Holles Street below par – patients

[Posted: Mon 30/01/2012 by Niall Hunter, Editorwww.irishhealth.com]

Patients have rated the National Maternity Hospital as performing below par under most service headings, according to latest statistics from irishhealth.coms unique Rate My Hospital facility.

The National Maternity Hospital in Holles Street, Dublin is one of Europes largest maternity hospitals, delivering nearly 10,000 babies per year. It is the national referral centre for complicated pregnancies, premature and sick infants.

Its facilities have come under increasing pressure in recent years, and plans for the hospital to move from its city centre site to a larger unit at St Vincents Hospital have been long-fingered in the current financial climate.

Nearly 700 patients have now rated the facilities and services at Holles Street with Rate My Hospital and, perhaps reflecting the pressure on its services, it has been rated with a below-average score nationally.

Under Rate My Hospital patient ratings, Holles Street currently stands 37th out of 51 public hospitals in the overall national league table with a 3.25 out of five rating. The national average patient rating for hospitals is 3.45 out of five.

Its ranking is lower than that of the other two public maternity hospitals in Dublin, the Rotunda (12th place – 3.7 score) and the Coombe (28th place – 3.35 score).

However, all three are well belew the ranking of Mount Carmels private maternity unit, which scores 4.4 out of five and has been voted the best maternity service in the country by patients on Rate My Hospital.

Under separate service ratings, Holles Street has been voted the worst hospital in the country for car-parking, scoring only 1.43 out of five (national average 2.84). It scores 3.17 out of five under cleanliness/hygiene (31st place – national average 3.37)

Holles Street scores poorly under staff to patient ratios at 2.92 out of five (38th place-national average 3.21)

On quality of food, it scores 3.12 out of five (25th place-national average 3.19). It scores three out of five for child-friendliness (36th place-national average 3.29).

Holles Street scores 3.57 out of five on quality of care (29th place-national average 3.68); and on doctors attitudes it scores 3.68 out of five (25th place- national average 3.68).

Recent Rate MyHospital patient comments on Holles Street have focused on deficits in hygiene, facilities and communication, while generally, the hospital staff are praised for high standards under pressurised conditions.

The average age of patients attending Holles Street, according to Rate My Hospital findings, is 37.

With Rate My Hospital, patients and their relatives can rate and comment on their recent experience of hospitals under various service headings.

Read recent patient comments on Holles Street here

View the overall ratings of all hospitals here

Tags: Service Ratings

The broadband Internet services available to Canadians are among the fastest, least costly and most widely available in the developed world, says a new report produced by Montreal-based telecom consulting firm Lemay Yates Associates Inc. on behalf of Rogers Communications Inc.

Those findings may run counter to the experiences of more and more Canadian Internet subscribers. According to another report, this one from the country’s telecom regulator, says complains about Internet speeds and slowdowns reached there fastest pace ever last year.

The Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission, or CRTC, says complaints about slowing down online traffic are speeding up in Canada.

The CRTC reports that 73 complaints were received and closed last year, with 14 still active at years end’ more than 50 were received since the last fall, when  the CRTC put out its first warning to the industry about managing traffic speeds on their networks.

In fact, the speed debate has been raging for years, with major international bodies saying Canada lags behind most of the civilized world in its broadband implementation.

Other reports say No, we’re leading the way and super fast access is available to all.

The new report is of the latter camp. It is expected to dispute other findings, and state that Canada in fact has the highest broadband penetration rate of the G7 group of leading industrial countries.

Canadians also have the second-least expensive average monthly broadband subscription rates in the G7, reports about the new report say, with a typical monthly fee of US$30.79 in Canada being only slightly more than the US$29.80 per month Internet service providers (ISPs) charge in Italy.

Interestingly, the new report bases findings on the results of millions of international speed tests in those G7 countries – conducted by the organization that the report ends up criticizing.

New statistic and analytical processes were used on the raw data first gathered by the OECD (Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development), it seems, so new conclusions were reached.

The original OECD report placed Canada well back in the international speed and bandwidth race. At the time, Canada was 14th out of 38 countries surveyed by the OECD about broadband penetration and service ratings. Japan was first; the U. S. 24th.

Some 52 million speed tests of broadband users across the G7 countries and Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) membership were conducted.

