"Customer Service Quarterly" Journal examines innovation in customer service.

KITE, Ga.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--July 11, 1996--The Ascent Group, Inc. has joined Haddon Jackson Associates as co-publisher of the Customer Service Quarterly, a quarterly journal dedicated to sharing perspectives on key customer service management issues.

The most recent issue of the Customer Service Quarterly (CSQ) features an in-depth review of MCI's new Call Center Outsourcing services. MCI, renowned for operating one of the most sophisticated call center operations in the world, has now leveraged that core competency by offering its services to businesses around the world. This issue of CSQ details MCI's call center outsourcing capabilities and solutions.

Another article relays the results of a series of focus groups with call center employees from major electric and gas utilities across the United States. Hear what customer service representatives are saying about their jobs, their place in their companies, their perceptions of changing customer expectations, deregulation of the electric and gas industries, and their read on the public's perceptions of their companies.

Learn about a technology hotter than the Internet-intranets: internal corporate networks that operate just like the Internet, with Web pages, chat sessions, e-mail, and more. CSQ has researched recent intranet development at Hewlett-Packard, FedEx, Florida Power, and Baltimore Gas & Electric. CSQ details BGE's intranet design, development, and implementation efforts, including a snapshot of their "Home" page.

This 28-page issue is packed with helpful information designed to keep executives and managers up-to-date on customer service issues and innovations. Articles are written with the broad management perspective needed to understand how business strategies work in other customer service organizations. CSQ's in-depth interviews and original industry research provide a perspective unlike any other publication, making it the reason why CSQ is now read at more than 100 utility and telecommunications companies world-wide.

You are invited to join this unique quarterly forum dedicated to sharing perspectives on key customer service management issues. Subscribe to the Customer Service Quarterly at a reduced rate of $545 per year-a 30% savings over our normal subscription price-and receive four issues packed with timely, in-depth articles featuring the latest innovations in customer service management.

Back issues are also available for purchase-articles featured: Service Guarantees: The Latest Rage?, Federal Express-The Technology Advantage, Multimedia Training Improves Employee Satisfaction, OG&E Uses Single Person to Design and Install New Services, Electric Utilities Look for the On Ramp to the Information Super-Highway, Re-engineering NYNEX, Electric Utilities: You're On the Field, But Are You in the Game? Detroit Ed's Customer Communication Center Update, Outsourcing Customer Service, Competition Drives New Wave of CIS Development, and Customer Contact at Large Telephone Companies.

The Ascent Group is a management consulting firm specializing in customer service operations improvement for utilities. Recent consulting engagements include performance measurement and benchmarking, process improvement, employee focus group facilitation, and diagnostic assessments.

CONTACT: Ascent Group Inc.

Christine Kozlosky, [phone]

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