Alliance Data's Card Services Business Customer Care Centers Mark Decade of 'Center of Excellence' Certification From Internationally Recognized BenchmarkPortal

DALLAS, April 20, 2015 /PRNewswire/ -- Alliance Data Systems Corporation (NYSE: ADS), a leading global provider of data-driven marketing and loyalty solutions, today announced its Card Services business, a premier provider of branded private label, co-brand and commercial credit programs, has achieved for the tenth time in a row the "Center of Excellence" certification by BenchmarkPortal, one of the most prestigious designations in the service and support industry, for the quality of its call center operations nationwide. Founded in 1995, BenchmarkPortal is a global leader in the contact center industry, providing benchmarking, certification, training, consulting and industry reports, and maintains the world's largest call center metrics database.

This recertification marks the tenth consecutive time that Alliance Data has received BenchmarkPortal's Center of Excellence ranking – more times than any company or organization in the financial services/credit industry. The Center of Excellence designation is reserved for the top 10 percent of all customer care centers surveyed by BenchmarkPortal, and is based on best-practice metrics for quality, cost, efficiency, effectiveness and superior performance.

Alliance Data also received for the third year in a row top-10 honors in the "large centers" category on the "Top 100 BenchmarkPortal Call Centers" list, which compares the performance of centers throughout North America by evaluating key metrics against industry peers.

"We are thrilled to celebrate a decade of achieving the Center of Excellence certification as it is a direct reflection of Alliance Data's brand- and customer-centric approach to delivering outstanding service on behalf of our brand partners," said Sallie Komitor, chief customer officer for Alliance Data's Card Services business. "Through our unique retail heritage and culture of caring, we have a deep understanding of our brand partners and their customers, and we view our industry-leading customer care organization as a competitive differentiator and a tremendous asset on which we've built the trust of our brand partners."

In developing its call center measurement parameters, BenchmarkPortal found that 41 Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) strongly correlate to the quality and quantity of calls handled in call center operations. For the benchmarking survey, BenchmarkPortal monitored and measured Alliance Data's performance against these KPIs and its large call center database to determine each center's level of efficiency and effectiveness. Alliance Data continues to score higher than the industry average in several KPIs including:  first call resolution, time calls are spent in queue and the speed at which calls are answered.

"As one of the best in the industry, Alliance Data consistently demonstrates leadership in call center operational quality and clearly strives to exemplify best practices in all aspects of call center management," said Bruce Belfiore, chief executive officer of BenchmarkPortal. "These achievements of distinction confirm Alliance Data's continuous efforts undertaken to achieve this level of sustainable service excellence."

About Center of Excellence Certification
Contact centers and their managers who wish to implement best practices and obtain world-class performance in their industry have a unique opportunity to certify their call centers. BenchmarkPortal's rigorous certification process has the advantage of referencing all performance goals to their best practice database of thousands of contact centers. Thus, contact centers will be held to performance levels that will improve their competitive position, not just force them to adhere to an arbitrary standard. Please follow the link to discover what the steps to certification are and how they will improve your center's performance. www.benchmarkportal.com/call-center-certification.

About BenchmarkPortal
Founded in 1995, BenchmarkPortal is a global leader in the contact center industry, providing benchmarking, certification, training, consulting and industry reports. The BenchmarkPortal team of professionals has gained international recognition for its expertise and an innovative approach to best practices for the contact center industry and hosts the world's largest database of contact center metrics. BenchmarkPortal's mission is to help contact centers reach peak performance in operational effectiveness and efficiency so that the centers will realize increased levels of agent and customer loyalty while containing costs and building enterprise value. For more information on BenchmarkPortal, please call 1-800-214-8929 or visit www.BenchmarkPortal.com.

About Alliance Data's Card Services Business
Alliance Data's Card Services business is a leading provider of tailored marketing and loyalty solutions, delivered through branded credit programs that drive more profitable relationships between our brand partners and their cardmembers. We offer private label, co-brand, and commercial products to many of the world's most recognizable brands across a multitude of channels.

We uphold our Know more. Sell more.^® promise by leveraging unmatched customer insights, advanced analytics, and broad-reaching innovative capabilities. It's how we deliver increased sales to our partners, build enduring loyalty to their brands, and provide more value to our cardmembers. Alliance Data's Card Services business is a proud part of the Alliance Data enterprise. To learn more, visit www.alliancedataretail.com or follow us on Twitter @ADRetail.

About Alliance Data
Alliance Data^® (NYSE: ADS) is a leading global provider of data-driven marketing and loyalty solutions serving large, consumer-based industries. The Company creates and deploys customized solutions, enhancing the critical customer marketing experience; the result is measurably changing consumer behavior while driving business growth and profitability for some of today's most recognizable brands. Alliance Data helps its clients create and increase customer loyalty through solutions that engage millions of customers each day across multiple touch points using traditional, digital, mobile and emerging technologies. An S&P 500 company headquartered in Plano, Texas, Alliance Data consists of three businesses that together employ more than 15,000 associates at approximately 100 locations worldwide.

Alliance Data's Card Services business is a leading provider of marketing-driven branded credit card programs. Epsilon^® is a leading provider of multichannel, data-driven technologies and marketing services, and also includes Conversant, the leader in personalized digital marketing. LoyaltyOne^® owns and operates the AIR MILES^® Reward Program, Canada's premier coalition loyalty program, and holds a majority interest in Netherlands-based BrandLoyalty, a global provider of tailor-made loyalty programs for grocers.

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Alliance Data's Safe Harbor Statement/Forward Looking Statements
This release may contain forward-looking statements within the meaning of Section 27A of the Securities Act of 1933, as amended, and Section 21E of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934, as amended. Such statements may use words such as "anticipate," "believe," "continue, " "could," "estimate," "expect," "intend, " "may, " "predict," "project," "would," and similar expressions as they relate to us or our management. When we make forward-looking statements, we are basing them on our management's beliefs and assumptions, using information currently available to us. Although we believe that the expectations reflected in the forward-looking statements are reasonable, these forward-looking statements are subject to risks, uncertainties and assumptions, including those discussed in our filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

If one or more of these or other risks or uncertainties materialize, or if our underlying assumptions prove to be incorrect, actual results may vary materially from what we projected. Any forward-looking statements contained in this presentation reflect our current views with respect to future events and are subject to these and other risks, uncertainties and assumptions relating to our operations, results of operations, growth strategy and liquidity. We have no intention, and disclaim any obligation, to update or revise any forward-looking statements, whether as a result of new information, future results or otherwise, except as required by law.

"Safe Harbor" Statement under the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995: Statements in this presentation regarding Alliance Data Systems Corporation's business which are not historical facts are "forward-looking statements" that involve risks and uncertainties. For a discussion of such risks and uncertainties, which could cause actual results to differ from those contained in the forward-looking statements, see "Risk Factors" in the Company's Annual Report on Form 10-K for the most recently ended fiscal year. Risk factors may be updated in Item 1A in each of the Company's Quarterly Reports on Form 10-Q for each quarterly period subsequent to the Company's most recent Form 10-K.

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SOURCE Alliance Data Systems Corporation

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