By Katherine Rushton

TalkTalk has been fined £750,000 for bothering thousands of would-be customers with nuisance calls, but has ruled out paying any compensation to the individuals affected.

The telecoms company, which has spent the past three years battling to shake off a reputation for poor service, made around 9,000 silent and so-called “abandoned” calls to prospective customers, as part of a drive to drum up new business in 2011.

The calls were made through two of its call-centre operators, who relied upon automatic dialling systems to contact people but did not always have anyone to speak when the call was connected. Although it is legal to make a certain number of these silent calls, or abandoned ones – where people are greeted with a recorded message rather than a human – TalkTalk far exceeded the limits set by Ofcom.

The telecoms regulator said it was coming down hard on TalkTalk to send a “strong message” to companies that they have to stick to the rules about nuisance calls, “or face the consequences”. “Silent and abandoned calls can cause annoyance and distress to consumers,” said Claudio Pollack, Ofcom’s consumer group director.

The £750,000 fine will be handed to the Treasury. TalkTalk has already sacked Teleperformance and McAlpine Marketing, the call centres that landed it in hot water, and has vowed to recover the funds from them.

However, on Thursday the company faced calls to go further and compensate the people who had to deal with the nuisance calls in the first place.

“It’s not enough just to pay a fine to the Treasury,” said Gillian Guy, chief executive of Citizens Advice. “Silent and abandoned calls can be very distressing. The elderly often bear the brunt as they are at home more often and it can be particularly unsettling for people waiting for an urgent call from family or friends.”

Other companies guilty of silent calls, such as Homeserve, have put their hands in their pockets to compensate the people affected. However, TalkTalk ruled out following suit because the individuals being bothered are not customers.

Homeserve, which offers repair insurance for home appliances, was fined £750,000 last year – setting a new record at the time.

However, TalkTalk scoops the prize for the largest ever fine from Ofcom. In 2011, it was forced to pay £3m for billing errors at its subsidiary Tiscali UK. TalkTalk has since focussed its attention on improving customer service, and has made considerable headway.

Regulators are cracking down on nuisance calls after the government called on them to take tougher action and increase the maximum fine they could levy from £50,000 to £2m.

By Katherine Rushton, Media, Telecoms and Technology Editor

UK Telegraph

Small business view also sought for customer contact strategy

(This could be a great opportunity for the BPO sector to supply virtual agents – Editor)

The Australian customer service industry will discuss the mooted changes to social media governance at the Customer Voice Leadership Forum in Sydney later this month.

More than 150 delegates are expected to attend the session, which will be used to help develop industry recommendations for dealing with increasing customer interaction via platforms such as Facebook and Twitter.

The Customer Voice Leadership Forum is the largest annual customer service gathering in Australia. The event attracts representatives from some of the largest companies in the world and this year is being held at Darling Harbour on September 26.

The push for industry discussion comes following the Advertising Standards Bureau’s determination that advertisers were responsible for comments posted on company Facebook pages. Companies will now have to remove derogatory, misleading or otherwise offensive posts within a 24-hour-period or risk penalties.

Forum delegate Brett Feldon, Chief Technology Officer – Speech Solutions, Salmat, said the determination meant companies would need to rethink their current approach.

“We’re at a very important juncture right now. As an industry we need to shift business thinking on social media from great opportunity to significant business responsibility,” Mr. Feldon said.

“Social media is a critical part of the marketing and customer service mix – as an industry we need to come up with strategies that are able to make the most of this medium for Australian businesses. The Forum will play an important role in shaping that discussion.”

The Customer Voice Leadership Forum will also include delegates from small-to-medium businesses for the first time this year.

Mr. Feldon said the industry was keen to involve SMEs in strategy discussions, as issues with social media regulation were particularly difficult for emerging businesses.

