(Source: PRNewswire-FirstCall)DALLAS, July 27 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ -- Alliance Data Systems Corporation, a leading provider of loyalty and marketing solutions derived from transaction-rich data, announced today that BenchmarkPortal, in conjunction with Purdue University's Center for Customer-Driven Quality(TM), has again recognized Alliance Data for achieving customer service excellence across all of its Retail Services call center operations. This recertification marks the third consecutive term Alliance Data has been certified as a Center of Excellence for the quality of its operations--the most prestigious ranking attainable from BenchmarkPortal.

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Bruce Belfiore, chief executive officer of BenchmarkPortal, said, "Alliance Data has consistently shown an interest in call center best practices over the years. Their continued benchmarking has paid off and for a third time, Alliance Data call centers have been certified as Centers of Excellence. It is a particular pleasure to award certification to all four Alliance Data call centers this year. It is a major achievement on which we congratulate them."

Alliance Data provides integrated credit and marketing solutions including private label, co-brand and commercial credit card programs designed to build long-term customer relationships and grow clients' businesses. The company leverages consumer insights and marketing strategies to create targeted, branded communications that engage customers and drive loyalty. In addition to customer service functions/call center operations Alliance Data provides account acquisition and activation, receivables funding, card authorization, card issuance, statement generation, and marketing and remittance processing services in support of private label, co-brand and commercial credit card programs.

In the benchmarking survey, BenchmarkPortal monitored 28 industry segments, including financial services and retail, measuring call centers for excellence in customer service against the world's largest database of call center best practices. Alliance Data's call centers were evaluated on several key drivers of successful performance in customer service, including:

   --  First-call resolution. Alliance Data customer service representatives       resolve customer matters within one call approximately 37 percent more       often than the industry standard.   --  Phone answer speed. Within an average of nine seconds, an Alliance       Data customer service representative answers the phone, versus an       industry average of 27 seconds.    --  Employee job satisfaction.