2026 Australian Service Excellence Awards
Nominations Now Open!
RECOGNISING SERVICE EXCELLENCE
The Australian Services Excellence Awards (ASEA) are Australia’s premier customer service awards program, attracting hundreds of nominations each year and culminating with attendees coming together each year at the ASEAs Gala Dinner to recognise best practice, performance and innovation in customer service, highlighting their importance in today’s business climate.
In 2026, we’ll be returning to Sydney with a gala dinner at the Fullerton Hotel Sydney, in the heart of Sydney’s financial and fashion district, and housed in the historic 150 year old former General Post Office building.
Why Enter
Becoming a finalist and winning an award illustrates the highest standards of commitment to customer service excellence.
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Recognise your organisation’s achievements in customer service and enhancing your reputation with customers and competitors.
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Enhance your organisation’s customer service focus, building both a greater confidence in working with customers and increased customer satisfaction levels.
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Acknowledge and reward key team members for their contribution to the organisation.
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Support CSIA in building the profile and legitimacy of customer service as a true profession.
Who Can Enter?
The ASEAs are open to all individuals and organisations servicing Australians, whether it is a business of one employee or one thousand. The Australian Service Excellence Awards recognise individuals at all levels within organisations, as well as big corporations right through to small businesses.
Award Categories
Individuals
Executive of the Year
This Award is open to C-level executives who drive customer centricity within their organization, and recognises outstanding leadership in organisational customer centricity. This nomination can encompass all or parts of vision setting, organisation enrolment, cultural change, strategies and delivery.
CX Manager of the Year
This Award celebrates the roles between the frontline and the leadership team that make customer service excellence tangible, and targets Customer Service Managers and Customer Experience Managers for the excellence they bring to their roles. This nomination celebrates those who translate strategy into actionable plans, driving customer-centric culture in their teams and enabling teams who deliver customer service to deliver exceptional services.
Frontline Team Leader of the Year
This Award celebrates the day-to-day leaders in customer service who enable daily excellence in customer service.
This award will be given to a frontline team leader who makes customer service their personal mission and enables their team to deliver award winning customer service every day
Frontline Specialist of the Year
This Award champions those individuals who deliver customer service every day - frontline team members who work with internal or external customers. These professionals demonstrate exceptional skills in meeting customer needs and representing their organization's values.
Learning & Development Professional
Of The Year
This Award recognises individuals who excel in developing customer service skills in others. It celebrates trainers who build capability, inspire excellence, and empower employees to deliver outstanding customer experiences.
Digital Specialist of the Year
This Award recognises individuals who harness digital tools, platforms, and technologies to deliver outstanding customer experiences. It celebrates those who bridge the gap between technology and the customer, designing and optimising digital touchpoints that are seamless, intuitive, and effective.
Insights Specialist of the Year
This Award celebrates those who turn customer data, research, and feedback into meaningful action. It recognises professionals who champion the voice of the customer within their organisation, translating complex information into clear intelligence that shapes strategy, improves experiences, and drives measurable outcomes.
CX Designer of the Year
This Award recognises individuals who apply design thinking and human-centred principles to shape the experiences their organisations deliver. It celebrates those who work across journeys, service blueprints, and touchpoints to create experiences that are thoughtful, cohesive, and built around genuine customer need, from journey mapping and service design through to the cross-functional collaboration required to bring great CX to life.
CX Rookie of the Year
This Award celebrates an individual who is in the first two years of their customer experience career and has already demonstrated exceptional promise, passion, and impact. It celebrates those who have hit the ground running, bringing fresh thinking, energy, and a genuine commitment to customer-centricity above and beyond their experience level.
Organisations
Customer Service Organisation of the Year - Large Business
This Award celebrates organisations of 500 or more staff who have collectively delivered a demonstrated improvement to customer service and business performance. These large teams demonstrate how effective collaboration can create remarkable customer experiences and set new standards for service delivery.
Customer Service Organisation of the Year - Medium Business
This award recognises those organisations of between 90 and 500 staff who have collectively delivered a demonstrated improvement to customer service and business performance. This award recognises the importance of mid-sized teams in delivering a superior customer excellence.
Customer Service Organisation of the Year - Small Business
This award recognises those organisations of fewer than 90 staff who have collectively delivered a demonstrated improvement to customer service and business performance. This award recognises how smaller teams can make a bigger impact through their unified approach to customer excellence.
