Garden Vision and Roof Rats have been named the winners of the 2013 CapeTalk/702 Small Business Awards with Sage Pastel in the Western Cape and Gauteng respectively.
The winners were announced following an extensive campaign to identify small businesses that offer outstanding service in each region.
Listeners were asked to nominate small businesses they have dealt with, who have given them excellent service, and from these nominations, 30 finalists were chosen in each region.
For the past three weeks, two finalists have been interviewed each day – on the breakfast show and afternoon drive show. All 30 finalists in each region then participated in an intensive round robin interview session with a number of industry experts in various fields to help the judges to identify one winner and two runners up per station.
Customer service excellence
Garden Vision, run by Jeremy McLaughlin took top honours in the Western Cape.
“Jeremy has shown that great service can take an everyday business segment and transform it into a viable long-term creator of value and employment. He has done so consistently over the last 12 years and in so doing has established a track record for excellence amongst his loyal client base,” said one of the judges, 567 CapeTalk station manager Colleen Louw.
Exploring new markets
In Gauteng, Roof Rats, who clear bats, rats, dust and all the other accumulated muck out of ceilings, stood out for the judges.
“Roof Rats have managed to create a market where one did not exist, and the demand for their services is just growing,” said Talk Radio 702 station manager, Pheladi Gwangwa, who was one of the judges.
Both Garden Vision and Roof Rats win an advertising package for 567 CapeTalk or Talk Radio 702 as well as a laptop loaded with accounting and payroll software from Sage Pastel.