Winners Announced Across 7 Award Categories and More Than 20 Industries
April 22, 2026 - Philadelphia, PA - The Business Intelligence Group today announced the winners of the 2026 Excellence in Customer Service Awards, a global recognition program honoring the companies, products, teams, and individuals delivering measurable, human-centered customer experiences in a rapidly evolving service landscape. This year's cohort spans more than 20 industries and multiple continents - demonstrating that customer service excellence is no longer confined to any single sector, geography, or operational model.
"The 2026 Excellence in Customer Service Award winners are not managing customers. They are earning them," said Russ Fordyce, Chief Recognition Officer at the Business Intelligence Group. "What stood out across this year's submissions was the accountability of the work. These are organizations and individuals who know their numbers and more importantly, they know what moved them. Whether the tool was AI, culture change, process redesign, or a combination of all three, every winner on this list can show you exactly what they did and exactly what it produced. That kind of rigor is what separates great customer service from a great story about customer service."
Overall Winner - Transformation of the Year (Organization): Talkmobile
Talkmobile, the UK-based virtual mobile network operator, has been named the Overall Winner in Transformation of the Year for executing one of the most complete cultural and operational turnarounds in this year's program. Starting from a Trustpilot score that left little room for ambiguity about the scale of the challenge ahead, the team responded with a long-term CX strategy called Do the Right Thing - an agent-led empowerment model that dismantled call scripts, created forums where frontline staff could directly influence product and operational decisions, and rebuilt the company's approach to customer service from the inside out.
The judges noted Talkmobile's submission as one of the most complete transformation accounts in the entire program, praising the team's ability to connect cultural inputs to commercial outputs and sustain both simultaneously across a small HQ team, outsourced contact centers, and a limited budget. What distinguishes this win is not any single metric - it is the coherence of the story from start to finish.
Overall Winner - Transformation of the Year (Organization): Emma - The Sleep Company
Emma - The Sleep Company has also been recognized as an Overall Winner in Transformation of the Year for engineering a twelve-month turnaround that took customer satisfaction from crisis-level performance to benchmark-setting results across Belgium and the Netherlands. The team eliminated a backlog that had become a structural drag on the operation, embedded Voice of Customer insights into daily decision-making, and converted a reactive support function into a proactive, insight-driven engine.
The judges recognized Emma's submission for the clarity and credibility of its before-and-after story, and for the speed at which sustainable improvement was achieved. What was once a reactive operation is now a strategic asset that feeds customer intelligence back into the broader business.
"This award is a testament to the incredible effort and resilience of our entire team. We set an ambitious goal, stayed committed to the customer, and the results speak for themselves." - Vasco Figueira, Emma - The Sleep Company
Overall Winner - Outsource Partner of the Year (Organization): EverHelp
EverHelp has been recognized as the Overall Winner in Outsource Partner of the Year for transforming FORMA's customer support operations into a scalable, automation-driven infrastructure capable of supporting rapid product expansion without sacrificing service quality. Ticket volume more than doubled over twelve months while response times, automation rates, and cost efficiency all moved in the right direction simultaneously - a combination that defines best-in-class outsource performance.
The judges highlighted EverHelp's ability to scale at the same time its client was scaling, which is precisely the context in which outsource relationships most commonly break down. This one accelerated.
"This recognition is a great honor. At EverHelp, we believe customer support is not just about handling tickets – when done right, it can impact real business metrics and contribute to growth. I'm grateful to the judges for recognizing our approach, and especially to the EverHelp team, who made these results possible." – Nataliia Onyshkevych, CEO, EverHelp.
Overall Winner - Organization of the Year (Organization): RESINC Solar
RESINC Solar has been named the Overall Winner in Organization of the Year for building a customer experience model in the solar energy sector that is simultaneously high-performance, community-rooted, and genuinely differentiated in a market where trust has historically been the industry's most persistent liability. Operating as a social enterprise, RESINC Solar built an approach to post-installation service that treats customer relationships as a core part of the product, not a cost to be minimized.
In an industry where customer trust has frequently been undermined by aggressive sales practices and inconsistent after-sales support, the judges recognized RESINC Solar for proving that an ethical, customer-first model is both operationally viable and commercially sustainable.
