A Kent call centre has been picked as one of the best in the UK in a customer service competition.

Holiday Extras, based at Newingreen, near Hythe, won the accolade of top call centre for the travel and leisure section in a project organised by market research company GfK NOP.

It achieved a score of 85 per cent against an industry average of 82 per cent in the sector.

The study was organised by Call Centre Focus magazine, to raise customer service standards in the call centre industry.

The research consisted of 20,000 mystery shopper calls to 50 of the UK’s leading call centres, across five sectors - retail, financial services & insurance, telecoms & utilities, public sector and entertainment, leisure & travel.

Each call centre was rated using over 50 criteria across five key areas of service - timeliness, ease of use, reliability, staff knowledge and personalised service, and awarded a Customer Service rating in percentage terms.