Sauder's Customer Service Call Center Earns "Center of Excellence" Certification

ARCHBOLD, Ohio, November 21, 2012 – Sauder Woodworking Co. has announced that its customer support contact center has been certified a Center of Excellence by BenchmarkPortal for the eighth consecutive year. The Center of Excellence recognition is one of the most prestigious awards in the service and support industry.

“This third party designation is rewarding for Sauder because it validates our company’s effort to continually amaze our customer with unmatched quality and service,” said Jacqueline Schnitkey, Sauder director of consumer services. “We are proud of our staff’s dedication to consistently go above and beyond in delivering exceptional service to our customers."

Contact centers achieve the Center of Excellence distinction based on best-practice metrics drawn from the world’s largest database of objective and quantitative data that is audited and validated by researchers from BenchmarkPortal. A contact center that has been certified as a Center of Excellence by BenchmarkPortal has met and/or surpassed rigorous standards of efficiency and effectiveness.

This certification is unique in that its achievement is ascertained strictly “by the numbers.” This means that the BenchmarkPortal team audits and verifies the center’s key performance indicators and compares that data to data from other peer organizations. This is different from other types of contact center certifications that typically focus on less results-oriented measures, such as process handling methods and procedures.

BenchmarkPortal awards the Center of Excellence designation to customer service call centers that rank in the top ten percent of the call centers surveyed. They are judged against a balanced scorecard of metrics for efficiency and effectiveness. Those contact centers that demonstrate superior performance on both cost-related metrics and quality-related metrics compared with their industry peers earn the award.

Headquartered in Archbold, Ohio, Sauder Woodworking Co. is North America’s leading producer of RTA furniture and the nation’s fifth largest residential furniture manufacturer. Sauder also sources furniture from a network of quality global partners, including a line of office chairs that complement its residential and light commercial office furniture .

Sauder Woodworking Co. is a privately-held, third generation, family-run business. Subsidiaries include: Progressive Furniture Inc., a designer and importer of wood bedroom, dining and accent furniture; and Sauder Manufacturing Company, a leader in church, educational, and health care seating. Other market segments include: Sauder Funeral Products, a line of wood caskets and other funeral industry products; and WoodTrac, a line of wood ceilings and closet systems for residential and commercial markets.

For additional information about Sauder Woodworking Co. or Benchmark Portal, visit the individual web sites at www.sauder.com and www.benchmarkportal.com.