industry Awards 2019

The next immediate step beyond the close of nominations (Thursday, Feb 28th 2019 – 9pm NZ time), we move into the next phase, inviting the various nominee businesses to formally enter the Wedding Industry Awards (NZ) process.

Later in the piece, nominees will also be introduced to the 2019 Wedding Industry Awards (NZ) panel of category judges whose unenviable role it will be to determine the finalists, and then the ultimate winners in each of this year’s categories. 

There will still be an opportunity for you to win an award on the premise of the popularity of your business. This will be ‘The Hits’ “People’s Choice Award”. There is only one People’s Choice Award up for grabs.

So, if you’re not successful in winning in your specific category, and if you’ve entered the ‘People’s Choice’ category, there’s still a chance you could WIN on the basis of most number of votes received.

The theme for this years Wedding Industry Awards is ‘setting the bar’. As you can appreciate in such a small, concentrated, niche such as ours, the New Zealand wedding industry is a highly competitive one – with a number of new entrants to the industry every year endeavoring to “make their mark”. An unregulated enviroment (which the NZ wedding industry currently possesses), means if we don’t ‘set the bar’, or the ‘benchmark’ high in both the way we “do” business, and the way we “deliver” an experience to our prized clients/customers, we could ultimately risk bringing the overall reputation  of the industry into disrepute. This is the reason behind this years Wedding Industry Awards (NZ) theme – ‘setting the bar’.

As you will appreciate given the number and variety of categories, the process of determining a finalist, and then an ultimate winner in each category is no easy task.

As such, we have endeavoured to throw a great deal of weight on an aspect of your business common to all businesses, irrespective of size, length of time in the market, or number of employees within the business. That common thread weaved across the landscape of any business pivotal to its success is “client experience”.

Understanding your client needs, effective relationship building, and end-satisfaction are vital elements of any successful client experience. Mastering these principles goes hand-in-hand with a businesses continued prosperity and long-term sustainability.

As you’ll already be aware, businesses can win or lose as a result of poor service. The implications can be far reaching, especially with the increasingly evolving mediums through which clients can communicate their displeasure.

Judging Criteria

Customer service is about encouraging proactive, customer responsive selling skills, client centric behaviours, building new client relationships, and ensuring client retention wherever possible.

In 2019, our panel of judges will be looking at 5 major components:

(1) Your nomination form(s). While there are 3 ways in which a business can be nominated into the awards, the most recommended of these is client nomination. This is where you have gone out to your past/present clients/customers and asked them for their nomination based on their past/present experience with your business. Your client(s) “rave review” is your categpory Judge(s) first real insight into your business/client interaction, and feedback of your client experience from their point of view.

An industry peer nomination is similar to a client nomination, the key difference being your peer will have worked alongside you in a business/client context, or dealt with you in a business-to-business context, and based on these interactions will have elected to nominate you into the awards on the premise of their experience with you and/or your business. So, as you’ll note, whether a Bride + Groom or an industry peer, each has nominated you as a result of their “experience” having interacted with you and/or your business.

Now, as earlier mentioned, there are 3 ways in which a business can be nominated. If not by your client(s), then you could also have been nominated by an industry peer, or of course you had the option of self-nomination. While self-nomination is the easiest way to circumvent the need to have to reach out to yur clients and/or industry peers, it also affords the least amount of feedback from a client perspective. However, tis can be overcome as your category Judge has other avenues through which to assess your client(s) experience.

(2) Your client(s) experience in dealing with you and your business;

(3) Local industry regard, i.e., what, if anything, is the reputation of your business in the wider community;

(4) Independent reviews or feedback, i.e., facebook, Trip Advisor, WeddingWise, TradeMe, etc;

(5) Sustainability (do you have a current business plan, best practice model, robust accounting practices etc in place).

Entry fee

There is an entry fee of $55.00 (New Zealand) per entry. Your entry fee covers related processing/administration costs.

This fee is payable at the time you submit your official entry form. If you are entering multiple categories, [i.e. Ceremony venue, reception venue, new emerging business, “People’s Choice”], you will only pay a maximum of $110.00NZD.

If, you elect to only enter the “People’s Choice” category [and no other categories], an entry fee of $55.00NZD will apply and must be paid at the time of entry.

If an official entry is received without payment of the related entry fee, the entry will be deemed null and void and will not be included as an official entrant in the 2019 Wedding Industry Awards {NZ}

Our preferred method of payment is via internet banking. For your convenience, our account details are as follows :

Bank/Branch: ANZ Bank, Albany

Account Name: The Love Company Limited

Account Number:  01-0277-0177116-00

PLEASE ENSURE your business name is included in any REFERENCE/PARTICULARS field of your internet banking transaction.

On receipt of your official entry form and your subsequent payment, you will receive confirmation via email your entry has been received.