But the report that Lemay Yates Associates Inc. did for Rogers sees the data in a new light. Speeds in Canada may decline during peak usage periods, it said, but only by about 5.8 per cent. Other countries have slowdowns averaging about 6.6 per cent.

Tags: Service Ratings

John Brady, DO, family practitioner, has
joined Hancock County Memorial Hospital.

Brady received his medical degree from the University of
Osteopathic Medicine and Health Sciences, Des Moines, and his
undergraduate degree from Simpson College, Indianola.

His family practice residency was completed at Des Moines
General Hospital. Brady most recently had been practicing at Mercy
Johnston Family Physicians in Johnston. 

He will work through the Britt Medical Clinic.

Brady grew up in Clear Lake and is looking forward to
re-establishing his home in North Iowa with his wife, Bridget
Farley, and their children.

ooo

Bill Bonnstetter, chairman of Target Training
International Ltd., has been nominated for a 2012 Edison Award for
best new product for the invention and use of TTI Performance DNA,
an assessment providing insights into the job-related dimensions of
personal and professional competencies and skills. 

In partnership with the Kern Family Foundation, Bonnstetter is
using TTI Performance DNA to help reform higher education while
identifying future leaders and entrepreneurs and improving student
retention in universities.

Bonnstetter, who grew up in Corwith, started Target Training
International in 1984 and built it into a leading developer of
research-based, validated assessment and coaching tools now used in
Fortune 500 organizations in the United States and in 90
countries.

TTI holds three separate patents for its assessments and for its
Internet Delivery Service, which first enabled assessments to be
safely and effectively delivered via the Internet in 2001.

The Edison Awards symbolize the persistence and excellence
personified by Thomas Alva Edison, inspiring America’s drive to
remain in the forefront of innovation, creativity and ingenuity in
the global economy.

The Kern Family Foundation is a private, independent
grant-making organization based in Waukesha, Wis.

ooo

The Mason City and Clear Lake offices of Schoneman
Realtors have joined forces, allowing their agents to
become members of both the Clear Lake and Mason City MLS.

Schoneman Realtors is the only agency to have offices in both
Clear Lake and Mason City. The extended team of Realtors consists
of Chad Schoneman, Cody Schoneman, Brett Schoneman, Hugh Webb,
Marion Olson, Al Ashland, Tim Murray, Ryan Burt and Tom Jolas.
Agents can be reached by calling the Clear Lake office at
641-357-0500 or the Mason City office at 641-423-0500.

ooo

McKenzie O’Rourke, Mason City, has joined First
Citizens National Bank as a credit analyst at the West Mason City
location.

Prior to joining First Citizens, O’Rourke worked at another
financial institution in Ames. She graduated from Iowa State
University with a Bachelor of Arts degree in psychology.

For more information about First Citizens National Bank visit
www.firstcitizensnb.com or call 641-423-1600.

ooo

Shareholders of Northwoods State Bank held
their annual meeting Jan. 26. Named directors were Kary S. Paulson,
chairman, and Dan Hendrikson, Roger Bang, Donald Sapp, Kirk S.
Paulson, Dean Moretz, Tom Quinlan and Mark Davidson.

Mary Christianson was appointed cashier replacing Carol
Hengesteg, who retired at the end of the year. 

Returning executive officers appointed were Thomas W. Quinlan,
president; Kirk S. Paulson, executive vice president; Aaron Carman,
senior vice president; Bill Cody, vice president; and Barrett De
Cathelineau, vice president.

NSB Bank is a community bank serving Northwood and Mason
City. 

Paulson said the bank has grown rapidly in the last several
years and has assets of more than $153 million with deposits of
$129 million and loans outstanding of $103 million. 

ooo

Mary Hackman-Glenn and Abe Hackman of Wells
Fargo Home Mortgage in Mason City have earned their 10th year in
the top producer club. This award is given to the home mortgage
consultants based on total number of loans closed, total number of
purchase loans closed and high customer service ratings. 

Their office is at 10 N. Washington Ave. in the Wells Fargo
Center. Mortgage assistant Casey Servantez completes the team, They
can be reached at 641-421-4040. In addition, customers can apply
for mortgage loans by visiting

http://www.wfhm.com/mary-hackman-glenn.