"Being recognized for customer service excellence means the world to us. It validates what we have always believed: that doing right by customers and doing well as a business are not competing goals." - RESINC Solar
Overall Winner - Technology of the Year (Product): MEO (Altice PT) + TechSee
MEO, Portugal's leading telecommunications provider operating under Altice PT, partnering with TechSee, has been recognized as the Overall Winner in Technology of the Year for becoming the first telecom in Portugal to operationalize end-to-end Visual AI across its full range of IVR service channels. The deployment addressed what the team identified as the "visual gap" - the fundamental disconnect between customers who can see what is happening with their equipment and agents who historically could not - and transformed IVR hold time from a customer pain point into a scalable automation opportunity. With around 80% of customers in the IVR flow avoiding the agent queue, MEO reports that 93% of agents say visual interactions directly support issue resolution, while 96.4% of customers report satisfaction with the visual support experience.
The judges recognized this submission for the quality of its problem definition and the measurable operational outcomes achieved through a genuinely novel approach to the service channel architecture.
“Integrated into MEO’s IVR, the Visual AI platform allows customers to become technicians in their own homes,” said Vítor Manuel Pinguicha, Director of Customer Care at MEO. “By enabling customers to perform actions such as connecting cables or fixing equipment while guided by Visual AI, we were able to enhance customer experience and drive operational efficiency.”
Overall Winner - Manager of the Year (Individual): Frederico Lopes
Frederico Lopes has been named the Overall Winner in Manager of the Year for transforming DiscoverCars.com's global customer service operation from the inside out - at scale, across a multilingual team spanning scores of countries, and within a timeframe that the judges described as exceptional. Lopes brought together cultural leadership, AI deployment, and operational rigor into a cohesive performance that elevated the entire function.
The judges recognized Lopes for his ability to execute a meaningful CX transformation while maintaining the daily performance standards a global service operation demands - and for delivering results that are specific, measurable, and credible.
"It is a privilege to be recognized for work that belongs to the entire team. Every person showed up with the right attitude and the right effort. This award is for all of them." - Frederico Lopes, DiscoverCars.com
Overall Winner - Team of the Year: Cherre
Cherre's Client Excellence team has been named the Overall Winner in Team of the Year for engineering an Applied AI-powered operations model that transformed one of real estate technology's most frustrating customer pain points into a genuine competitive advantage. By deploying AI to handle the manual heavy lifting across data submission and validation workflows, the team converted what had been a slow, friction-heavy client onboarding experience into one of the fastest and most scalable in the industry.
The judges recognized the Cherre CX team for the clarity of the problem they identified, the intelligence of the solution they deployed, and the scale of the improvement they delivered.
Team members:
- Jesse Anderson, VP of Data Management Services
- Nilo deCastro, VP of Client Success
- Ashley Pfeiffer, Director, Client Delivery
- Dmitry Danilchik, Director, Client Delivery
- Jesika Watton, Senior Client Success Manager
- Jeremy Gallays, Senior Client Success Manager
- Austin Hicks, Senior Client Success Manager
“Real change happens when you stop managing problems and start solving them. That’s exactly what this team did. They prioritized what mattered and executed with precision, turning a point of friction into a scalable advantage for our clients.” - Margaret Guelzow, Chief Client Officer, Cherre
Overall Winner - Front-Line Pro of the Year (Individual): Haris Vagenas
Haris Vagenas, who leads Customer Success, Support, and Enablement at Infiterra, has been recognized as the Overall Winner in Front-Line Pro of the Year for delivering a year of service performance that is as precise as it is impressive. Working with IT distributors and MSPs in the subscription commerce space, Vagenas built a support function that operates as a retention engine - one where service quality directly determines whether customers renew, expand, or leave.
The judges recognized Vagenas for combining technical depth with genuine customer empathy, and for producing results across CSAT, resolution speed, and revenue retention that reflect a front-line professional operating well above the standard of the category.
