ATLANTA, May 13, 2014 /PRNewswire/ -- AutoTrader.com, the ultimate automotive marketplace®, has been named a recipient of BenchmarkPortal's prestigious "Center of Excellence" certification for the second consecutive year. This accolade places AutoTrader.com's Consumer and Specialty Sales customer service call center again in the top 10 percent of those surveyed.

"This award is a significant honor for AutoTrader.com's customer service team and our organization as a whole," said Pat Dennis, director of customer service, consumer and specialty sales at AutoTrader.com. "We take great pride in our people and our technology companywide, and to be recognized by BenchmarkPortal for the second consecutive year is proof that we are continually improving our systems to provide the best possible customer experience."

The "Center of Excellence" distinction is based on best-practice metrics drawn from the world's largest database of objective and quantitative data, which is audited and validated by researchers from BenchmarkPortal. The designation is awarded to the top ten percent of the call centers surveyed, and candidates are judged against a Balanced Scorecard of metrics for efficiency and effectiveness. The contact centers that demonstrate superior performance on both cost-related metrics and quality-related metrics compared with their industry peers earn the award.

"We certified AutoTrader.com' s customer care operations as a Center of Excellence for the second consecutive year after evaluating the company's effectiveness and efficiency in interacting with their customers," said Bruce Belfiore, CEO, BenchmarkPortal. "We applaud their commitment to superior customer service."

About BenchmarkPortal
Founded in 1995, BenchmarkPortal is a global leader in the contact center industry, providing benchmarking, certification, training, consulting, research and industry reports. The BenchmarkPortal team of professionals has gained international recognition for its innovative approach to best practices for the contact center industry. BenchmarkPortal hosts the world's largest database of contact center metrics, which is constantly being refreshed with new data. BenchmarkPortal's mission is to provide contact center managers with the tools and information that will help them optimize their efficiency and effectiveness in their customer communications. For more information on BenchmarkPortal please call 1-800-214-8929 or visit www.BenchmarkPortal.com.

About Center of Excellence Certification
Contact centers and their managers who wish to implement best practices and attain 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 AutoTrader.com 
Created in 1997, Atlanta-based AutoTrader.com is the Internet's ultimate automotive marketplace. As a leading resource for car shoppers and sellers, AutoTrader.com aggregates millions of new, used and certified pre-owned cars from thousands of dealers and private sellers and provides expert articles and reviews. AutoTrader.com, which also operates the AutoTraderClassics.com auto marketing brand, is wholly owned by AutoTrader Group. Additionally, AutoTrader Group owns Kelley Blue Book (KBB.com®) as well as companies that provide a full suite of software tools that help dealers and manufacturers manage their inventory and advertising online: vAuto®, HomeNet Automotive®, VinSolutions®, AIS Rebates™, Genius Labs® and Haystak™. AutoTrader Group is a subsidiary of Cox Enterprises. For more information, please visit http://press.autotrader.com.

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SOURCE AutoTrader.com