Alliance Data Retail Services Customer Care Centers Achieve Nine-Time 'Center Of Excellence' Certification By Internationally Recognized BenchmarkPortal

Alliance Data Continues to Lead the Financial Services/Credit Industry in Recognition of Superior Customer Care and Satisfaction

Alliance Data Systems Corporation, a leading global provider of data-driven marketing and loyalty solutions, recently announced its Retail Services business, which manages more than 130 private label and co-brand credit programs, has achieved for the ninth time the prestigious “Center of Excellence” certification by BenchmarkPortal for the quality of operations and service delivery in all Alliance Data care centers nationwide. The recertification of its customer care centers marks the ninth time in a row Alliance Data has received BenchmarkPortal’s Center of Excellence ranking – more times than any company or organization in the financial services/credit industry. Alliance Data Retail Services also received for the second year in a row top-10 honors in the “large centers” category on the “Top 100 BenchmarkPortal Call Centers” list, which compares the performance of centers throughout North America by evaluating key metrics against industry peers.

BenchmarkPortal, which was founded by Purdue University, is a global leader in the contact center industry, providing benchmarking, certification, training, consulting and industry reports. The Center of Excellence designation is reserved for the top 10 percent of all customer care centers surveyed by BenchmarkPortal, and is based on best-practice metrics for quality, cost, efficiency, effectiveness, and superior performance. These metrics are drawn from the world’s largest database of objective and quantitative data, which is audited and validated by researchers from BenchmarkPortal.

“Time and time again, our customer care associates deliver exceptional one-on-one experiences to help our clients’ businesses grow through building loyal and profitable customer relationships. The Center of Excellence recertification is a direct reflection on how quickly and efficiently our customer care associates solve problems, answer questions, and deliver on the promise of our clients’ own brands,” said Sallie Komitor, chief customer officer for Alliance Data. “We view our industry-leading customer care organization as a competitive differentiator for Alliance Data Retail Services, and as an asset to our client partners.”

In developing its call center measurement parameters, BenchmarkPortal found that 24 Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) strongly correlate to quality and quantity of calls handled in call center operations. For the benchmarking survey, BenchmarkPortal monitored and measured Alliance Data’s performance against these KPIs and its large call center database to determine each center’s level of efficiency and effectiveness.

Key Results

• High caller satisfaction. Customers calling into Alliance Data customer care centers gave 'top box' satisfaction ratings 5 percent more often than the industry average. 'Top box' satisfaction refers to the highest possible survey score customers can use to rate the service they experienced.
• Best-in-class service. Calls to Alliance Data customer care centers spend 27 percent less time in queue than the industry average, and calls were answered in nearly half the industry average time.

“The customer service call center has become the centerpiece for customer interaction and satisfaction, and it’s critical that the call handling process be effective and efficient. Our rigorous certification process has the advantage of referencing all performance goals to our best practice database of thousands of call centers in order to accurately gauge how a customer care center holds up to key standards of achievement in these areas,” said Bruce Belfiore, chief executive officer of BenchmarkPortal. “This achievement of distinction confirms Alliance Data’s commitment to service excellence, which positively impacts an organization’s customers, employees and shareholders.”

About Center of Excellence Certification
Contact centers and their managers who wish to implement best practices and obtain world-class performance in their industry have a unique opportunity to certify their call centers. BenchmarkPortal’s rigorous certification process has the advantage of referencing all performance goals to their best practice database of thousands of contact centers. Thus, contact centers will be held to performance levels that will improve their competitive position, not just force them to adhere to an arbitrary standard. Please follow the link to discover what the steps to certification are and how they will improve your center’s performance. www.benchmarkportal.com/call-center-certification.

About BenchmarkPortal
Founded in 1995, BenchmarkPortal is a global leader in the contact center industry, providing benchmarking, certification, training, consulting and industry reports. The BenchmarkPortal team of professionals has gained international recognition for its expertise and an innovative approach to best practices for the contact center industry and hosts the world’s largest database of contact center metrics. BenchmarkPortal’s mission is to help contact centers reach peak performance in operational effectiveness and efficiency so that the centers will realize increased levels of agent and customer loyalty while containing costs and building enterprise value. For more information, visit www.BenchmarkPortal.com.

About Alliance Data Retail Services
Alliance Data Retail Services is one of the nation’s leading providers of branded credit card programs, with more than 130 marketing-driven private label, co-brand and commercial programs in partnership with many of North America’s best-known brands. The business delivers upon its Know more. Sell more commitment by leveraging customer insight to drive sales for its client partners. Leveraging deep-rooted marketing expertise, transaction-based customer data, and advanced analytics, Alliance Data Retail Services creates turnkey, multichannel credit programs designed to help its clients develop stronger, more profitable customer relationships. Alliance Data Retail Services is part of the Alliance Data family of companies. For more information, visit www.alliancedataretail.com.

About Alliance Data
Alliance Data  and its combined businesses is a leading global provider of data-driven marketing and loyalty solutions serving large, consumer-based industries. The Company creates and deploys customized solutions, enhancing the critical customer marketing experience; the result is measurably changing consumer behavior while driving business growth and profitability for some of today’s most recognizable brands. Alliance Data helps its clients create and increase customer loyalty through solutions that engage millions of customers each day across multiple touch points using traditional, digital, mobile and emerging technologies. An S&P 500 company headquartered in Dallas, Alliance Data and its three businesses employ approximately 12,000 associates at more than 80 locations worldwide. Alliance Data was named to FORTUNE magazine’s 2014 list of World’s Most Admired Companies.

Alliance Data consists of three businesses: Alliance Data Retail Services, a leading provider of marketing-driven credit solutions; Epsilon, a leading provider of multichannel, data-driven technologies and marketing services; and LoyaltyOne, which owns and operates the AIR MILES Reward Program, Canada’s premier coalition loyalty program. For more information, visit www.alliancedata.com.