ALBANY, N.Y. — Auto/Mate Dealership Systems has announced that it has received a Platinum award in the 2015 Auto Dealer Monthly Dealers' Choice Awards.

This year marks the second time that Auto/Mate has received a top ranking in the publication's annual award program, which recognizes the industry's best product and service providers. Winners of the Dealer's Choice Awards are selected exclusively by dealership personnel, each of whom has to manually enter their partner companies' names.

"Our No. 1 priority at Auto/Mate is to be the top DMS provider in customer satisfaction, and we have achieved that with a 97.5% customer retention rate," said Mike Esposito, president and CEO of Auto/Mate. "Our customers appreciate us because we make an effort to hire people who have worked in dealerships so we know what our customers are experiencing, and we empower our employees to take care of our customers first."

“This year’s awards produced a record number of participants, votes and awards,” said David Gesualdo, publisher of Auto Dealer Monthly and F&I and Showroom. “Each of the winners deserves praise for earning their dealer clients’ praise and loyalty while driving their businesses forward.”

This year’s program featured 29 categories. Winners were ranked based on scores that combined ratings of their product or service, customer support, value, and whether the user would recommend the company to another dealer. The Auto Dealer Monthly Dealer's Choice Awards will be presented to recipients at a special ceremony at the Industry Summit in Las Vegas on Sept. 10, 2015.

Auto/Mate has been honored with several awards in the past year, including:

1. "Top Rated" dealership management system (DMS) vendor award in the 2014 DrivingSales Dealer Satisfaction Awards

2. No. 1 on the "Top Workplaces" list in the mid-size business category, as determined by Workplace Dynamics and the Times-Union

3. Mike Esposito received a special leadership award from the Times-Union. Only one leader is chosen in each category, and Esposito scored the highest response to a question asking employees about having confidence in their leader.

4. A "Best Places to Work" award for the fifth year in a row by the Albany Business Review