Tweet

Company: SquareTrade Inc, San Francisco, CA
Company Description: In business since 1999, SquareTrade is the largest indepen- dent warranty provider and the only warranty consistently rated 5-stars by consumers.
Nomination Category: Customer Service Awards Department Categories
Nomination Sub Category: Customer Service Department of the Year - Financial Services

Nomination Title: SquareTrade

Tell the story about what this nominated department achieved since the beginning of July 2010 (up to 500 words). Focus on specific accomplishments, and relate these accomplishments to past performance or industry norms. Be sure to mention obstacles overcome, innovations or discoveries made, and outcomes:

SquareTrade, the fastest growing warranty provider in the country, offers the
first warranty designed to delight customers. From SquareTrade’s low prices and
no-hassle purchase experience, to its intuitive online management and superior
claim service, SquareTrade is the only warranty company to receive
overwhelmingly positive ratings from customers. With nearly 3 million happy
warranty customers, SquareTrade is changing the way that customers think about
warranty service.

SquareTrade has earned an A+ rating from the Better Business Bureau, and in 2010
became the first warranty company to ever be awarded a Bizrate Circle of
Excellence Award, with customers giving SquareTrade an overall rating of 9.6 /
10. SquareTrade was also named one of the top 100 websites of 2010 by PC
Magazine, Won the Golden Bridge Award 2011 for Best Customer Service and has
been a previous Stevie Best Customer Service Award winner.

Most important are the reviews from SquareTrade's customers who have experienced
a warranty claim. From Amazon to the iPhone App Store, Google ratings to
ResellerRatings.com, NexTag to Epinions, SquareTrade has earned thousands of 5
star reviews from customers.

SquareTrade’s reviews are a reflection of its overall philosophy that great
warranty customer service requires more than just big call centers, it requires
customer tools and a product that is designed to delight the customer. In the
past 5 years, SquareTrade has brought a number of service innovations never seen
before in the warranty industry, including:

• Online claims filing and claim tracking.
• The ability to cancel, transfer a warranty online
• A 5-Day service guarantee
• No-hassle warranty claims, with no paperwork required, and the ability to store the receipt online

Since 2009, SquareTrade’s has continued to deliver improved service in 3 key
areas.

1) Empowered customer reps: Each one of SquareTrade’s claims agents is
fully empowered to approve a claim on a customer’s behalf. Our turnover rate
for reps is just one-fifth of the industry average, which results in highly
trained reps. SquareTrade has no scripts for reps – which means customers feel
they are speaking with an actual empathetic person.

2) Customer Service via social media: SquareTrade has attracted 100,000
fans on Facebook in the past year and continues to grow rapidly. Social media
facilitates and encourages two-way conversation with consumers on their Facebook
http://www.facebook.com/squaretrade and Twitter Page
http://www.twitter.com/squaretrade , openly addressing problems and meeting
consumers on platforms they prefer to use.

3) Automated Claims Process: SquareTrade’s automated claims process allows
SquareTrade to scale without massive call centers, and delivering the service
that customers want – the ability to track their claim and ask questions online.
This year, SquareTrade’s Net Promoter Score (NPS) for warranty claim customers
increased to 65% with an NPS of 95% for customers with an approved claim.
Even more impressively, SquareTrade’s NPS score is above 30% for customers with
rejected claims.

As a result of our exemplary customer service, Retailer have recognized the
importance of the need to provide better warranty services and have partnered
with SquareTrade. Some of the retailers that SquareTrade provides warranty
services for are Costco, Tiger Direct and Sam’s Club.

List hyperlinks to any online news stories, press releases, or other documents that support the claims made in the section above. IMPORTANT: Begin each link with http://, and enclose each link in square brackets; for example, [http://www.youraddress.com]:

CUSTOMER REVIEWS
Amazon reviews:
http://www.amazon.com/gp/help/seller/at-a-glance.html?ie=UTF8&seller=A1B45FIBP2TU2

-iPhone App
http://itunes.apple.com/us/app/warranty-this-device-squaretrade/id340816768?mt=8

-Reseller Ratings: http://www.resellerratings.com/store/SquareTrade
-NexTag reviews:
http://www.nextag.com/SquareTrade~3300135zzzreviewsz1zmainz17-htm
-Epinions: http://www10.epinions.com/pr-Online_Stores_Services-SquareTrade_Inc
-Google Product reviews http://www.google.com/products/seller?zmi=squaretrade.com

CUSTOMER TESTIMONIAL VIDEOS

Dryer Claims Experience: http://youtu.be/55GrUnufFLM
iPod Claims Experience: http://youtu.be/0vLUVh-Qh4U
iPhone Claims Experience: http://youtu.be/IHbK21egYnI
Why Customer's Love SquareTrade: http://youtu.be/Wv3u5MmCHaw

More testimonials can be found here:
http://www.facebook.com/SquareTrade?sk=app_218822744813485

NEWS
-Reuters: http://youtu.be/VHKFkRSWS8c
- NBC Cleveland: http://youtu.be/ubn1a2AzKZk
- NBC Bay Area: http://youtu.be/hGenKHRMsTE
- Fox Houston: http://youtu.be/Dy4cuq5xrpc
- NBC's Today Show http://youtu.be/Z-jVnZSvNbY
- ABC 7 Live: http://youtu.be/8r7m72mwqdI
- 19 Action News: http://youtu.be/Ai7AnQK3Y0g
- CBS3 http://www.youtube.com/user/SquareTradeInc#p/u/14/L5Rgg-G2Upo
- Consumerist
http://consumerist.com/2010/04/squaretrade-replaces-item-out-of-warranty-almost-
makes-extended-warranties-worthwhile.html
- LifeHacker
http://lifehacker.com/5659223/why-former-best-buy-employee-recommends-squaretrade
-warranties-over-geek-squads-black-tie-protection
- SF Chronicle http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/g/a/2010/10/04/urnidgns852
573C400693880002577B200609D36.DTL#ixzz11hOSm8OG
- NY Times
http://gadgetwise.blogs.nytimes.com/2010/04/21/panasonic-cameras-most-reliable-survey-finds/
- InfoWorld
http://www.infoworld.com/d/adventures-in-it/stolen-laptop-warranty-refund-woes-185
- Real Simple Magazine
http://www.realsimple.com/work-life/money/saving/how-save-computers-00000000042606/index.html
- Fox News
http://www.myfoxdfw.com/dpp/news/fox_4_features/on_your_side/081110-on-your-side:-iphone-warranty
- Reader’s Digest
http://www.rd.com/blogs/the-lineup/5-things-warranty-companies-don-t-want-you-to-know/post12425.html

More News Articles at: http://www.squaretrade.com/pages/about-us-overview

Provide a brief (up to 100 words) biography about the leader(s) of the nominated customer service organization:

Steve Abernethy, CEO

Steve has been invited to speak on SquareTrade's experience by organizations
including: the Federal Trade Commission, the Department of Commerce, the
European Commission, the United Nations Economic Commission for Europe, the
American Bar Association, PC Forum, the Global Business Dialogue on E-commerce,
and National Public Radio. As SquareTrade's CEO, Steve was selected as one of
the World Economic Forum's 100 Technology Pioneers.

Prior to co-founding SquareTrade, Steve was a management consultant at McKinsey,
working with Fortune 100 financial institutions and media companies. Steve
earned his MBA from Harvard Business School and holds a BS in Architectural
Engineering from California Polytechnic University.