CRYMYCH Leisure Centre has scooped a top award.

Pembrokeshire County Council leisure service won ‘Best Customer Experience’ in the local authority category of the 2018 Customer Engagement Academy Awards but Crymych, the smallest of the seven leisure centres, has been singled out for particular praise.

The centre beat off competition from more than 800 other local authority leisure centres in the UK, Australia and North America to win ‘Club of the Year’ and ‘Best Leisure Centre Customer Experience’.

Mike Cavanagh, head of cultural, leisure and registration services, said: “This is a fantastic achievement and I'm thrilled for the team at Crymych and the wider leisure staffing team across all our centres.

“A truly remarkable achievement from a truly remarkable team.”

The 2018 Customer Engagement Academy awards – newly launched this year - were based on scores collated through a system called NPS (Net Promoter Scores).

Pembrokeshire Leisure was among the first services to introduce NPS, which allows centres to receive daily feedback on customer experience and benchmark their results against others in the industry.

Kelly Gittins, manager of Crymych Leisure Centre, said more than 90 per cent of the comments received through the NPS system are praise for the centre’s staff.

“We have so many comments about how helpful and friendly the staff are, how they’ve gone out of their way to help people, listened to ideas and given the customer a good experience,” she said.

“Crymych is a very friendly, tight-knit community, and I think they really appreciate the facilities and the staff here. It’s fantastic that they’ve been recognised with this award.”

She added that the NPS system also helps staff to respond promptly to any issues.

“We monitor the scores and comments daily, and it allows us deal with any problems very quickly. It’s also helpful when it comes to our programming – for example, if people want extra spin classes, or pilates at a different time, we take these comments into account when we plan our next programme.”