Leading Service Organizations Increase Customer Satisfaction and Profitability

Leading Firms Who Use Service Performance Metrics to Make Managerial Decisions Report a 15% Increase in Workforce Productivity Over the Past 12 Months


BOSTON, MA--(Marketwire - July 9, 2009) - The ability to benchmark and measure service performance is critical to the success of any organization's ability to manage its service operations. The combined impact of growing customer demand for more effective service performance, increasing costs of service delivery, and intensifying executive mandates to drive profits has significantly raised the bar with respect to the need for a formal benchmarking and measurement program. However, based on the findings from a new report, "Service Benchmarking and Measurement - Using Metrics to Drive Customer Satisfaction and Profits," published by the Aberdeen Group, a Harte-Hanks Company (NYSE: HHS), top performing service organizations are able to achieve an 88% customer satisfaction rate, 60% annual service profit, and a 12-month improvement of 15% in workforce productivity.

"The greatest difference between top firms and all others with respect to service benchmark and measurement strategies is, essentially, that a large majority (90%) of the former use service KPIs / metrics to assess individual service process performance, while many among the latter do not," said Bill Pollock, Vice President - Principal Analyst at Aberdeen. "Leading firms have typically already adopted a process for utilizing -- and applying -- the KPIs / metrics they collect to drive customer satisfaction and profits, while other classes of service organizations focus more on establishing their first forays into a more systematic approach to the discipline. That is why top firms attain more than twice the average annual service profitability of Industry Average firms (60% vs. 26%), and four times that of Laggard firms (15%)."

A complimentary copy of this report is made available due in part by the following underwriters: Astea International and Single Source Systems. To obtain a complimentary copy of the report, visit: http://www.aberdeen.com/link/sponsor.asp?cid=6029.

For additional access to complimentary Service Management Research, please visit http://research.aberdeen.com/index.php/-service-management.

About Aberdeen Group, a Harte-Hanks Company

Aberdeen provides fact-based research and market intelligence that delivers demonstrable results. Having queried more than 30,000 companies in the past two years, Aberdeen is positioned to educate users to action: driving market awareness, creating demand, enabling sales, and delivering meaningful return-on-investment analysis. As the trusted advisor to the global technology markets, corporations turn to Aberdeen for insights that drive decisions.

As a Harte-Hanks Company, Aberdeen plays a key role of putting content in context for the global direct and targeted marketing company. Aberdeen's analytical and independent view of the "customer optimization" process of Harte-Hanks (Information - Opportunity - Insight - Engagement - Interaction) extends the client value and accentuates the strategic role Harte-Hanks brings to the market. For additional information, visit Aberdeen or call (617) 723-7890, or to learn more about Harte-Hanks, call (800) 456-9748.

© 2009 Aberdeen Group, Inc., a Harte-Hanks Company
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Telephone: (617) 854-5200
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www.aberdeen.com

Contact Information: Media Contact: Kimberly Madden Research Analyst Aberdeen Harte-Hanks Kimberly.madden@aberdeen.com William Pollock VP & Principal Analyst Aberdeen Harte-Hanks Bill.pollock@aberdeen.com (617) 854-5211