Wells Fargo Home Mortgage is one of the nation’s leading retail
mortgage lenders with over 10,000 home mortgage consultants with a
presence on the internet and in more than 2,500 mortgage stores and
Wells Fargo bank locations serving all 50 states. According to
Inside Mortgage Finance, “Wells Fargo remained the top retail
lender in the market. Its $219.26 billion in retail originations
represented 27.7 percent of the market total.

ooo

KING CONSTRUCTION AND OVERHEAD DOOR is general
contractor on the Aircraft Rescue amp; Fire Fighting Facility
under construction at the Mason City Municipal Airport.

Construction started in October and is scheduled for completion
in June.

King opened in Iowa Falls in 1947 and opened a second office in
Clear Lake last May.

General manager is Jim Fielder, airport project manager is Greg
Flugum and office receptionist is Ellen Bryant.

Construction and overhead door service are handled by John
Watson, Dave Thompson and Todd McDonough.

Office hours are 8 am to 5 pm Monday through Thursday and 8
am to 4:30 pm Friday. 

For more information contact the Clear Lake office at
641-357-5575, Iowa Falls office at 641-648-5575 or go to
www.kingconstruction.biz.

ooo

Health documentaries are being shown at 2 pm Sundays at
Health Country in Willowbrook Mall in Mason
City.

Film titles include “The GMO Trilogy,” “Forks Over Knives,” “The
Future of Food” and others.

The public is invited.

A gluten-free potluck will be held at 5 pm Sunday, Feb. 9, at
Health Country. The public is invited to bring a gluten-free dish
to share.

For more information call 641-423-6723.

ooo

The Iowa-Illinois Safety Council will offer
training classes March 6-7 in the Mason City Area.

Classes are:

o March 6, 8 am-noon,  Powered Industrial Truck Safety amp;
Train-the-Trainer. 1-5 pm: Aerial Lift Safety amp;
Train-the-Trainer.

o March 7: 8 am-noon,  Lockout/Tagout amp; Train-the-Trainer.
1-5 pm: Confined Space Safety amp; Train-the-Trainer.

Classes will be at the Clarion Inn, 2101 Fourth St. SW, Mason
City.

For more information about the classes and registration costs,
visit www.iisc.org or contact the Iowa-Illinois Safety Council at
515-276-4724,  800-568-2495, or email yvette@iisc.org.

Iowa-Illinois Safety Council is a chapter of the National Safety
Council. 

Tags: Service Ratings

ATT has managed to beat out all its rivals in the latest mobile phone customer service survey conducted by Vocalabs, despite being ranked worst by Consumer Reports. According to data collected from the firms survey, which involved telephone interviews immediately following a customer service call during the last three-month period in 2011, ATT had the highest percentage of customer satisfaction among the four major US wireless carriers.

The survey found that 69% of ATT customers surveyed were Very Satisfied with their customer service experience. This is an improvement from the 65% ratio the year before. ATT also dethroned the Now Network, which dropped 12 points to 59%. Tying with ATT a year ago at 65%, T-Mobile has dropped 17 points to a miserable 48%, while Verizon remains unchanged at 60%.

Apparently, ATT was able to improve customer service without its proposed T-Mobile acquisition, despite its arguments otherwise. However, T-Mobiles customer service ratings appear to have collapsed along with the failed merger. Perhaps after some regrouping, T-Mobile will be able to recover this year. It was recently revealed that T-Mobile is offering additional support for unlocked iPhone customers on its network.

Tags: Service Ratings

LONDON (Reuters) – Online grocer Ocado Group Plc forecast first-quarter sales growth of about 10 percent, easing concerns about its prospects after a profit warning last month.

The company, which mostly sells the products of upmarket grocer Waitrose via a fleet of brightly coloured vans, said its rate of growth should improve as the year progresses, service initiatives kick in and distribution capacity increases.

Shares in Ocado, founded in 2000 by three former Goldman Sachs bankers, rose 4.6 percent to 84 pence by 10:10 am, valuing the business at about 445 million pounds.

Despite the recessionary headwinds that we are sailing into, we are still seeing double-digit growth in online grocery, Chief Executive Tim Steiner told Reuters on Tuesday, adding the company was benefitting as consumer spending shifts to the Internet.

He said its success was not about requiring customers to spend money that they were not spending before.

