A team running sports and leisure centres across North Herts has won a national award recognising saluting its standards of customer service.

Stevenage Leisure Limited, a charity which has its headquarters at the Stevenage Arts & Leisure Centre, beat off stiff competition from across the country to be crowned Serving The Consumer: Best Business 2014 at The WOW! Awards Gala Ceremony.

The organisation runs 17 leisure and cultural centres in nine different towns including the Gordon Craig Theatre, the Hitchin Swimming Centre, the North Herts Leisure Centre in Letchworth and the Knights Templar Sports Centre in Baldock.

Divisional operations manager Richard Allan said: “We try and go the extra mile. Every member of the team is empowered to do what it takes to make every customer experience good.

“Even with three million visitors to our centres each year, we value every customer that comes through the door as well as our employees. If there is something we can do to go that little bit further to make the customers happy, we do it.”

The finalists were judged by an independent panel of experts who described the charity, which employs more than 1,000 staff, as “showing trust, respect and a positive culture”.

Find out more at www.stevenage-leisure.co.uk.