A brand new award has been created which will celebrate the best customer service in the animal service industry, and the first nominee has already been named.

Steph's Clip Clean and Cuddles Dog Grooming has accepted the nod, and owner Steph Slavin said it was wonderful not only to be put forward for the new award, but to see the booming local industry be recognised.

"It's very exciting, very humbling to know that people take the time out to acknowledge a business for their fur babies not just for people so it's really nice to know we can make a difference for people and their dogs," she said.

"For dogs and all animals, it's a massive industry, everyone loves their pets and they're like children to people.

"So whether it's grooming salons, vets, refuges, there's so many so it really did need its own category to acknowledge the importance of it."

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The other major difference for this year's awards relates to the ever competitive hair and beauty category.

Chamber board member, Caroline Lumley, said following 2019's event the awards committee sent out a survey to participating businesses and sponsors, and received strong feedback on the topic.

"One of the resounding pieces of feedback we were given was that we needed to split hair and beauty," she said.

"Because that was just such a big category otherwise and it's also not necessarily fair to be comparing hair and beauty services."

Despite only opening two weeks ago, there has already been more than 300 nominations come in, which is almost half of what was received for all of 2019.

Ms Lumley said it was "the perfect time" to reward businesses for all they do, especially given the way they have battled through the COVID-19 pandemic.

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