“Unlike larger organisations smaller businesses may not have the resources to constantly monitor and update social media channels. This presents us with another layer of complexity and its critical that these businesses have a seat in developing an overarching strategic response,” said Mr. Feldon. (Does this present the BPO service sector with a great opportunity? Editor)

“At the other end of the spectrum, larger businesses are going to have to consider how they amalgamate what up-until-now has been a marketing function, into a customer contact. There are a lot of questions that need to be considered right now.”

Speakers at the Forum sessions include Todd Sampson – CEO, Leo Burnett; Michael Bowman – Director Consumer Operations & CCR, Telstra; Grant Harrod – CEO, Salmat; Matthew Liebmann -Chief Commercial & Development Officer, Hoyts; Jonathan Barouch – Founder & CEO, Roamz; Tim Gentry – Managing Director Australia & New Zealand, Avaya; Brett Feldon – CTO, Speech Solutions, Salmat; and, David Olsen – Head of Social Media, Winning Group.

Other sessions at the CVLF include:

• The Future of Customer Experience
• Rolling out Omni-Channel Communications
• Managing Customer Contact through the Cloud

The Customer Voice Leadership Forum is being held at Doltone House, Darling Harbour, Sydney, on September 26 2012. For more information or to register, visit http://www.cvlf.com.au

About the Customer Voice Leadership Forum

The Customer Voice Leadership Forum (CVLF) was shaped from the Voice Leadership Forum (VLF). Launched in 2005, the original Voice Leadership Forum was formed as an association of members consisting of top industry professionals examining the use of speech recognition and voice biometric solutions within their organisations to address business challenges, drive thought leadership, create industry best practice standards and optimise engagement with their customers.

By Matt Ford

Telemarketing in Australia has been found to be one of the toughest jobs for businesses residing in the land down under. For one thing, their Do-Not-Call Registry has got to be one of the most populated lists of certain individuals that do not want to be called upon by telemarketers. Still, this does not stop businesses from trying to locate new business opportunities within the continent.

A lot of Australian business owners know that outsourcing in Australian lead generation companies provide tons of benefits for their respective firms. Such benefits include:

•         Reduction of overall costs for the firm and for the lead generation campaign
•         Better client services for lesser the cost
•         Expansion of market; from across the continent and even overseas
•         Reliable workforce
•         Access to a very attractive English accent
•         Reduction of at-home training expenses

These are but a few of the many benefits once a business organization is able to outsource their lead generation campaign in Australian lead generation companies. Let us look at each of these benefits in turn to gain a better understanding of them.

            Reduction of overall costs for the firm and for the lead generation campaign

Telemarketing in Australia for lead generation campaigns is already known to be a tough nut to crack. Additionally, building at-home telemarketing teams may become very costly especially to newer businesses. Outsourcing in lead generation companies within the land down under provides substantial cost reduction for the entire firm as well as the lead generation campaign.

            Better client services for lesser the cost

Leaning towards the first benefit, outsourcing does indeed lower down overall costs but it also allows firms to gain access to a high level of mastery for their lead generation campaign. This allows the firm to provide better services towards their Australian clients at only a handful of the entire cost.

            Expansion of market; from across the continent and even overseas

Every business needs to expand their market sooner or later to provide growth for their firm; Australian business organizations are no exception to this rule. Outsourcing in these companies that provide lead generation services within the land down under provides a great expansion of one’s target market within the Australian continent and even outside the Australian territory.

            Reliable workforce

Australian telemarketers are world-renowned for their high reliability when it comes to lead generation. They can assure their clients with quality results as they can get highly qualified leads from the lead generation campaign. Hence, they provide the highest probabilities of growth and financial success for an Australian company.

            Access to a very attractive English accent

Australian’s are very well-known for their very attractive accent. Even at the start of the call, most prospects would be wowed with the kind of accent that they have. As such, telemarketers are can easily build the foundation of trust between them and their client’s prospects making the acquisition of business transactions a lot less difficult to achieve.