Ocado had said in December earnings had been hit by higher staffing costs as it battled to overcome capacity constraints at its main distribution depot in Hatfield, north of London.

Steiner said these constraints had alleviated and the group planned to take capacity at Hatfield to 160,000 orders a week by the end of the year, up from a 2011 peak of 131,381 orders. A second distribution centre will open in Warwickshire in central England in the first quarter of 2013.

Well be making a lot of enhancements to customer service, in particular in terms of range and usability, and we know that as we turn those on well see an acceleration in demand, said the CEO.

CAPACITY IMPROVEMENT

The group said earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortisation (EBITDA) rose 27 percent to 27.9 million pounds in the year to November 27, in line with forecasts which had been reduced after the December alert.

Sales increased 16.6 percent to 642.8 million.

Shares in Ocado, which have lost nearly two thirds of their value since floating at 180 pence in July 2010, gained some ground after a positive Christmas update, but fell again less than two weeks later after it said Chief Financial Officer Andrew Bracey had been poached by recruiter Michael Page.

The capacity improvement works will allow much stronger growth towards the end of the year just as the comps (comparatives) start to get easier, said analysts at Barclays Capital.

Steiner played down bid speculation surrounding the stock.

We aim to remain an independent company and extract the most value for our shareholders and we havent had an approach, he said.

Ocado has polarised opinion like few other recent UK market debutants.

Fans point to rapid growth in online grocery sales and to its high customer service ratings. Sceptics, however, think its model of filling orders from a central depot will never be as profitable as online operations at established grocers, which mostly pick orders in store.

They also fear Ocado will face growing competition from Waitrose itself, which has recently starting selling groceries online in Ocados heartlands in and around London.

(Editing by Rhys Jones and David Holmes)

Tags: Service Ratings

For a time, it looked as if companies were on the verge of vanquishing hold times. They embraced a slew of self-serve options (Web FAQs, recorded messages) and communication alternatives (e-mail, live chat) that were supposed to reduce call volume. At the same time, they outsourced calls to Bangalore, which allowed them to hire four reps for the price of one in the US, says Jordy Leiser, CEO of StellaService, a service-ratings firm.

Alas, both efforts failed. The outsourcing trend fizzled when customers complained they couldnt understand the foreign accents. Call volume remains high, meanwhile, because customers still insist on talking to a live person, says Leiser. And that means many continue to face long hold times — from the five-minute average at wireless companies to the 90-minute waits we endured from the airlines during Hurricane Irene.

Happily, such frustration has given rise to an intriguing work-around: free apps like FastCustomer and LucyPhone that wait on hold for you and ring you back when a rep gets on the line. My favorite, FastCustomer, offers a database of more than 3,000 companies, including Verizon and Bank of America. When you call one of these outfits using the app, it automatically navigates the phone tree and connects you directly to an agent.

I tried it with my health insurer, Aetna, whose voice-recognition system gets me contemplating hara-kiri. (Aetna says 85 percent of calls are answered within 30 seconds.) All I did was hit the apps have someone call me button. Three minutes later, my phone rang. Hello, this is Aetna, said the caller. I felt a surge of power. It was as if I had summoned a magic genie who could look up my benefits records. I tried again with Time Warner Cable and J.Crew. Same results.

FastCustomer cofounder Steph Hay says the app is especially popular with folks calling airlines, wireless companies and cable companies. Phone reps like it too, because they deal with happier customers.

LucyPhone doesnt bypass the phone tree, but it offers a key feature. If youre put on hold, you can enter a short code on your keypad and hang up. The app calls you back when the rep gets back on the line. I tried this when a Macys agent put me on hold to look up a return policy. More magic.

You might expect that this power reversal has companies seething, but some have come to embrace it. Akron, Ohio, firm Virtual Hold Technology says its client list includes 60 Fortune 500 companies that offer customers the option of getting a callback when hold times exceed two minutes — half of callers choose the return call. It improves service, but it also helps trim the phone bill. Client Southwest Airlines says it saves more than 50 million toll minutes a year with its callback program.

So maybe we really have vanquished the enemy. LucyPhone cofounder Mike Oristian predicts that in five years, waiting on hold will not exist. The next step: an app that turns script-reading phone reps into empathetic human beings empowered to make actual decisions. Maybe after Armageddon comes.

