The ten finalists in the 2020 competition
The 2020 Award ceremony was a fantastic success!
The winner was Diana Riaubiene
Receiving the trophy for Corporate Receptionist of the Year Award from Paula Rogers FIH, founder of Admiral Recruitment and member of the Institute Of Hospitality Editorial Board.
Diana wins the trip to New York
She received the prestigious trophy, as well as a fully hosted, five-day trip to New York, dinner for two at Michelin-starred City Social restaurant in London, a two-day leadership development programme and a LinkedIn profile makeover.
“What an absolute honour it is to win”, said Diana, speaking shortly afterwards. “This has inspired me to pursue my passion for excellent customer service and to encourage others to do the same”.
Celebrating professionalism
The event also celebrated the incredible professionalism of all ten finalists in this particularly challenging year. Each was shortlisted after a rigorous two stage selection process by a judging panel of industry leaders.
This year the second stage included a personal presentation, interview and a demanding role play all conducted virtually via Zoom.
The judging panel also recognised two ‘highly commended’ winners – Laura Egerbacher, who works for Lexington Reception Services at their contract at British Land and Reiss Gordon-Henry who works for Rapport Guest Services at their contract at HSBC.
Despite Covid-19, these two individuals showed exceptional energy and enthusiasm and still managed to develop personally and professionally this year.
Ian Pigeon, Client Services Director of Addleshaw Goddard (above) talked about why customer service is such a differentiator, even for companies with world-class products. Corporate receptionist play a vital role in creating memorable client experiences.
Before handing out the highly commended awards, Simon Cohen, Global Partner Director of Condeco explained why the combination of technology and people is so important in providing excellent service.
Reiss Gordon-Henry expressed his feeling about being highly commended by repeating four words; “brilliant, fantastic, incredible and outstanding”. Before adding, “this has been such a positive experience by topping off an awful year”.
Laura Egerbacher was delighted to be highly commended and said, “this makes me feel that all my hard work creating great experiences every day has been recognised”.
Greg Mace, Founder of the Corporate Receptionist of the Year Award welcomed everyone and explained why it is such an important event now in its second year.
Each finalist received a certificate and bottle of champagne including Karina Zseleznik and Marija Kamcheva who could only attend remotely. More than a hundred people watched the live stream to cheer colleagues on!