J.D. Power and Associates Reports: N.E.W. Customer Service Companies Inc. Recognized for Call Center Customer Satisfaction Excellence

Business Wire, March 16, 2005

WESTLAKE VILLAGE, Calif. -- N.E.W. Customer Service Companies Inc. (NEW) has been recognized for call center operation customer satisfaction excellence under the J.D. Power and Associates Certified Call Center Program(SM). This distinction acknowledges a strong commitment by NEW's call center operation to provide an outstanding customer service experience.

NEW's call center operations handled more than 8.2 million telephone, e-mail and fax interactions in 2004 from its call centers in Great Falls, Mont; Crestview, Fla.; and Klamath Falls, Ore. The call center operation successfully passed a detailed audit of its recruiting, training, employee incentives, management roles and responsibilities, and quality assurance capabilities. In addition, J.D. Power and Associates conducted a random survey of NEW's customers who recently contacted its call center. For certification status, a call center must perform within the top 20 percent of customer service, based on J.D. Power and Associates' cross-industry customer satisfaction research.

"NEW has an unusually powerful and genuine customer-centric culture," said Steve Kirkeby, senior director of the telecommunications practice for J.D. Power and Associates. "The relationship between NEW and its clients is unique in its strength. This culture is also evident through strong management role modeling, good alignment between senior and middle and mid-management, and an obvious belief that employee satisfaction is critical to business performance."

The evaluation criteria used during the survey include: courtesy of the customer service representative (CSR); knowledge of the CSR; the CSR's concern for the customer questions and/or problem; usefulness of the information provided; convenience of customer service operating hours; ease of getting through to a CSR; and the timely resolution of the customer's problem, question or request. Certification is valid for one year.

The Call Center Certification Program was launched by J.D. Power and Associates in 2004 to evaluate overall customer satisfaction and help call centers in various industries increase their efficiency and effectiveness by establishing best practices for handling service calls.

There are more than 75,000 call centers in North America and an estimated 125,000 worldwide that help customers with product and service questions across a multitude of industries, ranging from credit cards, financial services, investment services, utilities, service warranty and insurance to telecommunications, healthcare and office products.

J.D. Power and Associates is currently evaluating call centers across a variety of industries to determine if they are eligible for certification.

About J.D. Power and Associates

Headquartered in Westlake Village, Calif., J.D. Power and Associates is an ISO 9001-registered global marketing information services firm operating in key business sectors including market research, forecasting, consulting, training and customer satisfaction. Media e-mail contact: michael.greywitt@jdpa.com or john.tews@jdpa.com

No advertising or other promotional use can be made of the information in this release without the express prior written consent of J.D. Power and Associates. www.jdpower.com