            Reduction of at-home training expenses

Even if an Australian company has their own at-home telemarketing team for lead generation services, training costs are sure to sky rocket. Therefore, outsourcing in Australian companies that provide telemarketing lead generation services lessens down the overall training cost for the at-home team. The reason is because the lead generation company can handle the training for their own team of telemarketers.

Once an Australian company is able to outsource their lead generation services in an Australian telemarketing firm, they would have the highest chances of attaining growth and success by reaping these benefits.

Source: Business2Community

By Martin Conboy, President – ABPOA

As we all know we are moving away from needing to actually talk to a human being when we are doing our day-to-day transactions. There is no doubt that as consumers we are using our smart phones, web chat, email, SMS and social media channels to get what we need to get done. Now it turns out we are falling out of love with cash.

I read the other day that Australians withdrew cash from ATMs 64.7 million times in January, well down on 65.6 million withdrawals made the previous January.

December was even worse. Australians took out cash 71.9 million times compared to 73.6 million the year before.

Mobile phones, EFTPOS, internet transfers and cards that merely need to be waved in front of Point of Sale machines are taking the place of cash, but credit cards aren’t.

Cash is losing its position as the primary method for making purchases.

Reserve Bank figures released last week show the average credit card limit climbed just 0.7 per cent over the year to January, the smallest annual growth on record. The outrageous interest rates charged on credit cards would no doubt feed into that.

Internet transfers jumped 7.5 per cent, making 60 million transactions in January, up from 55 million. Debt card transactions jumped 12 per cent.

So it will follow that as we move too ever more convenient ways to transact our transactional business the less and less we need to actually talk to humans either in person or on the phone. It’s no secret that internet shopping is growing and growing although that may come off the boil a bit as the Australian dollar slips back to parity

Rising uncertainty about China’s growth rate coupled with healthier readings on the US economy are likely to weigh on the Australian dollar, analysts say.

There is no point wringing our hands and be in denial of the evidence that we can see with our own eyes we need to start to make plans to stay ahead of the curve.

By: Lori Ann LaRocco
CNBC Sr. Talent Producer

With the U.S. economy slowly recovering, the President laid out his agenda to sparking job creation and incentivizing businesses to hire in this State of the Union Address. One of the ideas the President has recently spoken about is encouraging companies to hire domestically rather than send jobs overseas.

One of those companies heading the call for such job expansion is Iowa-based business process outsourcing (BPO) service company Caleris. Founder Rick Grewell explained how his cornhusker company is growing and fielding calls from around the world.

LL: We have been hearing a lot about the insourcing of jobs. You started your company with just 25 employees. How many employees do you have now as more companies are scaling down their workforce but still need that customer support?

SO: We now have 300 employees. That’s organic growth. No acquisitions. We have a very small sales force and we are growing more out of word of mouth than a sales campaign.

We approximately serve 70 companies. We specialize in technology companies, broadband products and providers and high end consumer electronics. High-end software products, between 80 percent of our business?

LL: How do you stay competitive with India?

SO: That’s kind the meat of it. It’s mainly labor arbitrage. While India may offer 70% savings and we offer 50% savings, the quality of the call is what wins over the customer. For example, the length of our call is 50% shorter and that 50% negates the price the savings India. First call resolution is higher as well. Based on this, our customer satisfaction is in the low 90′s while in India, the satisfaction rate is in the 50% range. That’s based on public surveys we have reviewed.

LL: Given the global economic landscape, is that providing an opportunity for your company to entice other countries to outsource to us?

SO: We support several Japanese and European suppliers. Between 8-10 companies overseas.

LL: You provide services for call centers, social media monitoring and back office support. What is growing the fastest?

SO: We’re best known for the call centers for tech support. But an area that is growing is social media monitoring. Someone needs to look at the social media uploads, images, words that are going up online.
Software can only do so much. You need a human being to monitor as well. Software can eliminate some things when it comes to photo image uploads. Software flags the image but it can’t replace a real human being.

