Climb Quest is a finalist at the Milton Keynes Business Achievement Awards

We are over the moon to be finalists in the 2025 Milton Keynes Business Achievement awards (MKBAA), in both the Customer Service and Leisure, Entertainment, and Hospitality categories.

It’s great to be recognised by so many other great businesses in Milton Keynes.  

Here are some of the things we highlighted in our submissions, areas that we are really proud of at Climb Quest.

Leisure, Entertainment, and Hospitality

Milton Keynes has a multitude of leisure activities for its residents and visitors, with so many fun and exciting activities to choose from.  We are very proud to be part of this universe at Climb Quest Milton Keynes, welcoming over 100,000 climbers since launching in February 2020. In that time, we have established ourselves as an outstanding leisure hub within the city, as seen by our great reviews and our 5/5 ranking on Tripadvisor.

Climb Quest offers a fun and safe way to climb for family groups and friends.  With our on-site café, we cater for hundreds of guests every week, offering delicious, hand stretched pizzas and locally sourced coffees.

Climb Quest is a great introduction into climbing.  The graffiti motto on our wall shouts ‘Be proud of what you achieve’, and we celebrate the climbers who take a couple of wobbly steps up a wall, as much as those who get to the top of one of our 25 climbing walls and scale our Stairway to Heaven.  

Inclusivity is a big priority for us to ensure as many people in Milton Keynes can access climbing as a leisure activity.

We engage with local charities, schools and organisations such as MK Movers, Leap and MK City Council to arrange for 1,000s of local school children, young people and adults with a wide range of SEND needs to experience Climb Quest. For the last two years, through MK Council, we have offered HAF (Holiday Activities and Food) sessions to children from low-income families and with SEND needs. The feedback we have received shows the positive impact climbing has.

Climb Quest can offer the best in leisure and entertainment because of what our team can bring to our customers.  We run an ongoing training programme to help our increase their skills.  Many of our team come to us as their first job, and so we work with them to increase their communication skills, confidence in public speaking and problem solving, and how they can support climbing with diverse groups. Our Supervisors and Managers started with us in 2020, and it’s great to support our team in their leadership development.

Our Director, Beth Walthew, was recently interviewed for the Independent about the extra buzz we have seen from children wanting to try climbing since Team GB won climbing gold at the Olympics. We look forward to seeing this continue over the next year along with further innovations to our centre.  We have hosted hundreds of youth group sessions over the last five years, and in 2024 we are extending this to sleepovers at Climb Quest.

Customer Service

Our main business is centred around climbing sessions and birthday parties for children. Climb Quest offers a fun and safe way to climb for family groups and friends.  We have an on-site café and kitchen and host an average of 12 birthday parties each weekend.

Customer service can only remain exceptional if a company invests time and effort into continuous training and being empathetic to what our customers’ needs are.  We run an ongoing training programme with our climbing and café teams to help increase their skills, working towards becoming Supervisors and Managers.  Many of our team come to us for their first job, and we work with them to increase their communication skills, confidence in public speaking and problem solving, and how they can support climbing with diverse groups. Many of our team are studying at local Colleges or Universities, or working towards Apprenticeships, so we hope that these skills go a long way in their general employability after their studies.

We are very lucky to have a team that are committed to do their best every day, helping customers feel a sense of pride by challenging themselves and reaching new heights on our climbing walls. As a business, we also encourage our team to recognise and feel proud of their role and think about their personal development in their time working with us. Our staff retention is excellent, due to our friendly and supportive environment. This also allows our team to build connections with customers who visit us regularly.

Climb Quest engages with local charities, schools and organisations such as MK Movers, Leap and MK City Council to continually learn and develop ways to make climbing as inclusive as possible and ensure as many people in Milton Keynes can access climbing as a leisure activity. This has helped 1,000s of local school children, young people and adults with a wide range of SEND needs to experience Climb Quest. The feedback we have had for all of these sessions shows what a positive impact our team has through their supportive and warm approach with climbers.

The customer service at Climb Quest has meant that we have a high ratio of returning customers, with many leaving great reviews online.  Our current rankings are 5.0/5 for Tripadvisor, 4.8/5 for Facebook and 4.7/5 for Google.

We share our reviews with our team, so they know the impact they are having.  Here is one from a visitor to our weekly Autism-friendly and SEND sessions:

“We went to the SEN session, I can honestly not recommend Climb Quest enough, it was the first time I've taken my children to do an activity where they have smiled the whole time, they have loved every second, been treated with understanding, and kindness.” Kate E, Tripadvisor

The team is really excited for the Milton Keynes Business Achievement Awards ceremony on 20th March 2025.

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