Tags: Service Ratings

SALT LAKE CITY, Feb. 1, 2012 /PRNewswire/ –Overstock.com, Inc. (NASDAQ: OSTK) today reported that it provided the best overall customer service experience during the 2011 holiday season, as reported by STELLAService and Compuware Corporation.

(Logo: http://photos.prnewswire.com/prnh/20120110/LA33954LOGO)

Overstock performed well during baseline testing of average call hold times, recording an average hold time of only 40 seconds. Overstocks customer service team was able to maintain this high standard, averaging 45 seconds per call during the holiday season. Overstocks performance ranked in the top of STELLAServices holiday call support performance testing, said John Ernsberger, co-founder, STELLAService.

My job is to be the customers advocate within the company, said Stormy Simon, Overstock.coms Senior Vice President of Customer Care, We spend all year preparing every system and process we have for the holiday season. It is our customers busiest time of the year. So our customers have the best experience possible, we want hold times to be much less than a minute.

STELLAService, an independent provider of customer service ratings for online retailers, conducted studies throughout the 2011 holiday season analyzing customer service and website performance satisfaction of the top 25 US retailers. According to STELLAService, onlyOverstock.com andLLBean.comearned high marks across the entire online shopping experience–from the speed of web page downloads to the length of time it took to answer customer support calls. Overstock.com maintained a top 10 web performance ranking by controlling home page size and efficiently managing third-party content, thus increasing website performance. The website performance results were provided by Compuware, a technology performance company tracking web and mobile performance objectively for companies all over the world to ensure technology works well and delivers value.

STELLAService released several studies throughout the 2011 holiday season that highlighted Overstock.coms leadership in customer service. These studies were included in news coverage on CNBC, Bloomberg TV, The Consumerist, Business Insider, Aol Daily Finance, The Street and CRM Magazine. STELLAService also covered Overstock.com on its blog throughout the holiday season.

About STELLAService
Dedicated to helping consumers make more informed online shopping decisions, STELLAService is the first and only independent provider of customer service ratings for online retailers. Using its proprietary, rigorous evaluation system, STELLAService rates thousands of retailers each year across a broad array of criteria, including usability and online tools, shipping and returns and customer support. To maintain its independence and objectivity, STELLAService pays for all products it purchases and relies on its staff of trained, full-time customer experience analysts to test the companies it evaluates. The company has been profiled in Advertising Age(STELLAService strives to give e-tailers credibility)and its data has been featured in outlets fromThe Business InsidertoThe Chicago Tribune.Based in New York City, the company also publishes reports and other research to help companies worldwide improve their service operations. For more information, visithttp://media.stellaservice.com/public/pdf/20541_StellaBenchmarkReport_WP.pdf.

About Overstock.com
Overstock.com is a technology-based retail company offering customers a wide variety of high-quality products, at great value, with superior customer service. The company provides its customers with the opportunity to shop for bargains by offering suppliers an alternative inventory distribution channel. Headquartered in Salt Lake City, Overstock.comis a publicly traded company listed on the NASDAQ Global Market System and can be found online at http://www.overstock.com and http://wwwoco. Overstock.com regularly posts information about the company and other related matters on its website under the heading Investor Relations.

Overstock.com and O.co and Club O Rewards are registered trademarks of Overstock.com, Inc. Club O(TM), and Club O Rewards Dollars(TM) and Your Savings Engine(TM) are trademarks of Overstock.com, Inc. All other trademarks are the property of their respective owners.

This press release contains certain forward-looking statements within the meaning of Section 27A of the Securities Act of 1933 and Section 21E of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934. Such forward-looking statements include, but are not limited to, statements regarding efforts expended to provide a great customer experience. Our Form 10-K for the year ended December 31, 2010, our subsequent quarterly reports on Form 10-Q, or any amendments thereto, and our other subsequent filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission identify important factors that could cause our actual results to differ materially from those contained in our projections, estimates or forward-looking statements.

SOURCE Overstock.com, Inc.

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RELATED LINKS

http://www.overstock.com

Tags: Service Ratings

Solano to chair chamber group

Alan Solano, chief executive officer of Behavior Management
Systems, will serve as chairman of the Government Affairs Committee
for the Rapid City Area Chamber of Commerce.

