CIN Cinergy Corp

J.D. Power and Associates has certified Cinergy's (NYSE:CIN) customer service call centers in Indiana and Ohio for the second consecutive year. Cinergy is one of only two energy companies in the nation currently certified; the other is Duke Energy, the company Cinergy is joining in a merger first announced in May 2005. To become certified initially, Cinergy's call centers were required to pass a detailed audit of their processes in areas such as quality assurance, process improvement initiatives, recruiting, training, employee incentives, and management roles. In addition, J.D. Power and Associates conducted a random survey of Cinergy's customers who recently contacted its call centers. For re-certification, J.D. Power and Associates conducted the customer research phase of the certification process. In order to receive certification, a call center must perform within the top 20 percent of customer service based on J.D. Power and Associates' cross-industry customer satisfaction research. Certification is valid for one year. "In the review of our Call Center, it was noted that Cinergy's operations demonstrate a remarkably strong commitment to the satisfaction of its customers," said Todd Arnold, Cinergy's vice president of Customer Care. "Our call centers handled more than 5 million customer contacts in 2005, and our target is excellence." J.D. Power and Associates launched the Call Center Certification Program in 2004 to evaluate overall customer satisfaction and help call centers in various industries increase their efficiency and effectiveness by establishing best practices for handling service calls. There are more than 75,000 call centers in North America and an estimated 125,000 worldwide that help customers with product and service questions across a multitude of industries, ranging from credit cards, financial services, investment services, utilities, service warranty and insurance to telecommunications, healthcare and office products. Cinergy is the parent company of PSI Energy in Indiana, The Cincinnati Gas & Electric Co. in Ohio, and Union Light, Heat & Power Co. in Kentucky. Combined, these companies serve 1.5 million electric customers and about 500,000 gas customers.