"This recognition reflects how we approach customer success at Infiterra- as a shared responsibility across teams, not just a function. I’m proud of what we’ve built together and grateful to our customers who challenge us to raise the bar every day." - Haris Vagenas, Infiterra
Overall Winner - Executive of the Year (Individual): Xiaoxian Long
Xiaoxian Long, a senior leader at Autohome Inc., has been named the Overall Winner in Executive of the Year for reimagining the new energy vehicle retail journey through an AI-driven approach that made the customer experience measurably faster, clearer, and more decisive. His Scenario-Based Discovery Engine transforms complex engineering specifications into intuitive, life-scenario-driven discovery experiences - removing the technical friction that has historically slowed purchase decisions in the NEV market.
The judges recognized Long for taking a genuinely innovative approach to a structural customer experience challenge and for producing commercial outcomes that validate the strategy with uncommon clarity.
"This recognition is a reflection of what is possible when you put the customer's experience at the center of every decision. I am grateful for this honor." — Xiaoxian Long, Autohome Inc.
Award-Winning Individuals
Executive of the Year
- Sam Sidhu, President & Chief Executive Officer, Customers Bank - Banking and Financial Services
- Coley Norman, SVP, Client Experience, Liviniti - Insurance
- Lauren Gold, Chief Customer Officer, Kustomer - Software
Front-Line Pro of the Year
- JC Banda, ScreenCloud - Software
- Mustapha Fersaoui, Axis Communications - Business Services
Award-Winning Teams
Betterworks Customer Success Team
- Andrea Lagan, COO
- Greg Saiz, Senior VP of Customer Success
- Talia Salvi, West/APAC Customer Success Manager
- Ingrid Cullen, East/EMEA Customer Success Manager
- Amanda Iles, Senior Director of Customer Support
- Rob Budzinski, VP of Professional Services
Piece of Cake Moving and Storage
- Ivan Panic, Customer Success Manager
- Lydia Vujosevic, Customer Success Supervisor
First Lite Customer Service
- Garry Craddock, Customer Service Rep
- Taylor Jacques, Customer Service Rep
- Jenae Kemp, Customer Service Rep
- Chase Galley, Customer Service Manager
Award-Winning Organizations
Organization of the Year
- Allstate Identity Protection
- Allstate Protection Plans
- Arch Insurance
- Astronomer's Customer Reliability Engineering (CRE) Team - Software
- Banyan Technology - Supply Chain and Logistics
- Basys - Banking and Financial Services
- Constant Contact - Internet and Technology
- CSG - Banking and Financial Services
- Daversa
- DiscoverCars.com - Telecommunications
- E.ON Next - Utility
- Endurance Warranty Services
- Engageware - Software
- Ergon Inc. - Petroleum
- FluentStream - Telecommunications
- FOTILE Customer Experience
- Guardian Roofing, Gutters and Insulation - Construction
- Health Focus Manufacturers - Manufacturing
- Heart to Home Meals - Health
- Hellbender Vinyl - Entertainment and Media
- Jane - Software
- LXE Hearing Support Center - Health
- Ministry of Energy and Infrastructure - Energy
- MyFBAPrep - Supply Chain and Logistics
- Omnira Software - Software
- OtO Inc- Internet and Technology
- PayJunction - Banking and Financial Services
- Piece of Cake Moving and Storage - Supply Chain and Logistics
- Premier Apps - Internet and Technology
- SS&C Intralinks Customer Success and Delivery - Banking and Financial Services
- Saviynt - Software
- SharkNinja
- Sleeplay - Health
- Starkey - Manufacturing
- Strategic Audit Solutions - Business Services
- SysAid Customer Care Department
- TELUS Digital - Business Services
- Vertafore - Insurance
- Viral Coach - Advertising, Marketing and Public Relations
- Whatfix - Software
- Zayo - Telecommunications
Outsource Partner of the Year
- AssureSoft - Software
- Hugo Technologies Inc.
