Aberdeenshire Heart of the High Street Awards 2026

Welcome to the Heart of the High Street Awards Nomination Form

We know how important good customer service is. Help us celebrate the people and businesses that make our town centres warm, welcoming and vibrant in the first ever Aberdeenshire Heart of the High Street Awards.

Nominate someone who goes above and beyond in providing excellent customer service.

Nominations received will be reviewed by a judging panel with shortlisted businesses/individuals being put forward to a public vote to select the winner in each category.

The categories are:

• Making Every Customer Count: Retail Award (Includes all retail outlets i.e. sellers of food, electricals, clothing, homeware, gifts etc)
• The Extra Mile: Professional Services Award (Includes all service centres i.e. banks, travel agents, solicitors, garages etc)
• The Warm Welcome: Hospitality Award (Includes cafes, restaurants, takeaways, hotels)
• The Experience Makers: Leisure & Tourism Award (Includes sports centres, cinema, playcentres, attractions etc)
• Supporting Health & Happiness: Wellbeing Award (Includes pharmacies, hairdressers, barbers, beauticians, dentists etc)
• Loves Local Ambassador (A person or business who consistently promotes the shop local message benefiting not just their own business but the wider business community and town)
• Outstanding Individual (Any business category, an employee or the owner who has shown outstanding customer service)
• New Business of the Year (This award recognises a new business, from any sector, that has opened within the past two years and has already demonstrated exceptional customer service and a strong customer‑focused culture)

Completing the application should take no more than 10-15 minutes but to make sure your nominee stands out, please use this opportunity in full to tell us about how your nominee(s) excels at customer service. Please remember to fill in the nomination in full - we cannot progress nominations to judging stage without the following information:

• Your nominee's name
• Your details as the nominator
• A detailed explanation as to why you are nominating the nominee and how they exemplify excellent customer service.

Please note that we will never give your personal details to a third party or disclose your personal information without your consent. The details collected from Heart of the High Street nominations are used for the purposes of this event only.

We will only use your email to contact you if your nominee has been successful. We will not give your email address to anyone else or use it for any other purpose.

For further information, refer to our privacy notice: Engage Aberdeenshire privacy notice - Aberdeenshire Council

Thank you for taking the time to celebrate our town centre businesses and good luck!