The Paisley Group’s “NDA Performance Index” Finds North American Directory Assistance Is Best of the Best

Black Hawk, CO (MMD Newswire) July 15, 2009 — There are three components that drive the accuracy of DA: the automated front-end systems, the operators and the databases. According to the Spring, 2009 “National Directory Assistance Performance Index(SM),” an independent analysis published semi-annually by The Paisley Group, Ltd. (PGL), automated systems are performing at 99.0% accuracy, operators at 98.7% accuracy, and databases at 96.0% accuracy. This results in 93.7% of all calls being handled accurately. The margin of error is +/- 2.8%.

Using a “mystery caller” approach, the Index tracks:

– Customer Fulfillment(SM), the definitive directory assistance quality standard that, by measuring speech recognition and operator and database accuracy, evaluates how often DA callers receive a correct listing report;

– Customer Care(SM), the success operators demonstrate in balancing customer advocacy, practice adherence and call-handling efficiency, and
– “Passed Calls,” the hallmark of directory assistance quality, combines Customer Fulfillment and Customer Care to measure how often DA users receive a correct report and are treated in a competent, courteous and professional manner.

ILEC QUALITY STABLE

The Spring 2009 Paisley Index measured AT&T, Qwest and
Verizon in the ILEC segment. The Average ILEC Fulfillment score
was 91.3% with a 3.2% margin of error. The ILEC segment averaged
89.6% Customer Care with a 3.5% margin of error. This was up from
a Customer Care average of 87.3% in the Fall of 2008.

In the critical area of Passed Calls, the ILEC segment improved
again with an 83.7% Passed Calls rating, up from 82.0% in the Fall of
2008. Passed calls are those that are both Fulfilled and Cared For.

Although Qwest continues to lead the industry in Lagniappe calls,
the percentage of these calls decreased from 16.3% to 8.3% in the
Spring 2009 Index. Lagniappe calls are calls that are not only
accurate but also are handled by operators who exceed every
expectation in call-handling, courtesy and voice delivery – operators
who connect with callers on a personal level.

THIRD PARTY DA PROVIDERS CONTINUE TO EXCEL IN ALL
AREAS OF SERVICE

The Third Party Segment included iTouchPoint, kgb_USA, TELUS,
and Verizon LiveSource. The Customer Fulfillment for Third Party
providers again averaged 95.0% with a margin of error 2.5%. Third
Party Customer Care averaged 92.7% with a margin of error of 2.9%.

The average percentage of Passed Calls for the Third Party
segment was 88.3% compared to the ILEC average of 83.7%.

WIRELESS CARRIER SEGMENT TAKES THE LEAD IN PASSED
CALLS

AT&T Cingular, Sprint PCS, T-Mobile, and Verizon Wireless were
all included in the Wireless Carrier Segment of the Spring 2009
Index. The quality of wireless DA service has become the best in
the industry.

In the Wireless segment, the Customer Fulfillment scores were
clustered in the 93.0% to 96.3% range with a margin of error of
around 2.6%. Customer Care averaged 96.0% with a margin of error
of about 2.2%.

The average Passed Calls for the Wireless Segment was 91.3%
which was the best in the industry for the Spring 2009 Index. The
margin of error is about 3.2%.

FREE DA SERVICE VARIES WITH PROVIDER AND TYPE OF
SERVICE

The Free DA Segment included AT&T, Jingle, Microsoft, and
Verizon. Both AT&T and Verizon offered operator backup while
Jingle and Microsoft were fully automated with no operator backup.

The Free DA segment average for Customer Fulfillment of eligible
calls was 81.6%. Eligible calls exclude residential searches for the
providers who do not offer residential listings. Customer Care
averaged 75.9% for this segment with a 5.1% margin of error.
Although Customer Care was up from 72.5% in the Fall, it is still a far
cry from the numbers seen in the Paid DA segments.

The Free DA segment included requests by name and by category.
The Average Customer Fulfillment for Name Searches was 81.5%
and Average Customer Fulfillment for Category Searches was
82.1%.

The average percentage of Passed Calls for the Free DA segment
was 61.3% with a margin of error of 5.5%. This was up significantly
from 55.7% in the Fall 2008 Index.

CUSTOMER CARE AND DA AUTOMATION ARE NOT
MUTUALLY EXCLUSIVE

Automated DA Services provided by MCI, Qwest, Sprint Long
Distance, and Verizon were included in the Automated Segment in
this issue of the Paisley Index. The automated segment average for
Customer Fulfillment was 93.3% with a margin of error of around
2.8%. Customer Care averaged 92.0% for all carriers using full
automation, up from 90.0% in the Fall of 2008. The margin of error is
about 3.1%. The average Passed Calls for the automated segment
was 86.7%. The margin of error is about 3.8%.

Of all reports provided by DA speech recognition systems (where
the database is accurate), 99.0% are accurate. These are calls
where the speech recognition system has a high degree of
confidence that it has located the caller’s request and gives the
number without forwarding the caller to an operator. On an industry
level, accurate reports are given by live operators 98.7% of the time.

SPECIAL TOPIC ON SMS AND IT’S IMPACT ON DA

Short Message Service (SMS) use is growing exponentially in the
US. It’s estimated that the number of SMS messages sent in 2009
will exceed 350 billion. Of particular interest to Directory Assistance
providers is the growth of SMS-based information services. Paisley
recently studied three SMS-based service providers, Google SMS,
kgb and ChaCha, evaluating their functions as Directory Assistance
(DA) providers. The results of this study are included in the Spring
2009 Paisley Group NDA Performance Index.

ABOUT THE PAISLEY GROUP. LTD.

The Paisley Group Ltd. is the leading independent auditor of
directory assistance, toll assistance and relay services. They
measure the accuracy of automated systems, databases and
operators as well as the ability of operators and systems to provide
Customer Care as defined by a number of objective measurements
that are specific to the specialized telecom “operator services”
business. Paisley is also a premiere provider of consulting services
that optimize system, operator and database performance. Through
extensive communications with users via focus groups and
customer surveys, Paisley has defined a set of quality
measurements that include the “voice of the customer.” The
company designs robust measurement models and provides
meaningful and statistically significant data to assist clients and the
industry-at-large in maintaining excellence at all levels.