Landlord Wakefield and District Housing top for customer service

WDH was awarded Adding Value for Customers prize at the EFQM Excellence Awards 2013, which recognise Europe’s best performing organisations.

The organisation was among 10 finalists including BMW, Spanish hospitals provider Sanitas and dental materials supplier GC Europe, of Belgium.

Prizes were awarded at a celebration dinner in Vienna on October 23.

WDH chief executive Kevin Dodd said: “This is a major achievement for us because it ranks us as the best organisation in Europe when it comes to delivering first-class customer service.

“Tenants are our customers and are at the heart of everything we do. The Adding Value for Customers prize demonstrates just how much hard work we put in every day to make sure that our tenants get the best possible service from us. When you consider the many major organisations across Europe which enter the EFQM Excellence Awards each year, it’s a great honour to be considered a role model for providing customer service.”

The award came after WDH reaching last year’s finals of the Excellence Awards and was named UK Excellence Award winner in 2010, and North of England Business of the Year in 2008.

WDH, which manages 31,-000 properties and has around 60,000 tenants, was also named UK Landlord of the Year and Large Social Landlord of the Year in the latest UK Housing Awards.

EFQM was founded in 1989 and is based in Brussels, Belgium. The not-for-profit foundation has more than 30,000 members and which helps organisations improve efficiency and implement business strategies.

It developed the EFQM Excellence Model as a blueprint to help businesses and other organisations drive innovation and improve results.