LL: Social Media is still new, what are the emerging trends and what advice can you offer businesses in protecting their online branding and presence?

SO: Don’t assume all the uploads are legitimate. You need to monitor user generated images. Photo sharing sites are a great example. Ad agencies that have contests have to keep a close eye on the data and imagines on their sites. User generated content needs to be monitored because you can’t assume everything posted on there is on the up and up. It may be a small percentage that’s not, but you don’t want to have images on your site that will upset visitors or advertisers.

The next chapter in social media customer connection

Gerd Schenkel, Executive Director, Telstra Digital recently announced some exciting changes in the social media space with the introduction of extended 24-hour customer support via Twitter, a new customer service facility in Facebook and a new online community called “CrowdSupport™”, where customers help customers.

More of our customers are choosing to engage with us via our social media channels because they like the convenience and the high degree of personalisation,” said Gerd. “In fact, two of our busiest times on Twitter are late at night both during the week and on weekends and it’s important we are able to respond in real time, just as we do when customers call our contact centres.

“Now, for example, if a customers is busy with work or their family life until late and they have a question about their Telstra bill at 11pm at night or they step off a plane overseas and want to turn on international roaming, they can contact our seasoned service team in Adelaide via @Telstra on Twitter™, live chat in Facebook® or jump on CrowdSupport.

According to Gerd, CrowdSupport is about tapping into the vast knowledge that exists inside our own customer base and making it accessible to other customers, leveraging the “wisdom of the crowd”. Over time the forum will become a valuable repository of searchable information, which means finding the right information even faster.

Mark Collis, Director Brand, Creativity and Strategy, welcomed the new forum saying it was a great opportunity to foster customer engagement and nurture online brand ambassadors.
“People are more likely to listen to advice or act on a recommendation given by a trusted social network of like-minded people than they are to corporate one-way marketing and advertising messages”, said Mark. “CrowdSupport provides us with a great opportunity to create consistent and positive customer experiences and advocates of our brand.”

CrowdSupport is accessible to everyone, integrated with Facebook and all posts are published in real-time.
“This has been an excellent example of collaboration between business units,” said Gerd. “Each of the teams has done a great job and as a result, our customers now have additional options available to them. We’ve engaged quite a few staff in the forum to actively participate in an informal fashion. The investment is also a testimony to the success of the Adelaide-based contact centre which has enjoyed a great reputation for customer service for some time.”

By Lisa Banks (CIO)

It is predicted that 2012 will be the year when customer relationship management (CRM) software becomes truly customer centric and based on an open, Cloud orientated model, SugarCRM’s country manager has claimed.

Speaking with CIO Australia, Australian country manager, Tony Hughes, said a second generation of CRM tools is set to emerge next year.

“The thing that’s pretty interesting is that CRM is about making the IT environment truly customer centric,” Hughes said.

“There’s a second generation of CRM and people say integrating social media is important to the enterprise.”

Hughes said SugarCRM, which recently acquired iExtensions; the tool that makes CRM software for IBM Lotus Notes users, and has 600 customers in Australia, is predicting 2012 will be a year defined by CRM systems that don’t cause vendor lock-in.

“I don’t think a CIO wants to be forced into a proprietary environment that locks them in,” he said. “They want the flexibility to move it into a computer room or into another vendor’s Cloud environment.”

Hughes said a shift away from ERP systems will mean the role of the CRM will be expanded in 2012, and will take advantage of mobility and real time data.

“I think CRM is going to be more about a presentation environment for any organisation that wants to be customer centric,” he said.

“The problem with ERP systems is that they are inflexible and not at all customer centric, so I think CRM is going to be increasingly about information and providing real time information for mobile workers.”

Follow Lisa Banks on Twitter: @CapricaStar

Follow CIO Australia on Twitter: @CIO_Australia

Join the CIO Australia group on LinkedIn. The group is open to CIOs, IT Directors, COOs, CTOs and senior IT managers.

