The Charmer Sunbelt Group (CSG) has been presented with this year’s Excellence in Customer Service Award by the Shared Services & Outsourcing Network (SSON), the largest and most established community of shared services and outsourcing professionals.

SSON’s annual excellence awards affirm best practices and recognize business excellence across all industries. A winning company such as CSG is evaluated against many competing entrants, some of which are part of the Fortune 500, by a panel recruited for their experience and expertise.

“This award reflects what we have heard from so many of our customers,” said Paul Fipps, CSG’s chief information officer and vice president of business services. “I’m proud that our team is able to deliver award-winning customer service, given that we handle in excess of 9,000 calls a week in our state-of-the-art shared services facility.” 

“I’m pleased that the SSON recognized CSG for delivering excellence in customer service,” said Greg Baird, CSG’s chief operating officer. “Achieving world-class customer service was our goal when we centralized this capability. This award reinforces CSG’s position as the distributor of choice for our customers and suppliers.”

At this year’s award ceremony, The Charmer Sunbelt Group was proud to join other recipients such as Unisys, JCPenny and Wendy’s/Arby’s Group, all of whom were honored by the SSON this year. The awards are traditionally presented at the industry flagship Shared Services and Outsourcing Week, an event which is now in its 15th year and draws a crowd of nearly 1,000 shared services and outsourcing professionals. This year, the special event was held from March 1 to 3 in Orlando, Fla.

SSON moved the focus of the awards this year from “best in” to “excellence in,” a change which reflects the importance of achieving results. Open to all captive and outsourced shared services organizations, the awards provide an opportunity for shared services and outsourcing professionals to gain recognition for excellence and initiative.

“We were really impressed with the quality of the applications and the results the applicants had achieved,” said awards judge Michael Garvey, project manager at SAIC. “We took our time in assessing the applications and discussed the results at length. It was a tough decision and both winners and runners-up stood out.”

Paul Fipps, CIO and vice president of business services, and Kelley Gilbert, director, customer service/business services