Hawke's Bay's NOW wins award three years on the bounce

Now founder Hamish White with the company's customer service awards. Photo / Paul Taylor

Hawke's Bay-owned broadband company Now has come up trumps for the third year running, winning Broadband Compare's Best Customer Support Award.

Now chief executive and founder Hamish White said words cannot describe how the team feel about their triumph.

"It's testament to their belief in the quest that we've always been pursuing and the passion and commitment that they bring to their jobs every day," he said.

"We've always had this unwavering belief that our industry had deprived Kiwis of good service for decades and henceforth our quest and belief that Kiwis deserve better."

This is the second award that customer service Now has received this year, having been crowned New Zealand's most satisfied customers – the nation's favourite broadband provider at the Canstar Blue's awards.

White said the company's dominance nationwide was due to simply being accessible, with 98 per cent of customer calls answered within one minute.

"We're in a service industry and we take service really seriously. Our whole business is predicated on offering exemplary customer service - that's what our staff live and breathe," White said.

"It's about being responsive, it's not rocket science, it's about doing what you say you're going to be doing - this seems to be lost in our industry."

The Now team attended the national Broadband Compare Awards in Auckland last Friday, where they were presented with the award.

The annual

awards aim to recognise excellence and achievement across the broadband sector in New Zealand.

From humble rural beginnings in Hawke's Bay, the company now employs more than 50 staff throughout the region and has become a nationwide brand in its eighth year of existence.

Even though Now is nationwide, White said it remains purely Hawke's Bay based.

"What's lost on a lot of people is that 80 per cent of our growth comes from outside of Hawke's Bay. All those

cheques come back to Hawke's Bay and create jobs here - we're hugely proud of creating 50-odd jobs that previously didn't exist here," White added.

Now plans on entering the mobile market next November after customer recommendations.

"We don't tend to bite off more than we can chew and we now feel operationally mature enough to tackle that big beast of mobile," White added.