Driving Sales through Customer Service: Using Contact Center Service Reps to Increase Revenue.

CHAPEL HILL, N.C. -- With so many organizations in fierce competition, yet offering relatively similar products and services, the only differentiation is often quality of service. But given these truths, why do so few companies provide consistent, excellent customer service? Benchmarking research studies by Best Practices, LLC, reveal how top companies go beyond simply espousing customer service focus to develop clear strategies for implementing measurable improvements.

Profiled online in a free white paper online at http://www3.best-in-class.com/cr102.htm , Best Practices, LLC's research relies on exclusive interviews with executives at Fortune 100 companies, extensive benchmarking surveys, site visits and focused roundtable discussions. Research includes:

--Improving Customer Satisfaction and Retention through Differentiated Service Levels. The research examined how 40 companies ensure satisfaction of their high-value customers. Areas of focus included customer segmentation, acquisition and retention strategies, and needs prioritization. The study also analyzed how to cross-sell products and services to satisfy customer needs and increase retention by setting a higher "switching" cost.

--Managing World-Class Call Centers. The Best Practices LLC research team studied the best practices of 19 call centers in six industries for a major media company. Areas of focus included process design and management, human resources, measurement, customer service loyalty, and leadership and communication.

--Best Practices in E-Service. The Best Practices LLC research team examined how organizations leverage the Internet to integrate service delivery across multiple channels. The ability to offer seamless, fast and personalized service allows leading companies to translate customer loyalty into long-term, highly profitable customer relationships.

These and dozens of other customer service studies position our analysts as sources to help you identify winning customer service practices in other companies. Using our proprietary Best Practice Blueprints for Excellence methodology, Best Practices' analysts first help our clients assess their existing processes and performance systems.

To download a customer service white paper and learn more about our research, visit our supply chain consulting website at http://www3.best-in-class.com/cr102.htm . Contact Chris James at [phone] or [e-mail] for more information on applying our insights and capabilities to optimize your customer service organization.

ABOUT BEST PRACTICES, LLC

Best Practices, LLC is a research and consulting firm that works on the principle that organizations can chart a course to superior economic performance by studying the best business practices, operating tactics and winning strategies of world-class organizations. Our suite of customized Research and Consulting services is designed to assist you in improving your company's performance by analyzing the winning practices of leading corporations.