Schulte achieves

insurance title

Jessica Schulte of Financial Markets Inc. achieved the Associate,
Life Management Institute (ALMI) designation with honors through
Life Office Management Association. The designation is a globally
recognized educational standard that indicates understanding of the
core products and operations of life insurance companies and
comprehension of the financial concepts that insurance
professionals encounter.

Three named to library board

Laura Patterson, Greg Blow and Calvin Sievers have been named to
the Rapid City Public Library Foundation board. Patterson is the
director of compensation, benefits and HR Systems at Black Hills
Corporation. Blow is a senior vice president of Great Western Bank.
Sievers is a financial associate with Thrivent Financial for
Lutherans and joint owner of Karma Boutique.

WAVI names board members

Working Against Violence, Inc. has announced its 2012 board of
directors and officers: president, Gordon Decker, Pennington County
Sheriffs Office; vice president, Mitchell Stone, The Redstone
Education Group; treasurer, Phil Nelson, First Interstate Bank;
secretary, Sarah Seljeskog-Morrison, Pennington County States
Attorney; past-president, Tracy Manning-Egge, Paris Chic; board
members: Steve Allender, Rapid City Police Department; Kelley
Crane, South Dakota National Guard; Dawn Feiler, Pennington County
Sheriffs Office; Dr. Anne Fisher, Rapid City Regional Hospital;
Robin Gillespie, Wilson Elementary School; Gayle Thom, retired FBI,
project director and training consultant.

Ireland elected board president

Roy Ireland of Martin, representing Rushmore Electric Power
Cooperative, was elected president of the board of directors of
Basin Electric Power Cooperative. He has been a Basin Electric
director since 1996, is a director on the board of LaCreek Electric
Association in Martin and serves on the South Dakota Rural Electric
Association Board.

Two join Wellspring board of directors

Jason Ketchum and David Sharp have joined the board of directors at
Wellspring, a nonprofit organization that provides family-focused
therapeutic services for youth who cannot function in their family,
school and the community due to mental, emotional and/or substance
abuse issues.

Grover receives top Honda honor

Kevin Grover of Rushmore Honda has attained the top Gold Level
membership In the Council of Sales Leadership program with American
Honda Motor Company. The award is presented to sales consultants
who reach top sales goals and achieve superior customer service
ratings.

Staff honors

Print design manager Justin Mather was employee of the year for
2011 at Robert Sharp amp; Associates advertising and public
relations agency. … Perry Grosz was top producer for December at
Exit Realty The Benchmark Co. … Timothy Thomas of Thomas Braun
Bernard and Burke, LLP, was included in The Best Lawyers in
America 2012 in the field of corporate law. … Patient service
representative Sara Rembold was employee of the month for December
at Regional Medical Clinic-Aspen Centre. … Dave Jones had top
sales for December at Prudential Kahler, Realtors in Rapid City.
… Jessica Dutter had top sales for December at Prudential Kahler,
Realtors in Spearfish. … Nick and Alicen Dupont were the top
producers for The Real Estate Group for December. … Rebekkah
Kruse of Working Against Violence, Inc. has been promoted to
program director.

New hires

Carla Miller is office supervisor for Childrens Care in Rapid
City, coming from a position as branch manager at Great Western
Bank in Rapid City. … Sharron Bramblee, physician assistant and
certified nurse practitioner, has joined Rapid City Obstetrics and
Gynecology. … Barbara Anderson Lewis joined the Rapid City office
of Lynn, Jackson, Shultz amp; Lebrun, where she will practice
insurance law. … Licensed certified social worker Jenny Sand is
site supervisor for Behavior Management Systems Northern Hills
office in Spearfish. … Susan Egging has joined the South Dakota
School for the Blind and Visually Impaired as outreach vision
consultant for western South Dakota. … Bruce Lundie joined
Flooring America as a floor covering specialist. … Gavin Fawbush
is general manager of the GrandStay Hotel in Rapid City, where he
was previously sales manager. … Dr. Kantee Karki and Dr. Ramesh
Marahatta recently joined the hospitalist department at Rapid City
Regional Hospital. Originally from Nepal, they most recently lived
in Brooklyn, NY, where they completed their medical residencies
at Weill Medical College of Cornell University. … Working Against
Violence, Inc. has hired Mallory Heutzenroeder as its development
director.