- TP
Award-Winning Products
Technology of the Year
- B’yond Digital Phone Numbers Platform - Telecommunications
- Capital One Auto, Prometheus Financial Core - Banking and Financial Services
- IntouchAI
- InnerPlant - Agriculture and Food Technology
- Lazza Global - Internet and Technology
- Notify AI - Software
- Parloa - Software
- Sprinklr AI-First Contact Center Intelligence - Software
- TP.ai FAB Collect - Business Services
Award-Winning Transformations
Transformation of the Year
- 1stDibs Customer Support
- Atlantic.Net - Internet and Technology
- DigitalOwl - Software
- Flightscape Powered by CAE- Operational Excellence Team - Aerospace
- Freshworks Inc. - Software
- Mastercard Global Customer Delivery and Care - Internet and Technology
- Ministry of Energy and Infrastructure - Energy
- Network Solutions - Internet and Technology
- Samsung Electronics America
- The PFC-Powered Evolution of Capital One Auto - Banking and Financial Services
- TP - Business Services
- VelocityEHS Customer Success Team - Software
What the 2026 Winners Reveal About Customer Service Excellence
The 2026 Excellence in Customer Service Award class tells a story that is both specific and worth understanding. These are the patterns that define this year's cohort.
Culture-driven transformation outperforms technology-driven transformation when it is built to last. Talkmobile's win is the clearest example in the program. The company did not rebuild its customer experience by deploying a new platform. It rebuilt it by rethinking what its frontline agents were empowered to do. The lesson is not that technology does not matter - the broader winner class makes clear that it does. The lesson is that culture determines whether technology delivers or simply gets deployed.
AI is now a standard operating component of high-performing customer service organizations. Across the 2026 winner class, AI-powered tooling appears in deflection systems, onboarding automation, diagnostic workflows, retail personalization engines, and visual assistance platforms. The question is no longer whether customer service organizations are using AI. The question is whether they are using it in ways that produce results they can measure and explain.
Scale and quality are no longer in tension. EverHelp's recognition as Outsource Partner of the Year documents one of the clearest examples of this dynamic: ticket volume more than doubled, response times collapsed, and cost efficiency improved - simultaneously. The model that assumes growth in volume necessarily degrades service quality is not supported by this year's evidence.
Customer service is now a legitimate source of competitive differentiation. RESINC Solar built a business model in an industry defined by trust deficits and earned thousands of five-star reviews in the process. Cherre converted a broken onboarding experience into a product-led advantage. Xiaoxian Long turned technical complexity in the NEV market into a conversion rate transformation. These are not incremental gains. They are structural separations from competitors who treat customer service as overhead.
Individual excellence scales beyond the individual. Every winner in the front-line, managerial, and executive categories earned recognition not for personal performance in isolation but for the measurable impact they produced on the organizations and customers around them. The most important individual in a customer service operation is the one whose excellence makes everyone else more effective.
Finalists
A group of nominees were also recognized by the judges as finalists. These submissions ranked among the top nominees and the judges deemed them worthy of additional recognition. The Finalists are:
- AireCONTROL
- Beyond Finance
- bswift
- Datasite Assist
- Dental Boutique
- Kantata
- Health Advocate
- Liveops Inc.
- Logically
- MCE Systems dDLM Platform and Agentic AI
- Octane Lending, Inc.
- OnSIP
- Payroc Contact Center
- ScreenCloud
- Shiva Dhawan
- Simply Contact
- Talkmobile
- TCP
About the Excellence in Customer Service Awards
The Excellence in Customer Service Awards recognize the companies, teams, and individuals who set the standard for what customer service can deliver when it is resourced, led, and measured with intention. Established by the Business Intelligence Group, the program evaluates performance across award categories including Organization of the Year, Transformation of the Year, Technology of the Year, Team of the Year, Outsource Partner of the Year, Manager of the Year, Front-Line Pro of the Year, and Executive of the Year - spanning every major industry segment and organizational size. Judged by experienced business executives who provide detailed scoring and transparent feedback, the awards honor those who demonstrate that exceptional customer service is a measurable, repeatable, and commercially significant discipline.
About Business Intelligence Group
Business Intelligence Group (BIG) is an independent awards organization that has been recognizing outstanding achievement in business since 2012. Now in its 14th awards season, BIG operates more than 10 annual programs spanning innovation, artificial intelligence, cybersecurity, customer service, cloud computing, sustainability, sales and marketing, workplace culture, and women's leadership.
Unlike popularity contests, BIG programs use professional judging panels and objective scoring benchmarks to identify organizations, products, and individuals making real, measurable impact. Winners receive a complete promotional toolkit - including blockchain-verified credentials, press release support, social media assets, and featured placement across BIG's global community of more than one million business professionals.
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