ASB Bank Call Centre Tops Tarpnz Scale

MEDIA RELEASE
14 May 2001

ASB Bank Call Centre Tops Tarpnz Scale

The ASB BANK Call Centre has achieved the best result ever reached by a Call Centre in New Zealand following an assessment from TARPnz, specialists in assessing customer satisfaction and Call Centre solutions.

ASB BANK was recently awarded the TARPnz “Best In Class Status” for 2000/2001. It is one of six companies to have achieved this status since TARP set up in New Zealand five years ago. TARPnz is part of the international management group Technical Assistance Research Programme which has been consulting in the Call Centre field for nearly 20 years.

TARPnz’s New Zealand Director David Sylvester, says ASB BANK’s achievement of ‘Best In Class’ status for 2000/2001 is “very rare indeed”.

“ASB BANK is the only Call Centre with more than 100 seats to have achieved this Status. We have completed diagnostic assessments for more than 50 call centres in top New Zealand companies since we started here in 1996 but we have never been able to present this award to a Call Centre the size of ASB BANK.

“The process of assessment takes around three weeks and is very complex. Our audit weights them against global best practice, and seeks a very high level of customer satisfaction.

“ASB BANK has achieved this excellence through its focus on people and processes, and is now maximising performance through investing in some of the best technology available. By doing that, they are living their vision of delivering great customer service, and it’s not often we see a business that can truly deliver that.”

ASB BANK Group General Manager Direct & Card Services, James Mitchell, says the award is a feather in the cap of the 250 Call Centre staff who are committed to making this grade a consistency.

“We have worked steadily and hard to achieve this ‘Best In Class Status’, and the team have every reason to be proud. Our reputation is placed in the hands of the people we employ, and the technology that supports them. To achieve this goal is a credit to them and the results speak for themselves daily from what our customer research tells us.

“A good example is that for the duration of 2001 we have had a target of answering more than 80 per cent of our calls in under 30 seconds, which is fairly steep given the volume of calls our customer base generates. To date, the average time has been 15 seconds, which I think reflects the calibre of our staff and the systems they work with.

David Sylvester says the Diagnostic Assessment covers five critical, interdependent areas of a Call Centre; People and Processes, Computer Systems Support, Preventative Analysis, and Telecommunications Support.

“While the ASB Call Centre has achieved an outstanding result, their customer satisfaction is obviously very high too, and it’s not just TARPnz who is saying that.”

Ends.

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