CustomerSat ACE Awards

	"At AIG American General, we recognize that superior customer service is a key differentiator in the competitive financial services marketplace. These awards are tangible evidence that our employees' vision, strategy and commitment to customer service are indeed impacting our customers' experience in a positive way." -Simon Leech - SVP & Customer Advocacy Officer at AIG American General "At Getronics, quality is core to all our Workspace Management Services. When we deliver quality services our clients are happy, which is reflected in our high client satisfaction scores. We are pleased with our partnership with CustomerSat, which helps us measure the quality we deliver." -Dick Boynton - Vice President, Integrated Managed Services Delivery at Getronics

2008 ACE Awards Data Sheet

The CustomerSat ACE Awards certify, acknowledge, and celebrate outstanding achievement in customer satisfaction. Receiving an ACE Award is a distinct honor, which demonstrates both rigorous application of customer feedback processes and outstanding performance as measured by those processes. ACE Awards show to the world your organization’s success and effectiveness in customer satisfaction and loyalty.

Candidates for CustomerSat ACE Awards may include companies, business units, or segments of a business. The customer feedback on which an award is based must be representative of the entire business, business unit, or business segment to which the award applies.

To apply for an ACE Award, your organization must complete an application form and have conducted one or more customer satisfaction surveys during the calendar year for which the Award is given.

2008 ACE Award application submissions will be accepted in two phases:

• Phase 1 deadline - September 30, 2008
• Phase 2 deadline - December 15, 2008

Please refer to the “Survey Process Timeframe” section of the ACE Awards Data Sheet for a thorough explanation of these deadlines and to determine which deadline applies to you.

The 2008 ACE Awards will be formally presented to recipients in a ceremony at the 2009 CustomerSat Leadership Conference. Press releases, recognition events and trophies are available as soon as the award is announced.

Benefits of the ACE Award

Our 2007 winners:

• Received awards certificates and trophies.
• Demonstrated the ACE logo as certification on their website and in annual report.
  
• Presented their achievement in their promotional mailings to their customers.
  
• Developed their own press release.
• Produced employee recognition events.

View Past ACE Award Winners.

How Does the Process Work?

1) Award Scope

Applications are made for an ACE Award with a proposed scope. Scope has two parts: Business Area and Customer Segment.

Business Area refers to a distinct and separate area of your business, such as the examples listed in the table below. The Business Area may comprise the business overall ("All") or a part of the business ("On-site service"). The proposed Business Area of the award must be fully covered by one or more customer satisfaction surveys.

• For example, an application for an ACE Award for the business overall must be based on an overall satisfaction question in a relationship survey covering all aspects of customers’ relationship with the business.
  
  
• An application for an ACE Award for technical support must be based on a question about overall satisfaction with technical support, from one or more surveys (one survey per award). In addition to the overall satisfaction with technical support question, the survey(s) must cover all aspects of technical support (including multiple touchpoints such as phone support, email support, etc., if applicable).

Customer Segment In some cases, an ACE Award application may be made based on just those survey responses from a clearly defined segment of customers, such as the examples listed in the table below. The proposed Customer Segment must show sufficient sample size and be a segment that your organization regularly segments for analysis purposes.

CustomerSat reserves the right to disqualify combinations of Business Areas and Customer Segments it deems are too narrow to warrant award recognition (e.g., “customers in region X using product Y at support level Z.”) A data-specific collection channel, for surveys using multiple channels (e.g., phone or online), does not qualify as a Customer Segment. However, a well-defined Customer Segment such as “online customers” may qualify.

2) Survey Methodology

Survey processes and results used in ACE Awards nominations must be rigorous, defensible and repeatable. CustomerSat will review feedback processes and audit results to verify that they meet these requirements.

Sampling may be either a census or random sampling with a minimum 90% confidence level with a ±5% margin of error or better. Beyond sampling, data collection methods must not exclude significant customer subsets. In some cases, multiple data feedback channels may be required, such as a combination of online, telephone, postal mail, and/or IVR. We may review results for statistically significant differences by data collection channel. An award whose scope is worldwide may require that surveys be conducted in multiple languages to ensure that the worldwide customer base is adequately represented.

3) Customer Satisfaction Performance

For 2008 ACE Awards, qualifying performance are a combination of overall satisfaction scores and top-box percentages. Surveys using any rating scales may be eligible.

Review the ACE Awards Data Sheet for specific eligibility criteria or contact your CustomerSat Project Manager to discuss you eligibility.

4) Survey Process Timeframe

ACE Awards recognize achievement of customer excellence for the year in which they are awarded. All survey results available for the year in which an award application is made must be included in determining performance; timeframes cannot be arbitrarily reduced to achieve higher scores.

Approximately six months of customer feedback are required for eligibility.  As an example, that feedback may consist of six months of responses for a continuous survey, two deployments of a relationship survey that deploys quarterly, or one deployment of a relationship survey that deploys once or twice per year. 

There are two phases for submitting 2008 ACE Award applications. Please review the ACE Awards Data Sheet to ensure you understand which deadline you are required to adhere to.

Do you think you qualify for a 2008 ACE Award? If so, please contact your CustomerSat Project Manager to discuss and submit an application.

For general questions, contact ACE@CustomerSat.com.