Editor’s note: We must stamp this sort of thing out as it gives our industry a bad name.

Centrelink customers are being warned of a phone scam that has targeted NSW, Queensland and Victoria residents.

The scam, which began in recent weeks, involves people being called by someone pretending to work for Centrelink claiming they are owed a payment of up to several thousand dollars.

The caller then instructs the person to send money, usually several hundred dollars via cheque, in order to release the funds.

Centrelink says it would never call anyone and ask for money.

The Australian Competition and Consumer Commission (ACCC) received 42,000 reports of scams and reported losses totalling more than $63 million during 2010.

Anyone who suspects they have received a scam phone call is urged to report it to the ACCC on 1300 795 995.

By Santanu Nandi

The customer is always right’ is a slogan always used during customer service training. Whether a customer’s experience has been largely neutral or positive, it is the few negative experiences that will stick in his mind. Telecom service providers can’t afford to neglect the impact of negative customer experiences associated with services.

Maintaining customer satisfaction while effectively cutting costs is crucial for the telecom service providers, especially during the times of economic slowdown. As every telecom provider knows, meeting the service expectations of customers is essential. With rising competition in the telecom sector, customers are now more willing to explore other options and service providers.

According to a report commissioned by Pitney Bowes, a provider of mail-stream services, customer churn in mobile telecoms hit 38% last year-up from 33% in 2005.

Additionally, non-telecom companies like Google, YouTube, Facebook, and Hulu are emerging as top providers of personal content on mobile phones. With these companies coming into play and offering end users personalized content, the key position of the telecom service providers is shifting and evolving. If this trend continues, telecom providers will soon be facing greater customer churn. Consulting firm Bain & Company has determined that it is 6 times costlier to acquire a new customer than retain an existing one.

Telecom service providers are increasingly turning to outsourcing companies to import their expertise on improving the quality of customer service. Using well-established methodologies such as Six Sigma and LEAN, outsourcers can implement incremental changes in processes that can improve the customer experience while also cutting down the waste.

For instance, one outsourcer created templates that advisors can fill in to make after call notes-rather than expecting them to type notes from scratch. This has helped reduce average handling time (AHT) by over 2 minutes in some cases-creating estimated efficiency savings for a telecom service provider client of over $1 mn per year as well as reducing wait times for the customer.

The review of another telecom service client revealed communication issues between offshore customer service operation teams and technical teams onshore. A direct communication channel was established in order to reduce resolution times, which helped in receiving updates on ‘escalated cases’ and creating a speedy resolution of customer issues within 24 hours.

Process excellence initiatives carried out for one telecom company to increase the ‘right first time’ experience led to cost savings of $1.6 mn and an overall impact on the business.

Outsourcing companies can also help to steer customer behavior away from expensive-to-process calls and help to reduce call volumes. For instance, when customers call with routine matters like checking account balance or paying bills, they can be reminded that this can be done online. Outsourcers have discovered that significant costs were incurred simply by processing the 1 in 5 calls that came from customers calling for confirmation that a task that they had already requested had been completed-for instance, the ordering of a new handset or the dispatch of a replacement SIM. ‘Reassurance calls’ can be cut down by proactively leaving a message for customers when a task has been completed.

If outsourcing companies are able to reduce the number of simple calls, then contact center staffs are free to deal with more detailed calls that need expert support and advice. In recent years, the increase in device complexity has created a need for more technical support and contact center agents who are trained to answer a wide array of customer inquiries.

The level of technical support needed for users can be costly, and the expertise of an outsourcing company in dealing with these kinds of calls can be essential in keeping costs under control (e.g., by providing support when it is needed at peak call times rather than having advisors available at all times).

And it is not just a matter of understanding technical specifications. Contact center staffs require good interpersonal skills. Tasks like the collection of overdue bills require empathy. Customers must be encouraged to cooperate rather than to ignore the problem. And, even more important, call center staff need to be persuasive when a customer calls with the intention of canceling their contract.

