The accolades after winning awards is great, but we know it’s only a temporary glow.

You may have noticed we’ve been squeezing every last bit of PR value out of our recent win at the Professional Adviser awards. Of course we are really proud and it’s nice to get recognition but the fact of the matter is, without great customer service, any reputation can be easily tarnished.

Winning awards is great and we are particularly happy that we win awards for being a great team. Not only have we been amongst the “Best Advisers” to work for the last two years we also choose and pay to be part of the “Investors in People” programme. It's a completely independent process and is nothing to do with financial services, it covers every type of business from schools to retail to manufacturing.

Most awards are a snapshot – they are the best version of you. “Investors in People” is a structural framework that we are working towards every day when nobody is looking. It’s just something we quietly get on with behind the scenes. We have the SILVER standard and we are incredibly proud of this, it has enabled us to create the culture and processes which have led to our recent awards.

We are not perfect and always strive to be better, but here’s why having the best team makes a difference to our clients:-

• Happy staff are pleasant and want to go the extra mile for you
• Informed staff understand their role in making your service excellent
• Skilled staff are capable of solving problems for you
• Empowered staff know they can make things happen quickly for you
• Staff who share and understand our values want to do the right thing for you

So, yes awards matter, but great service every day matters more.