Tags: Service Ratings

Q: Many companies spend a lot of money on rebranding. Is changing a businessâ??s name necessary when there is a change in ownership? And is it OK to have one brand for all your companies? Can it affect customer confidence in the various products and services one offers? â?? Tanga Roy, Kenya

A: I have just spent three days traveling around the UK to mark the launch of Virgin Money, our new bank, following the acquisition of Northern Rock, which was nationalised in 2008 and we bought on January 1 this year. The process of rebranding Northern Rockâ??s 75 branches over the next nine months will provide us with a distinctive platform for shaking up the industry. There will be new signs, new furniture and a more welcoming feel â?? our staff will not be working behind glass barricades.

Those will be the first steps, but the rebrand must go deeper, into the very culture of the business, providing leadership, inspiration and a spirit of empowerment to the 2000 employees who just joined Virgin Money.

That said, we were concerned about changing the Northern Rock name, mostly because the bank is very well known, especially in the northeast of England â?? we worried this might create animosity among long-time customers and our new employees, who were rightfully proud of the business. But there was genuine enthusiasm and excitement at the launch events, and the Virgin team was made very welcome.

While the decision about when to rebrand a company weâ??ve acquired depends on many factors, we have found that, far from hindering our growth, branding Virgin businesses with our name has helped them to punch well above their weight while creating a very distinctive culture that ties the dozens of companies in our group together, across its variety of sectors. Virgin Money is using the history of our group as the cornerstone for a marketing campaign for the rebranded Northern Rock â?? the ads will show how we have challenged many industries to make things better.

Our approach to branding has been successful because we have built the Virgin Group on a simple mission: to do things differently for our customers, improving their experiences and perhaps their lives. It should not matter whether you are on one of our planes, a member of one of our health clubs or talking to a friend using one of our mobile phone services: the experience should stand out as distinctly Virgin.

Customers asked to describe the Virgin experience might point to our staffâ??s cheery helpfulness; our focus on thoughtful, simple design; the way we add a human touch wherever possible; and our humour as well. The whole package should make customers feel good about our brand and want to return for more.

Maintaining customer confidence in the brand is key, and so whenever we consider rebranding an existing company, we take a close look at the business proposition, the service and the quality and training of the people before planting our distinctive logo and splash of red.

When we were preparing to launch Virgin Trains in the late 1990s, industry executives laughed at our plans to build a new fleet of tilting trains, and to provide better food and service â?? along with our goal of doubling passenger numbers. This was impossible, we were told. And since we couldnâ??t buy new trains for a few years, we had no option but to repaint the train cars weâ??d inherited from British Rail.

One of our first steps was training our team to change the way they dealt with customers, and this proved to be the best rebranding effort possible; our terrific staff helped our customers through the difficult period of delays and repair work. In the years that followed, our new fleet of trains, modernised tracks and faster journeys helped our employees deliver better than ever, and we achieved among the highest customer service ratings in the industry. Customer numbers have more than doubled since 2006.

When we were preparing to launch Virgin Media in 2006, which was intended to offer cable, internet, mobile phone and landline services, we took a more cautious approach. Rather than rebranding the company right away, we ensured the two companies that merged to create NTL:Telewest got their new product and customer service levels right â?? and had completed their merger with our company, Virgin Mobile â?? before we embarked on the major rebrand to Virgin Media. We did this in part because we were worried that NTL:Telewest could not yet achieve the level of service expected of a Virgin business. The company provided broadband, cable and phone service to more than 5-million homes: any disruption or poor service delivered under the Virgin name would have affected our other businesses.

After more than a year, we rebranded NTL:Telewest as Virgin Media and four years later, the company has trained the staff, refocused its business proposition and improved its products. It is now investing heavily in Virgin-ness, including a new humorous advertising campaign with Usain Bolt, the Olympic sprinter.

Finally, if you are considering whether to put your brand on a business your company recently acquired, remember to share your message with your new employees about your purpose and culture. Meet with them, take notes on their suggestions and follow through. With their support and enthusiasm, you will win over customers, build your companyâ??s expertise, expand what your business has to offer, and derive much more value from this rebranding.