Equally, telecom service providers have to strike a balance between encouraging self-service to reduce call volumes and retaining an incoming flow of customer enquiries, which provides a window of opportunity to cross-sell additional products including broadband and landline services.

Telecom companies are realizing that outsourcing companies can provide added value in the area of turning ‘cost centers’ like customer service into ‘profit centers’ by selling customers new products. This obviously has to be done with subtlety and care. No one wants to feel that they are on the receiving end of a hard sell from their mobile provider when they had simply called up to check their balance or add a data bolt-on before a trip abroad. Using their deep-rooted experience in what has succeeded and what has failed, outsourcing companies can advise companies and import customer service lessons from areas like banking and insurance.

Many telecom service providers are already doing this. Datamonitor predicts that the telecoms outsourcing industry will grow to more than $51 bn by 2013. With customers now wanting to communicate via online chat and give feedback on a telecom service provider’s performance via comments on Twitter or Facebook, the world of customer service is changing at a faster rate than ever before. Balancing the need to keep customers happy and persuade them to buy more products while also making efficient savings is no easy task-and it is one that outsourcing companies can help telecom providers achieve.

Source: CIOL.com

Alexandra Smith – SMH

AGGRIEVED telephone and Internet customers can spend up to nine hours over three months trying to resolve a dispute with a carrier before heading to the industry ombudsman.

According to a survey released by the Telecommunications Industry Ombudsman , complainants often make multiple attempts to try and resolve problems with their company, but are shunted between departments or made promises which are not fulfilled.

The Telecommunications Industry Ombudsman (TIO) surveyed more than 500 consumers who lodged complaints with his office and discovered customers are increasingly making repeated and time-consuming contacts with the companies.

Most customers surveyed said they spent at least three hours unsuccessfully trying to resolve their complaint before going to the ombudsman. Twenty per cent said they spent more than nine hours trying to sort out a complaint.

Customers then head to the TIO, which works with the company to resolve the issue.

“These consumers who come to us are actually quite resilient. They are not consumers who have just made a single call, Ombudsman Simon Cohen said. ”They have in fact tried quite hard to resolve their matter and only when they are unable to, often over quite a substantial period of time, are they coming to us.”

The survey found 40 per cent had contacted their telephone or Internet provider more than six times to try to get their complaint resolved. And 20 per cent had spent more than nine hours trying to fix their problem, while 40 per cent had spent between three and nine hours on the issue.

Only 35 per cent had their matter escalated to a manager, despite 65 per cent requesting it.

Mr. Cohen said staff should take more responsibility when fixing consumer problems.

“If you are a front-line worker for a telco you might not be able to resolve the complaint, but it would be great if you knew exactly where to refer the consumer to.”

He said the survey was commissioned to find out why consumers end up with the dispute resolution service. A company is charged about $31 for each complaint, which increases to $260 and eventually $2250 if the matter is not resolved. Half of those surveyed reported being directed to three different departments within their phone company. “Consumers seemed to get the run around when they try and make a complaint,” Mr. Cohen said.

Unhappy customers often make at least five attempts to have complaints resolved by their phone companies and most spend hours trying to sort out problems before giving up, a report has revealed.

The most common reasons for complaining to the ombudsman was because there was no solution offered by the service provider (39 per cent) or a promise to resolve the complaint was not kept (39 per cent).

One of the online bloggers had this to say, “There is no customer service whatsoever. Trying to resolve an issue (and there are many) with your telephone company is like taking on a bit part in a dystopian satire.”

Source: Sydney Morning Herald

By Jen Rosenberg

WE ARE a nation of cranky consumers, increasingly intolerant of poor service and businesses are slow to catch on, a survey shows.

An American Express review of consumers in 10 countries found 33 per cent of Australian consumers “think that companies are paying less attention to customer service in the current economy compared to other countries”.

