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iknow-uk customer helpine
Once again iknow-uk have been short listed for the excellence in e-business at the 2006 Lancashire Business Awards (known as the 2006 BIBA awards). That makes it three years running! Over the past eight years the awards have celebrated the achievements of local businesses that have demonstrated the inspiration to succeed and a commitment to business excellence.
The BIBAs 2006 will culminate in a glittering Awards Ceremony at the impressive Empress Ballroom, Winter Gardens, Blackpool on Friday 3rd March 2006. The evening will bring together the cream of Lancashire's businesses to celebrate the success of the eleven award winners who will be announced on the night.
Last year over 650 guests attended the prestigious event and enjoyed the fabulous entertainment and special atmosphere as the competition reached its exciting climax. The event is now firmly established as an unmissable date on Lancashire's business calendar and plans are well underway for a spectacular finish to The BIBAs 2006.
Marcus Simmons of iknow-uk receives 'Start-Up Business of the Year 2005' from Simon Turner of Freshfield PR
iknow-uk were announced as winners of the 'Start Up Business of the Year' category in the 2005 North West Society of Chartered Accountants annual awards.
The judges said that in winning the award "the iknow-uk entry stood out because of the quality of the product, its execution and the outstanding business results achieved so far." But what made their final decision simple was "the phenomenal potential of the business in the years ahead."
Marcus Simmons, Managing Director iknow-uk, said that "for us to receive an award from such a business focussed audience is fantastic and a real stamp of approval. Ultimately no matter how pretty a web site looks it has to produce the goods and our sites do that so well, that even accountants can see it!"
The prize for this award includes a three month media campaign from award sponsors Freshfield PR and Design www.freshfield.com. Simon Turner of Freshfield says that their "award winning team of former business journalists will work alongside iknow-uk to devise and implement a campaign which will well and truly put them on the map."
For more information about the awards and the North West Society of Chartered Accountants see: http://www.icaew.co.uk/NorthWest
iknow-uk reinforces its commitment to customer service with the launch of its highly acclaimed customer welcome pack. Designed in the style of airline tickets the pack contains all sorts of information designed to enable customers to get the best value from their iknow-uk listings.
For example, the customer control panel is covered in detail including how to write stunning photo captions, how to avoid enquiries that cannot be fulfilled and creating extra value from the bookings received. It also introduces the new availability calendar which is due for launch in December 2005.
The welcome pack also contains a selection of highly selective recommendations for services such as insurance, photography and print which are aimed at helping customers promoting their properties more effectively or saving them money. A reduction in renewal costs can also be obtained by recommending a friend to one of our websites.
Marcus Simmons, Managing Director of iknow-uk, comments that "We want our customers to get as many bookings as possible during their annual subscription. It just makes good business sense - the more pleased our customers are the more they will want to renew their subscriptions."
Design work by www.primarygraphics.co.uk
iknow-uk have been short listed for 'Start Up Business of the Year' by the North West Society of Chartered Accountants. The awards ceremony will be held on Thursday 24th November 2005 at Barton Grange Hotel near Preston.
The awards are designed to "honour the tremendous achievements of the area's best businesses, entrepreneurs and advisors." Sponsors include Yorkshire Bank and Insider Magazine. Enterprise Ventures also sponsor the awards and nominated iknow-uk for the Start Up Business award. They are one of our funding partners and administer the Rose Bud fund on behalf of Lancashire County Council.
For more information about the awards and the North West Society of Chartered Accountants see: http://www.icaew.co.uk/NorthWest
More than 650,000 people chose to visit the three iknow-uk websites in the summer months of June, July and August 2005 generating an incredible 77,500 booking enquiries for listed properties. Visitor Statistics
The summer quarter netted more than 3 times more visitors compared to the same period last year. The daily rate for this period peaked at an incredible 10,000 visitors per day! These latest figures demonstrate the commitment of iknow-uk to continuously improve the performance of its websites for the benefit of its advertisers.
