MAD-HR has been named winner of the Customer Excellence Award, sponsored by Greater Anglia, at the Suffolk Business Awards 2022.

Launched in 2014, MAD-HR is an HR consultancy that prides itself on its ‘make a difference’ brand of HR, which is underpinned by a dedicated customer-first ethos.

With offices in Ipswich, Norwich and Chelmsford, the company’s team of HR specialists come from an array of sectors, making them well placed to help businesses of all scales and across multiple industries.

The judges said MAD-HR was a worthy winner of the Customer Excellence award, describing it as “a niche business which provides very good support to SME businesses”, with an enthusiastic team who are “always there to provide their customers with an excellent service”.

They added that the company has a “good strategy and very positive staff engagement and values”, and were impressed with the new systems that have been implemented to improve customer service.

Charlotte Bate, director of MAD-HR, said: “To win the Customer Excellence Award is a huge honour for the whole team.

"From the moment we take new team members on board, we deliberately focus on the need to live our values and to continuously seek ways to ‘make a difference’ to the businesses we work with throughout the region. So this accolade feels like an acknowledgement of that commitment.

“We’ve seen significant growth in the last year and remain as ambitious as ever, so while we’ll be pausing to celebrate this moment, we’re also excited to keep pushing forward and helping as many leaders and entrepreneurs across East Anglia as we can.”

About the sponsor

Greater Anglia is proud to be sponsoring the Customer Excellence Award in this year’s Suffolk Business Awards.

The train operator is passionate about delivering excellent customer service and ensuring that the railways play their full part in helping our region to be both economically prosperous and a wonderful place to live.

It is therefore committed to consistently raising customer service standards, and has a fleet of brand-new trains operating on all its Suffolk routes, transforming the travelling environment, providing more comfortable journeys, increasing seating capacity and helping to deliver record-breaking performance, as part of a £1.4 billion investment programme.


The finalists

Kingsfleet Wealth

Established in 2010, Kingsfleet Wealth is a chartered financial planning firm based in Ipswich that provides independent financial advice to over 200 Suffolk trusts and families.

The judges were impressed with the “detail and care that the company offered to its clients and its core values”.

The Lion Brasserie

Built in the 1770s and located in the heart of East Bergholt, the Lion Brasserie re-opened in September 2020 after a three-year closure and has been carefully refurbished.

The judges commended the hard work of general manager James Barber and his team in establishing “a friendly, homely eatery that offers a wide range of services.”

Red7Marine

Red7Marine is an Ipswich-based marine contractor providing specialist access solutions, civil engineering and consultancy support to a range of markets in the maritime sector.

Describing it as an “impressive company”, the judges were impressed by the care and “specialist knowledge” that Red7Marine offers customers throughout their journey.