Earlier this month, we dusted off our glad rags and joined businesses from across the city at the Brighton & Hove Business Awards, where Bozboz was proud to be a finalist in two categories: Best Customer Service and Best Medium Size Business.
Being recognised in either would have meant a great deal to us. To make the final for both – and for two areas that say so much about the business we've built – gave us plenty to celebrate.
There are plenty of awards in the agency world, and it's fair to say that not all awards are created equal.
One of the things we really appreciated about the Brighton & Hove Business Awards was the amount of work that went into the judging process – both from the businesses entering and the people judging them.
The initial submissions were detailed. If we said we were good at something, we had to back it up. Claims needed evidence, examples and results.
Then came the interviews.
Being shortlisted meant sitting down with the judges and talking through our submission in more detail, giving them the chance to ask questions, challenge us and get under the skin of how Bozboz actually operates.
Each category was independently judged by its respective sponsor, and you could tell throughout the process that the judges genuinely cared about getting it right.
So when the finalists were announced and Bozboz appeared in two categories, it felt like something worth making a bit of noise about.
Bozboz has called Brighton home since 2007.
Anyone who's worked in digital for even a fraction of that time will know quite how much has changed. Technology has moved on, client expectations have changed, new channels have appeared, disappeared and appeared again in slightly different clothes. And now, of course, AI is reshaping things all over again.
We've had to keep moving with it.
Being shortlisted for Best Medium Size Business gave us a rare excuse to stop and look back at that journey – while also demonstrating how we're building the next chapter of Bozboz.
The judging looked across the business as a whole. We had to evidence how we run the company, how we support and develop our people, how we've navigated challenges, how the business performs and where we're heading next.
For a business approaching its 20th year, that recognition feels pretty special.
Bozboz was born as Brighton was establishing itself as one of the UK's leading creative and digital hubs. Nearly two decades later, we're still here, still independent and still evolving.
We're proud of that history, and equally proud to remain part of the Brighton business community today.
Our second finalist nomination recognised something we care a lot about: looking after our clients properly.
It's easy to write “great customer service” on a website. It's another thing to prove it.
For the awards, we had to show what sits behind it – the processes we've developed, how we communicate, how we manage relationships, what happens when things don't go quite to plan and how we retrospect on our work to find ways of doing things better next time.
We're also not afraid to go the extra mile.
Sometimes that means being flexible. Sometimes it means having an honest conversation or challenging a decision. And yes, sometimes it means bending over backwards to get something sorted when a client really needs us.
Over the years, we've invested a lot in making that experience consistent rather than leaving good service to chance. We have robust processes, but we're also human. Finding the balance between the two matters to us.
Perhaps the best evidence is the relationships themselves. Some of our clients have been with Bozboz for many years, through multiple projects, websites, challenges and changes in their own businesses.
We're incredibly proud of that loyalty, so being recognised as a finalist for Best Customer Service felt like a very fitting acknowledgement of the people across Bozboz who put the work into those relationships every day.
The whole process culminated in a brilliant evening at the Brighton & Hove Business Awards, surrounded by businesses and people doing some genuinely impressive things across the city.
It also gave us a chance to stop for a moment and appreciate what those two finalist nominations represented.
Almost 20 years of Bozboz. Plenty of change along the way. A team that continues to care about doing things properly. Clients who've trusted us, in many cases for a significant chunk of that journey. And a business we're very proud to have built here in Brighton.
Not bad reasons to get dressed up and raise a glass.
A big thank you to the Brighton & Hove Business Awards, the sponsors and judges who put so much into the process, our clients, and – most importantly – the whole Bozboz team.
If you want to showcase your offering, convert more leads, provide resources, or all of the above, we can build a website that separates you from the competition.