Marcus Simmons, Managing Director iknow-uk, comments: "The iknow-uk group of sites have received more than 2 million visitors in the 2 years since launch. That represents a huge advertising reach for our customers - Hotels, B&Bs and Holiday Cottages in Yorkshire, the Lake District and the North West of England. We constantly work to improve performance both in terms of attracting more site visitors and also converting those visitors into enquiries and bookings.
iknow-uk websites achieve a remarkable hat trick of recommendations in less than 12 months from the 'Best of the Net' section of Saturday's Travel Guardian.
The site feature picked out this time is the ability for site visitors to select accommodation by various specialty options such as gay-friendly, non-smoking and pet-friendly.
The online accommodation industry is maligned by big promises and poor delivery with few customers staying on after spending their first year's subscription. But iknow-yorkshire is showing that by delivering real results and providing excellent customer service customers are staying with this winning formula.
Renewals of first year subscriptions are running at more than 85% in the first 6 months of the sites' second year, a figure far beyond the industry average 'churn rate' of around 25%.
Chris Turner of Low Penhowe B&B near York is delighted with his listing and says that, "Renewing my subscription with iknow-yorkshire was the easiest business decision I will make this year! This site delivers results all year round and long after the free trial has finished."
iknow-uk scooped a top industry award at The Big Chip Awards - the North West's annual awards for companies excelling in the use of IT and digital technology and representing the future of internet advertising. The accommodation-finding websites beat off stiff competition from across the North West to win the award for Best Commercial Website.
The websites helps local hotels, B&Bs and hostels publicise their accommodation while providing a comprehensive accommodation database for Lake District visitors. iknow-uk also run accommodation-finding websites for Yorkshire and the North West. Judges praised all the sites as "astonishingly successful".
Marcus Simmons, Managing Director of iknow-uk said "As a relatively new company this is a really exciting achievement for us and a great boost for our business. Online accommodation advertising is highly competitive and it is often difficult for hoteliers to know where to spend their hard earned money. This award is a real stamp of approval from the North West Digital Industries that helps set us apart from the competition."
Winners were announced on Thursday 24th February at a glittering award ceremony, attended by 480 people, at New Century Hall in Manchester hosted by broadcaster Anthony Wilson.
Organised by Manchester Digital, the trade association for the region's digital sector, the annual Big Chip Awards are now in their seventh year.
Also among the winners was The BBC's Director General Mark Thompson. He was awarded the 'Big Chip Hero Award' for services to the North West's digital industry. Judges hailed the BBC's top man as a hero of the North West's digital industry for his pioneering move that will bring the BBC's New Media department from London to the North West.
Each year Business Link Lancashire hold the "Be Inspired Lancashire Business Awards". iknow-uk entered into the "Lancashire Digital Development Agency Award for Excellence through E-business" category.
The business awards recognise the achievements of local businesses and rewards them for their commitment to excellence. Winning companies will share £10,000 prize money and acknowledgement at a high profile awards ceremony.
There are 10 categories in total, and after a record number of entries, 34 nominees have been unveiled. For the second successive year iknow-uk were short listed with just four companies out of almost 300 entries for the E-business category. The awards ceremony was held 11 February 2005 at the Empress Ballroom, Winter Gardens, Blackpool.
In a major development for it's customers iknow-uk launched a listing editor known as a control panel. This allows all advertisers on our websites to have complete control over their listing details.
Firstly, customers can now make sure that all the details on their listing such as prices are up to date. They can then go on to refine all their text to endure that their message stays fresh and adapts to the seasons and requirements of their potential customers.
Once they have covered the basic they can move on to highlighting special offers, availability and unique selling points of their property. This process of refinement should be on-going as they receive feedback from site visitors they can gradually make their listing more and more effective.
Another refinement is the ability to directly target different markets. Each iknow website allows people wanting to book accommodation to search in specialist categories such as 'Pet Friendly' or 'Disabled Access. Each property that allows pets or has disabled access can display a summarized message just for the people who make those selections. This has the effect of producing far more targeted enquiries most suited to the facilities each property has to offer.
There is also a comprehensive help system designed to help customers get the most out of their advertising with iknow-uk. We want out customers to make as many bookings as they possibly can from their iknow site so that they keep subscribing year after year!
The control panel provides a platform to launch a whole new range of features to further enhance the site over the coming months and years. New features scheduledfor development are a simplified availability calendar, late availability promotions, email marketing opportunities and monthly reports on enquiry volume and page views.