PuroClean, a national restoration and remediation franchise, announced it has earned a bronze award for Most Valuable Corporate Response for the 17th Annual International Business Awards, as well as two gold Stevie Awards for Marketing Department of the Year and Collaboration/Social Networking Solutions.
Last year, the company was the recipient of the 2019 American Business Awards gold award and the International Business Awards bronze in the User Interface Design Web category for the launch of the franchise’s updated website. Nicknamed the “Stevie” for the Greek word for “crowned,” the awards will be presented at a virtual ceremony on December 1.
“It is a tremendous honor to receive three Stevie Awards this year that highlight the combined efforts and contributions from our corporate headquarters, marketing department, and internet marketing team all working together as one,” said Mark W. Davis, chairman and CEO of PuroClean. “While this year has been challenging for many across the globe, it’s a privilege to see our brand bond together to achieve incredible strides to provide support to our franchise network.”
The company’s bronze acknowledgment comes as a result of its COVID-19 corporate response to company-wide efforts focused on the safety and wellbeing, beginning with the corporate team and implemented across the franchise network throughout the U.S. and Canada. These actions, led by president and chief operating office of PuroClean, Steve White, led to record growth amid the pandemic. Keeping with the corporate vision of servant leadership, strict branding guidelines, and world-class support to the communities they serve, the executive team kept the lines of communication open to ensure full support for all concerned. The leadership team reinforced the corporate messages by implementing new virtual training courses, distributing a myriad of operational procedures, new marketing materials, providing ongoing virtual updates on the ever-changing COVID guidelines and procedures, and sharing copious corporate messages via eNewsletters and videos. All this, as the brand implemented work-from-home for the entire corporate team supporting the over 320 franchise offices, all working through quarantine, and subsequently, through the office reopenings.
Franchise owners were supported and encouraged as they selflessly gave back, providing complimentary COVID cleanup services for their local fire departments, police stations, hospitals, and first responders. And when the company’s largest event, the annual convention, was cancelled, over 150 teams hosting viewing parties showed up to celebrate their colleagues at the virtual awards broadcast.
Earning gold accolades from this year’s contributions, PuroClean’s Marketing Department was awarded the Marketing Department of the Year for staying ahead of the rapidly changing parameters, going above and beyond to provide world-class support to their franchise network and customers throughout the communities they serve in response to the COVID-19 pandemic. Ensuring all messaging was aligned with the Centers For Disease Control and Prevention safety standards, the corporate culture, and branding, the team kicked into high gear to become an information hub, making daily calls to assess how COVID-19 was affecting the network and how best to support them. While the competition focused on selling services, PuroClean's Marketing team focused on its servant leadership culture and supporting the communities.
Working overtime, they rapidly produced resources to support the franchise network in effectively and safely providing COVID-19 cleaning services. The team provided critical resources to the more than 320 franchise locations throughout North America, implementing a virtual classroom for new franchise owners training with digital visuals. Since February 2020, the team released more than 45 marketing pieces and did not skip a beat in producing two quarterly editions of the company-branded HEARTBEAT magazine developed, updated, and distributed on time to support the entire franchise network.
In addition, this team created new content for blogs and social media; ongoing public relations campaigns; weekly internal eNewsletters and magazines; business development strategies; video marketing campaigns; online academy classes on COVID-19-specific marketing and safety training materials, biohazard procedures and guidelines, and external documents on connecting with insurance agents and municipalities.
Following in the Gold honors, PuroClean also earned praise for an addition to its recently updated award-winning website, developed by media partner, Bright Pink Agency, to incorporate a new franchise directory tool. This new website element combines several databases into one simple search system. While helping property owners throughout North America, faced with restoration and remediation issues in their homes and businesses, to find help 24/7/365, it simultaneously routes those incoming inquiries directly to the 320-plus franchise locations to efficiently bring in jobs, all while being designed to be user-friendly, flexible and data-driven.
“These international accolades showcase the strength of the PuroClean way, bringing innovation, solutions, and support during times of need to our franchise network, the communities they serve, and their business partners,” said White. “We are proud of these accomplishments and know that our corporate headquarters and marketing partners work closely together to develop strong systems to help our brand operate efficiently during these unprecedented times.”
More than 3,800 nominations from organizations of all sizes from 63 nations and in virtually every industry were submitted this year for consideration in a wide range of Stevie Award categories. Stevie Award winners were determined by the average scores of more than 250 executives worldwide who participated in the judging process from July through early September.