Their displeasure ranked second only to that of Italians. Almost half the Australians surveyed (46 per cent) said companies did not make any extra effort to retain their business.

Given the competition from online retailers and people’s inclination to save, the results were surprising, said Christine Wakefield, the vice-president of American Express World Service Australia.

She said businesses that cut staff in response to economic circumstances contributed to the problem.

“Some businesses see service as an investment because service can be as equally as important as the product they are selling. Other businesses just see service as something you can put on the chopping block and cut when times are tough.”

Skills shortages meant staff was no longer well-trained and when customers did want to spend, they found it hard to find anyone to serve them, she said.

Sometimes you walked into a shop ready to spend and you could not “find anyone to help you”. When they did, they were “not equipped with the right knowledge”.

But Brett Whitford, the executive director of the Customer Service Institute of Australia, said having fewer staff did not have to mean poor performance and businesses must take a fresh approach to training. He cited the example of Virgin Airlines, which sought employees with a positive outlook rather than skills. It recruited for attitude then trained later.

The survey found Australians were overwhelmingly prepared to reward good service, with 75 per cent saying they had spent more with a company because of a history of good customer service, and 73 per cent saying they would spend more with a company that gave excellent service.

“If people feel they’ve got something more than they expected, they’re happy to pay for it. If you give them something less than they expected, probably not,” Ms Wakefield said.

Mr. Whitford said the survey reflected cultural differences among the countries surveyed and that customer service was not highly valued in Australia.

“The key cultural difference is that Australians see providing service as a demeaning job … and people in other countries like India feel it’s a privilege to provide service. In Britain there is more prestige in being in retail than in most countries.

“The people who run Tesco are really proud of that because that’s what they want to do. It’s not that they couldn’t get into stockbroking – it’s because they can choose retail as a career.”

Working with staff at call centres in India, Mr. Whitford said he found there were regional differences in callers’ expectations.

British callers were more insistent on correct procedures being followed while Australians loathed procedure and preferred a more flexible approach.

Ultimately, it was up to the company to provide a successful transaction but some responsibility also fell to the customer, Mr. Whitford said.

“Really, it’s up to the company to set the expectation – it’s up to the consumer to be realistic.”

Source: Sydney Morning Herald

Asia Pacific Customer Service Consortium Announces Winners of the 2010 Customer Relationship Excellence Awards

The Asia Pacific Customer Service Consortium (APCSC) has announced the list of Winners for the 2010 Customer Relationship Excellence Awards (CRE Awards).

They are selected through a comprehensive balanced score card of self assessment benchmarking, business case presentations, mystery calls, CSQS site assessment by the judging panel based on the Customer Service Quality Standard (CSQS), public web voting and a final round of judging by a panel of customer relationship excellence experts.

The goal of the CRE Awards is to promote service quality and Customer Relationship Excellence in international cities across Asia Pacific and to recognize governments, companies, business units, teams, and individuals that have contributed to the success of both their customers and the organizations that they serve.

Mr. Jason Chu, Chairman of APCSC said, “Customer Relationship Excellence (CRE) Leadership is the way forward! Asia Pacific maintains her high growth among the global economy and attracts continuous investments from both local and multinational firms around the world. Worldwide top institutions and brands recognize the importance in developing a stronger presence in Asia Pacific and expanding their share of the market, talents, distribution network and funding with new headquarters, flagship centers and public listing in order to rejuvenate and rebrand an Asia Pacific service icon.

The Asia Pacific CRE Awards focuses on differentiating and recognizing CRE Leaders who have strong commitments to CRE corporate values. They are keen to achieve the highest service standards of CSQS and quick to adopt latest best practices so as to invigorate and integrate internally across departments and city boundaries as well as externally with the social and environmental sphere to create a sustainable and smart growth for Asia Pacific and the global economy.”

To see the winners and for more information please visit www.apcsc.com