How Does it work?
 Service Star 2009™ is a contest that will be conducted via the web during the months of July and August 2009. Customer service teams will compete by responding to actual customer service scenarios A panel of judges will evaluate each response and provide a score for each team. Click here to fill out the form to register as a contestant.  Round 1 – Each team will be given a challenge scenario. Your company will have one week to respond to the scenario. It is up to each company how they would like to submit their solution—PowerPoint, Youtube, Word, etc. If you would like to add voice to your PowerPoint slides, but you do not have the technology to do so, we can provide the technology for you. The contestants' solutions need to be both pleasing to their customers as well as profitable to their organizations. The scenarios will be based on typical and exceptional customer requests and complaints.Four Contestants will be chosen from Round 1 to continue to Round 2. All judging decisions are final.
Round 2 – Four top teams will given a new scenario. As with Round 1, it is up to each company how they would like to submit the issue and the solution—PowerPoint, Youtube, Word etc. The contestants' solutions need to be both pleasing to their customers as well as profitable to their organizations. The scenario will have typical customer service situations. These scenarios may be customer requests and/or complaints where your company was able to provide exceptional customer service. Audience members of CRMXchange will be eligible to vote in Round 2. Fifty percent of the score will be from the judges, fifty percent from the audience vote.
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 Contestants - Will it be you?
Criteria for judgment - Following the principles of the customer experience, each response will be judged based on the following criteria:
Originality of solutions Engaging Effectiveness of resolution First call resolution Personalization Profitability Use of technology Future customer retention
 Judges Panel - A panel of expert judges from the customer service industry were assigned to the role of reviewing the submitted solutions and voting for the team responses. |
Registration – Every customer service operation is qualified to compete for the title of Service Star 2009™. Only one team per company will be allowed to register. It is recommended to have representatives from different disciplines such as training, quality monitoring, IT, and contact center managers.
The 4 highest scoring teams will receive a company pass to the “Symposium on Optimal Performance”, an online symposium which takes place, right from your desk, on November 3rd – November 6th. The Symposium is a three track online event presented by CRMXchange, the Society of Workforce Planning Professionals (SWPP), and the Quality Assurance & Training Connection (QATC).The registrants will attend online seminars, network with peers in the Optimum lounge, learn quick implementation ideas from vendors in the 60 Ideas Roundtable, find information about the hot topics in the exhibit hall, and network with each other in the Optimal Lounge.
The winning company will also receive a $250 donation to the charity of their choice.
Terms and conditions – By registering for Service Start 2009™ you accept the following terms and conditions:
a. Your team will play within the contest guidlines set forth
b. Outside advisors who are not employed by your company will not be allowed on the team
c. Team members must be employed by your company for at least for at least 3 months in a customer service capacity
d. All judges decisions are final and not subject to challenges
e. No changes will be allowed after submitting a response
f. CRMXchange will be authorized to reference any registered participant during the event and / or marketing material
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Your Judges
 Lior Arussy is an author, visionary, consultant and creative catalyst in the areas of creating delightful customer experiences and executing profitable customer strategies. Mr. Arussy's company, Strativity Group, advises both Global 2000 companies as well as emerging businesses around the world. Clients include American Management Association, Capital One, Computer Associates, Crown Plaza Hotels & Resorts, FedEx, Honeywell, Lockheed Martin, Nokia, RightNow Technologies, Sage, SAP, Seagate Technology, University of Pennsylvania, and Wyeth. For his thought leadership and contribution to the industry, Mr. Arussy received CRM Magazine's "2003 Influential Leaders" award and served as a juror on Fast Company's Customer First Awards 2005.
Mr. Arussy's syndicated column Focus: Customer reaches over 600,000 readers worldwide every month. He is also the author of four books including Passionate & Profitable: Why Customer Strategies Fail and 10 Steps to Do Them Right! (Wiley 2005) In addition, he has published over 50 articles in publications around the world including the Harvard Business Review.
 For two decades Sheri Greenhaus has been involved in nearly every aspect of contact center management, both as a contact center executive and later a successful consultant. As Director of Hart Hanks Telemarketing, Sheri oversaw the entire Hart Hanks call center operation. Her responsibilities included the company's critical sales and customer retention programs, hiring and training of agents, and the development of compensation programs. At CRC Information Systems, where she was Vice President of Marketing, Sheri was responsible for sales and marketing strategies for this scripting database company.
Sheri began her contact center career at Dun & Bradstreet; the first automated outbound call centers in the country. There, she was responsible for acquiring and maintaining major accounts. Following her corporate career Sheri founded Greenhaus Connection, a successful consulting firm specializing in the setting up of call centers and brokering of contract work for external sources.
In 1995 she and Larry Matte entered into a joint venture with TeleProfessional Magazine and launched the Tele-M@rket, a Web site devoted to contact centers (later renamed CRMXchange). Sheri holds a BS degree from University of Connecticut and a Certificate Degree in Direct Marketing from New York University. She studied at the American Academy of Dramatic Arts in New York.
Larry Matte - Larry Matte has more than 30 years experience in senior level marketing, sales, training, and product management in the software industry. He has created several unique sales training programs for software companies, which were instrumental and visionary in highly successful rollouts of their new product lines. Larry was also Senior Director of Marketing at The Ultimate Corp. In this position he was responsible for marketing efforts in support of both direct and reseller sales channels. Larry also served as Senior Vice President of Sales and Marketing for CRC Information Systems, a major provider of scripting and data base software for call centers.
Following six years as a successful marketing consultant he became aware of the growing interest among his clients in the Internet's marketing possibilities. He quickly came to the conclusion that people would frequent web sites for unbiased, reliable, timely information presented in innovative ways. In 1995, Larry and Sheri Greenhaus launched CRMXchange, a leading portal for the CRM/Contact Center industry.
 Vicki Herrell- Vicki Herrell serves as the Executive Director of the Society of Workforce Planning Professionals (SWPP) and Quality Assurance and Training Connection ( QATC) and has been at the helm of the associations since their inceptions. She oversees the management of both organizations and has guided these groups from start-up to over 1100 members. Vicki has over 15 years of experience in the call center and workforce management industry, serving for many years in the area of client relations and events management for the former TCS Management Group.
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