 2011 Richard Branson. Distributed by The New York Times Syndicate

â?¢ Branson is founder of the Virgin Group. He blogs at www.virgin.com/richard-branson/blog. Follow him on Twitter at www.twitter.com/richardbranson. Send questions to branson@bdfm.co.za and include your name, country, e-mail address and the publication where you read the column

Tags: Service Ratings

SALT LAKE CITY, Feb. 1, 2012 /PRNewswire via COMTEX/ –
Overstock.com, Inc.

/quotes/zigman/87370/quotes/nls/ostk OSTK
+1.71%

today reported that it provided the best overall customer service experience during the 2011 holiday season, as reported by STELLAService and Compuware Corporation.

“Overstock performed well during baseline testing of average call hold times, recording an average hold time of only 40 seconds. Overstock’s customer service team was able to maintain this high standard, averaging 45 seconds per call during the holiday season. Overstock’s performance ranked in the top of STELLAService’s holiday call support performance testing,” said John Ernsberger, co-founder, STELLAService.

“My job is to be the customer’s advocate within the company,” said Stormy Simon, Overstock.com’s Senior Vice President of Customer Care, “We spend all year preparing every system and process we have for the holiday season. It is our customers’ busiest time of the year. So our customers have the best experience possible, we want hold times to be much less than a minute.”

STELLAService, an independent provider of customer service ratings for online retailers, conducted studies throughout the 2011 holiday season analyzing customer service and website performance satisfaction of the top 25 U.S. retailers. According to STELLAService, only Overstock.com and LLBean.com earned high marks across the entire online shopping experience–from the speed of web page downloads to the length of time it took to answer customer support calls. Overstock.com maintained a top 10 web performance ranking by controlling home page size and efficiently managing third-party content, thus increasing website performance. The website performance results were provided by Compuware, a technology performance company tracking web and mobile performance objectively for companies all over the world to ensure technology works well and delivers value.

STELLAService released several studies throughout the 2011 holiday season that highlighted Overstock.com’s leadership in customer service. These studies were included in news coverage on CNBC, Bloomberg TV, The Consumerist, Business Insider, Aol Daily Finance, The Street and CRM Magazine. STELLAService also covered Overstock.com on its blog throughout the holiday season.About STELLAService Dedicated to helping consumers make more informed online shopping decisions, STELLAService is the first and only independent provider of customer service ratings for online retailers. Using its proprietary, rigorous evaluation system, STELLAService rates thousands of retailers each year across a broad array of criteria, including usability and online tools, shipping and returns and customer support. To maintain its independence and objectivity, STELLAService pays for all products it purchases and relies on its staff of trained, full-time customer experience analysts to test the companies it evaluates. The company has been profiled in Advertising Age (“STELLAService strives to give e-tailers credibility”) and its data has been featured in outlets from The Business Insider to The Chicago Tribune. Based in New York City, the company also publishes reports and other research to help companies worldwide improve their service operations. For more information, visit
http://media.stellaservice.com/public/pdf/20541_StellaBenchmarkReport_WP.pdf .

About Overstock.com Overstock.com is a technology-based retail company offering customers a wide variety of high-quality products, at great value, with superior customer service. The company provides its customers with the opportunity to shop for bargains by offering suppliers an alternative inventory distribution channel. Headquartered in Salt Lake City, Overstock.com is a publicly traded company listed on the NASDAQ Global Market System and can be found online at
http://www.overstock.com and
http://www.o.co . Overstock.com regularly posts information about the company and other related matters on its website under the heading “Investor Relations.”

Overstock.com® and O.co® and Club O Rewards® are registered trademarks of Overstock.com, Inc. Club O(TM), and Club O Rewards Dollars(TM) and Your Savings Engine(TM) are trademarks of Overstock.com, Inc. All other trademarks are the property of their respective owners.

This press release contains certain forward-looking statements within the meaning of Section 27A of the Securities Act of 1933 and Section 21E of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934. Such forward-looking statements include, but are not limited to, statements regarding efforts expended to provide a great customer experience. Our Form 10-K for the year ended December 31, 2010, our subsequent quarterly reports on Form 10-Q, or any amendments thereto, and our other subsequent filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission identify important factors that could cause our actual results to differ materially from those contained in our projections, estimates or forward-looking statements.

SOURCE Overstock.com, Inc.

Copyright (C) 2012 PR Newswire. All rights reserved

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March 9, 2012 5:00p

Tags: Service Ratings