American Express Canada wins Service Quality Award of Excellence

American Express Canada has been recognized for its world-class service, winning the Service Quality Award of Excellence for its omni-channel best practices. The award acknowledges the seamless experience American Express customers have using multiple contact channels.

“At American Express, our customers will always be at the cornerstone of everything we do,” says Ross Dudek, Vice President of World Service at American Express Canada. “We are honoured to be recognized for this Award, which demonstrates our commitment to ensuring each Cardmember and customer receives a tailored customer service experience and feels valued no matter how they choose to interact with us.”

The findings were released recently as part of an annual effort by Service Quality Measurement (SQM), an industry-focused research firm that tracks, benchmarks and recognizes over 450 leading North American call centres on an annual basis. Since 1998, SQM has been giving out Awards of Excellence after conducting over one million surveys with customers who have contacted a customer call centre.

“What sets American Express apart from the rest is the ability to bridge the gap we typically see in customer reported satisfaction when they have to use multiple channels to resolve their inquiry,” says Nader Ghattas, Vice President of Consulting at SQM. “Normally, there is a considerable impact to satisfaction when a customer uses multiple channels to resolve the same issue or problem. This is something we don’t see with American Express, which speaks to a seamless, consistent customer experience.”

American Express takes a novel approach to customer care, empowering employees with a service ethos, Relationship Care^SM.  This service ethos is the overall strategy to deepen customer relationships by providing tailored information and service that reinforces the value of products and services for individual customers and to resolve inquiries upon first contact, regardless of channel.

One of the ways American Express Canada gauges the level of customer care is through ‘Recommend to a Friend’ feedback from customer surveys, which not only measures general satisfaction, but also how likely it is that a customer would endorse American Express products and services to the people who matter most to them.

“We continue to strive to raise the bar for ourselves,” says Dudek. “Our vision at American Express is to be recognized as the world’s most respected service brand. And every day – through every call, every email, and every solution to a problem through any channel – we strive to be leaders in this space.”