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Cisco Earns J.D. Power and Associates Certification for Second Consecutive Year
First Global Networking Company to Be Recognized for Excellence in Technology Service and Support
| Source: Cisco Systems, Inc.
SAN JOSE, CA -- (MARKET WIRE) -- May 2, 2007 -- Cisco® (NASDAQ : CSCO ), the first global
networking company to earn certification under the J.D. Power and
Associates Certified Technology Service & Support Program(SM), announced
that it has been re-certified. This distinction recognizes Cisco for
delivering "An Outstanding Customer Service Experience" and demonstrates
the company's global commitment to enabling customer success with Cisco
technology.
"An excellent customer experience is what motivates us here at Cisco," said
Joe Pinto, senior vice president, technical services for Cisco. "Our
ultimate goal is customer success, and we are proud to have earned this
certification for the second year in a row. The certification process was
much more rigorous this year and demonstrates our focus on making ongoing
investments to continually improve our quality of service."
The Certified Technology Service and Support program was jointly developed
by J.D. Power and Associates and the Service and Support Professionals
Association (SSPA) in 2006 to evaluate overall customer satisfaction and
help technology support organizations increase their effectiveness in
customer service. The certification must be renewed each year in order to
maintain status as a J.D. Power and Associates certified center. The
certification criteria were revised through interviews with more than 50
industry experts. While the first version of the certification defined the
standard, the second version created an even more rigorous program that
comprised 290 criteria, a 20 percent increase. Fifty separate metrics for
key support performance indicators were added, and companies must exceed an
industry benchmark that is based on the results of more than 150 companies
earning certification points.
"Fifty percent of consumers rank quality of service as a top-three purchase
criterion, and 81 percent of IT buyers in an SSPA study say they agree that
certifying support quality is a competitive advantage for a vendor," said
J.B. Wood, CEO and president of SSPA. "With service excellence being such a
critical purchasing factor, companies must demonstrate their commitment to
support services; Cisco is the first global networking company to
demonstrate this kind of focus."
To merit the certification, Cisco had to rank in the top 20 percent of the
industry, as determined by J.D. Power and Associates' extensive technology
industry benchmark customer satisfaction research, and it had to pass a
comprehensive global audit of Cisco's Technical Support Services.
Exceptional service operations had to show alignment to customer needs and
be independently validated by feedback directly from Cisco customers who
had used Cisco support services. For information regarding Cisco services
please visit: www.cisco.com/go/services.
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