NEWTON, IA. - Iowa Telecom, Iowa’s second-largest telecommunications provider, has joined an elite group of companies, and is the first Midwest telephone company to do so. The telecommunications service provider has been certified as a Center of Excellence through Purdue University. Iowa Telecom’s customer contact center ranks in the top 10 percent of the 20,000 call centers studied for efficiency and effectiveness. “This is a tremendous accomplishment,” said Tim Lockhart, Vice President of Administration at Iowa Telecom. “This certification recognizes performance excellence in two critical areas of customer contact: the quality of Iowa Telecom’s contact center employees and the quality of our customer’s experience with our contact center. This certification puts us in elite standing among industries and with our customers.”

The Center for Excellence certification is awarded by Benchmark Portal through the Purdue University Center for Customer-Driven Quality. The Center is home of the largest database of contact center best practices, and reports on contact centers in the areas of operations, customer satisfaction and agent satisfaction.

At the award ceremonies held at Purdue University, Dr. John Anton, founder and director of the Center for Excellence, said, “Iowa Telecom is among the best of the best, both in class and overall, in customer service. This is based on a detailed, objective study measuring the company’s efficiency and effectiveness in dealing with their customers.”

“We recognize that this level of performance doesn’t happen unless your contact center’s leadership is supported by the most senior executives of the company through every level of management to the front-line agent. Quality customer service only results from a team effort.”

Iowa Telecom pursued the certification as a way to measure its customer satisfaction against other industries. “We believed that our service was world class,” said Lockhart, “We really wanted to have a measuring stick that could objectively demonstrate that. The Purdue certification provides that measurement.”

Because of a variety of factors, including the complexity of customer needs and a historic reputation for poor service within the industry, telecommunications companies tend to rate low when it comes to contact center satisfaction. This makes the achievement by Iowa Telecom all that more remarkable. Its contact center is not just the first among Midwest telephone companies to merit certification as a Center of Excellence, but it is the first company in Iowa among all industries, from banks to retailers, to do so.

Ken Liljedahl, Iowa Telecom Contact Center Director, said, “I’m very proud of our people for achieving this level of service, and am thankful to our customers who take the time to contact us to let us know how we are doing. Excellent service is always the result of great communication.”

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About Iowa Telecom
Iowa Telecommunications Services, Inc. (d/b/a Iowa Telecom) is a telecommunications service provider that offers local telephone, long distance, Internet, broadband and network access services to business and residential customers. Today, the company serves over 440 communities and employs over 600 people throughout the State of Iowa. The company’s headquarters are in Newton, Iowa. The Company trades on the New York Stock Exchange under the symbol IWA. For further information regarding Iowa Telecom, please go to www.IowaTelecom.com. The Iowa Telecom logo is a registered trademark of Iowa Telecommunications Services, Inc. in the United States.

About BenchmarkPortal
BenchmarkPortal is the custodian of the Purdue University Center for Customer-Driven Quality database of contact center metrics, the largest in the world. It provides reports, products and services for contact centers in the areas of operational metrics, customer satisfaction measurement and agent satisfaction measurement. In 2005, BenchmarkPortal, Inc. received U.S. Patent #6,877,034 for its unique methodology of contact center performance benchmarking through metric gap analysis. BenchmarkPortal’s Web site can be found at: www.BenchmarkPortal.com.

For additional information contact:
Susan Hampton
Corporate Communications
BenchmarkPortal, Inc.
SusanHampton@BenchmarkPortal.com

The press release may contain forward-looking statements that are not based on historical fact, including without limitation statements containing the words “believes,” “may,” “plans,” “will,” “estimate,” “continue,” “anticipates,” “intends,” “expects,” and similar expressions. Such forward looking statements involve known and unknown risks, uncertainties and other factors that may cause actual results, events or developments to be materially different from future results, events or developments described in the forward-looking statements. Such factors include those risks described in Iowa Telecom’s Form 10-K on file with the SEC. These factors should be considered carefully and readers are cautioned not to place undue reliance on such forward-looking statements. All information is current as of the date this press release is issued, and Iowa Telecom undertakes no duty to update this information.