Discover Earns Top Honors For Highest Customer Call Satisfaction In Credit Card Industry

November 18, 2010

Rating from Leading Call Center Benchmarking Group Includes Post-Service-Call Telephone Surveys with Cardmembers

RIVERWOODS, Ill., Nov 18, 2010 (BUSINESS WIRE) -- Discover finished with top honors in the first targeted customer service evaluation of credit card industry call centers by Service Quality Measurement Group (SQM), the leading benchmarking firm for more than 450 leading North American call centers.

Discover received SQM's award for Highest Customer Satisfaction for the Credit Card Industry, which was based on 400 random telephone surveys of Discover cardmembers within two business days of their calls to the company. SQM measured whether the call was resolved, the customer's overall satisfaction with the service representative and their overall experience.

"Our commitment to the finest customer service available is a fundamental reason we have the most loyal cardmembers in our industry," said Carlos Minetti, president of consumer banking and operations for Discover. "We're honored by SQM's recognition and remain committed to making the necessary investments to maintain our leadership position in customer service."

Discover employs more than 10,500 people, with the majority based in its call centers in Arizona, Delaware, Ohio and Utah. An industry leader in customer service, Discover won the "Best Performance Leveraging Customer Service Feedback" category in the 2010 Call Center Excellence Awards from the International Quality & Productivity Center, finished first in the 2010 Brand Keys Customer Loyalty Engagement Index® for the past 13 years and was recently honored by InformationWeek magazine for creating technology that assists customer service representations during cardmember calls.

SQM Group has conducted benchmarking studies for first-call resolution, employee satisfaction and customer satisfaction since 1996. It conducts over 1 million surveys annually with customers who have called a call center and 25,000 surveys a year with employees who work in call centers. SQM awards excellence in customer and employee satisfaction. In addition to its inaugural credit card industry award, SQM also awards call center customer satisfaction in the following industries and sectors: banking, financial, insurance, health care, retail/service, energy, telecommunications/TV, union, helpdesk, government and business-to-business

Discover will receive the award at SQM's annual Summit/Awards Ceremony today in Toronto.

About Discover

Discover Financial Services (NYSE: DFS) is a direct banking and payment services company with one of the most recognized brands in U.S. financial services. Since its inception in 1986, the company has become one of the largest card issuers in the United States. The company operates the Discover card, America's cash rewards pioneer, and offers personal and student loans, online savings accounts, certificates of deposit and money market accounts through its Discover Bank subsidiary. Its payment businesses consist of Discover Network, with millions of merchant and cash access locations; PULSE, one of the nation's leading ATM/debit networks; and Diners Club International, a global payments network with acceptance in more than 185 countries and territories. For more information, visit www.discoverfinancial.com.

SOURCE: Discover Financial Services

Discover Financial Services
Jon Drummond, 224-405-1888
jondrummond@discover.com