Contact Center Solutions Featured Article

Birch Communications Receives Center of Excellence Recognition for the Third Time

February 09, 2015

The disruptive conditions in today’s telecommunications industry has dramatically increased the level of competition as new players challenge established businesses. While the number of service providers continues to increase, the battle for the same number of customers has intensified. This has introduced parity in their price and product offerings, which is leading them to differentiate themselves by delivering better customer service. Getting recognized for the customer service a company provides can set it apart, making it easier to identify. Birch Communications announced it was certified for the third time as a "Center of Excellence" by Bench­markPortal for 2014, highlighting its commitment to the customers it serves.


Birch Communications, a technology service provider of IP-based communications, broadband, cloud and IT-services to small, mid-sized, enterprise and wholesale businesses, was recognized for its customer service by Bench­markPortal, provider of benchmarking, certification, training, consulting, research and industry reports.

The Center of Excellence recognizes companies after a rigorous vetting process based on best-practice metrics extracted from a database of objective and quantitative data that has been audited and validated. BenchmarkPortal researchers sift through the information of call center best practice statistics from thousands of call centers in 42 industry segments to establish goals for best practice performance.

According to BenchmarkPortal CEO Bruce Belfiore, “Only the top 10 percent of those benchmarked annually achieve this distinction. Achieving Center of Excellence certification is an acknowledgement of strong management and leadership in the call center industry. It demonstrates a noteworthy commitment to service excellence.”

Using the company’s 41-KPI Benchmarking Survey, an in-depth RealityCheck is filled out by call centers to compare performances with a statistically valid sample of operators in the same industry segments. Some of the 41 performance indicators the KPI focuses on include:

  • First call resolution
  • Average speed of answer in seconds
  • Calls transferred in percent
  • Average hold time in seconds
  • Average calls abandoned in percent
  • Caller satisfaction survey

“At Birch, our customers are our most valuable asset and we are pleased to be recognized for this achievement. Delivering exceptional Customer Service is our company's core competence and it's the primary reason customers come to Birch and stay with Birch,” said Vincent M. Oddo, Birch's President and CEO.




Edited by Maurice Nagle



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