IKANO Press Releases:

CALL CENTER MAGAZINE CROWNS IKANO COMMUNICATIONS ‘CALL CENTER OF THE YEAR’

Date: May 21st, 2002
Release: IMMEDIATE

SALT LAKE CITY, UT – IKANO Communications, the leading provider of private-label Internet services and IP network infrastructure, today announced that its customer support center was named “Call Center of the Year” by Call Center Magazine. This honor will be detailed in the June issue of Call Center Magazine.

Call Center Magazine selected IKANO due to its outstanding service level metrics, advanced call center technology, the ease of which customers can reach live agents, advanced training program and the overall working environment. The center handles support for IKANO’s 300+ Internet Service Provider (ISP) clients. It receives some 7,000 customer contacts daily including calls, e-mails and chat.

Throughout 2001, Call Center Magazine interviewed hundreds of call center managers to profile their centers and learn about the products and services they use. The top call center candidates considered for the award were especially successful in improving their centers, implementing technology, meeting service goals, decreasing turnover and increasing productivity. Call Center Magazine selected the most outstanding call center from each of the many industries profiled during the year.

“We are honored to receive such a prestigious award,” said Todd Krause, IKANO’s Director of Customer Service. “This past year we have experienced a lot of changes in the structure of our call center. We’ve upgraded our technology and put new processes in place that enable us to provide a higher level of service to our customers.”

In 2001, IKANO made great strides in upgrading its call center to improve customer satisfaction, enhance tracking ability for its end-user customers, and obtain detailed feedback through customer surveys.

Customer surveys are a key means for IKANO to keep its finger on the pulse of its customers on a daily basis. IKANO averages a 20% response rate on its surveys based upon over 232,000 survey solicitations in 2001. The majority of IKANO’s end-user customers state they are “extremely satisfied” with the award-winning customer service they receive.

For example, one recent IKANO end-user stated, “I wish to take this opportunity in thanking you for your patience, professional attitude and in-depth knowledge of the computer. If your assistance is indicative of all the customer service staff at your company, it makes me feel very privileged to be associated with this company,” said Oliver Jobson, ACNinc.net.

In addition to customer feedback mechanisms, IKANO also implemented new technology to help provide more efficient service. IKANO developed an in-house call tracking system custom designed for the different types of calls that it handles. This ticketing system provides a checklist of key items to check while handling different types of calls. The tracking system provides a mechanism to "data mine" the reasons that people are calling for support. This enables IKANO to quickly identify systemic issues while standardizing the quality of support provided by its customer service representatives.

Over the past three years, IKANO has grown tremendously. In July 2000, the company added a 30,000 square foot call center and currently employs more than 300 customer service employees.

According to Call Center Magazine, “Companies do a lot of talking about offering customers multimedia options while using a universal queue and providing agents with enough knowledge and customer information to efficiently help customers. IKANO is actually doing it.”

Henry Smith, IKANO President and CEO, stated, “This award can be attributed to the tremendous efforts the call center team has made in developing and implementing new technology to aid in problem resolution, while enhancing customer communication. This award is solid evidence of our commitment to continuous improvement.”

About IKANO Communications, Inc.
IKANO Communications was founded over 10 years ago as a regional Internet service provider in the Intermountain West and since then has flourished to become the industry leader in private-label, wholesale, and retail Internet services. IKANO leverages its ISP platform to provide outstanding services at highly competitive prices. The company's rapid growth and excellence in the field have resulted in IKANO's ranking in the Inc. 500, Technology Fast 500, Inner City 100, Utah 100, and Call Center of the Year.

Companies interested in learning more about IKANO should contact info@ikano.com, or call 877.492.0121.

About Call Center Magazine
Call Center Magazine is the only magazine dedicated to providing in-depth and unbiased product and strategic information that the powerful executives responsible for improving customer relations and retention through call centers rely upon to make purchasing decisions on the hardware, software and services critical to their success. This respected editorial attracts the largest number of readers in the call center, customer care and customer interaction market.