Customer Service Organisation of the Year - Government/Not-for-Profit
CSIA understands that there are specific legislative requirements and budget limitations for state and federal government and not-for-profit organisations that mean customer service excellence needs to be delivered in a different (and often creative) way. This category recognises the unique constraints and value of these vital organisations.
Customer Service Organisation of the Year Local Government
Local governments are the lifeblood of their communities.
This award specifically recognises local government that have demonstrated outstanding customer service. It celebrates their commitment to serving community members with excellence despite resource constraints.
Service Excellence in a Large Contact Centre
This award acknowledges large contact centres with 100 or more FTEs that have demonstrated service excellence. It recognizes the critical role these centres play in customer service delivery and their ability to maintain high standards while managing high volumes of customer interactions.
Service Excellence in a Medium Contact Centre
This category honours smaller contact centres with fewer than 20-100 FTEs that have achieved outstanding service excellence, showcasing their skills in delivering exceptional CX in customer-facing roles.
Service Excellence in a Small Contact Centre
This category honours smaller contact centres with fewer than 20 FTEs that have achieved outstanding service excellence. It celebrates their ability to provide personalized, high-quality service while efficiently managing resources.
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Projects
Digital Customer Experience of the Year
This award recognises organisations that have leveraged digital and social media platforms and technologies to create seamless, innovative, and effective customer experiences.
It celebrates excellence in online engagement, digital transformation, and the successful integration of technology to enhance customer journeys.
CX Transformation of the Year
This award celebrates organisations that have delivered a significant, sustained program of change to improve their customer experience. It recognises transformative initiatives that span people, process, or structure — and have resulted
in measurable, lasting improvements to customer satisfaction and business performance.
Innovative Customer Experience of the Year
This award celebrates organisations that have brought a genuinely original idea, approach, or technology to their customer experience. It recognises initiatives where the novelty of the thinking is central — projects that challenge conventional service models and set a new benchmark for what customer experience can look like.
How To Enter
Organisations and individuals must nominate online through
the CSIA Awards Portal. Access to the portal is free for
both CSIA members and non-members
All nominations must be supported with a fully completed
nomination form. You can include supporting documentation
as part of your nomination, but be aware that there is a
1,250 word limit for all submissions.
Judging Process
Nominations Evaluation
The Judging Committee evaluates all nomination submissions and shortlists 3-5 individuals or organisations as finalists in each category.
Finalist Interviews
Finalists will be judged by an expert panel of industry specialists and former ASEA winners. For both individuals and organisations, the finalists will take part in a 45-minute online interview where they have the opportunity to showcase their nomination: normally, this includes a formal presentation and a Q&A session with the judges.
Judging Criteria
While the judging criteria vary across the different awards, they are underpinned by the four key perspectives of the International Customer Service Standard. In their presentations, finalists are asked to provide an overview of the individual, team, project, or organisation and explain how customer service excellence was delivered in the past year with specific reference to these perspectives.
Learning and growth perspective
How is a person, organisation or project created a culture of learning and growth within the organisation?
Operational perspective
How does a person, organisation or project ensure consistency in of customer service delivery?
Service
perspective
How does a person, organisation or project result in a higher quality of customer service for the organisation?
Financial
perspective
How does a person, organisation or project impact overall business performance?
For more information on the International Customer Service Standard, contact the CSIA team at awards@csia.com.au
What do finalists receive
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National recognition of their CX achievement at a nationally recognised event
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Permission to display the Australian Service Excellence Awards Finalists logo on company stationery and marketing material
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A CSIA media kit to support your organisation’s promotional efforts
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A framed finalist's certificate
2026 TIMELINE
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4th May – Nominations open
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17th August – Nominations close
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19th August – Finalists announced
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21st September – Judging commences
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9th October – Judging closes
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6th November – ASEA Gala dinner
Entry Fees - 2026 ASEAs
Members
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Individual nomination - $199 (+ GST)
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Organisation / Project nomination - $499 (+ GST)
Non-members
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Individual nomination - $399 (+ GST)
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Organisation / project nomination - $649 (+ GST)
Note:
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Individual CSIA member discounts only apply to the nominee, not the nominator.
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Individual CSIA members do not receive discounts for organisation-level (corporate) nominations.
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Any fees incurred to participate in the judging are the responsibility of the entrant.
Where service meets success
Two of ASEA winners talk about how entering the Australian Service Excellence Awards supported their customer focus journey.