''Customer Service Case Studies'' Highlight Customer Service Best Practices for Utility and Telecommunications Managers.

KITE, Ga.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--July 13, 1999--

The Ascent Group today announced the availability of a special compilation of case studies from its popular research series, The Service Delivery Advantage. The Ascent Group has researched customer service organizations throughout the world to provide a thorough overview of the state-of-the-art and "best practices" in customer service delivery and packaged it in a practical publication-a perfect tool to help management "do more with less."

"Customer Service Case Studies" presents case studies of more than twenty-five companies, including: Duke Power, FP&L, Pacific Bell, AT&T, Southern California Edison, Illinois Power, and NYNEX. Non-utility case studies include: FedEx, Home Shopping Network, and United Van Lines.

The Ascent Group has interviewed top level customer service management from world-renowned industry leaders. Case studies share best practices and service innovations and detail the advantages achieved through new technology and telecommunications. Understand how Home Shopping Network's call center handles close to 65 million calls each year. Learn about FedEx's ability to leverage technology to improve service delivery and customer satisfaction. Find out how Duke Power has reorganized to focus credit and collection practices and reduce write-offs.

Other case studies profiled include:
--   United Van Lines increases profitability and industry leadership
     by listening to its customers.
--   Bay State Gas's customer satisfaction measurement systems evolve
     to keep pace with the changing industry.
--   Applied Materials institutes customer satisfaction to retain
     customers.
--   HL&P stays on the leading edge of call center technology.
--   Southern California Edison's Outage Management System improves
     outage response and reduces operating costs.
--   Pacific Bell produces highly accurate bills and achieves "best in
     class" billing performance.

This special compilation is pulled from The Service Delivery Advantage's first six published volumes: Customer Call Center Operations, Competitive Credit Practices, Technological Service Improvement, Customer Satisfaction, Billing & Meter Reading, and Revenue Recovery. These research reports are available for purchase individually or as a set of six.

The Ascent Group is a management consulting firm specializing in customer service operations improvement. Recent consulting engagements include performance measurement and benchmarking, customer service process re-engineering, and customer service diagnostic assessments.

Visit our Web page at http://www.ascentgroup.com.