Ernst Young 2009 - Best Medium Call Center

At this year’s 4th award ceremony of the business prize on October 15 in Vienna’s Hofburg, the entrepreneur accepted the award in front of around 300 guests

As part of the “Entrepreneur Of The Year Award”, organised by Ernst & Young, in the two categories Service & Trade andIndustry & High-Tech, three finalists were nominated in each category.

Thomas Kloibhofer, M.A., impressed the jury in the categoryService & Trade with the extraordinary success story of the Competence Call Center and with his charismatic entrepreneurial personality. Having received this prestigious award he will have the honour of representing Austria at the “Ernst & Young World Entrepreneur Of The Year” taking place in June 2010.

After completing his degree in journalism and communication sciences Kloibhofer, at the age of 25, worked as self-employed trainer for customer communication over the phone before founding the Competence Call Center in 1998. His aim was to be the international quality leader in professional customer communication over the phone. The entrepreneur started the CCC success story with three staff members in Vienna and, in the next 11 years, expanded to Linz, Berlin, Zurich, Bratislava, Bucharest, Leipzig and Istanbul. Every day, a total of 2 500 service professionals offer outstanding customer services to international business partners at these locations. Having been presented with 25 awards so far for excellent quality standards, CCC is the only internationally successful Austrian call center outsourcer.

Kloibhofer contributes and is committed to the Call Center Industry in a number of ways: as author of the book“The call center strategy – Success through interpersonal communication” (“Die Call Center Strategie – Erfolg durch interpersonale Kommunikation”), and author of many expert articles he expresses his enthusiasm and know-how in the area of customer care.

With the aim of professionalising and developing the image of the Call Center Industry, Kloibhofer has also initiated two top-class business events. The Call Center Convention was set up in 1998 in Vienna and has become an integral part of the international Call Center Industry. This leading annual event sees itself as an international call center and customer care event that promotes exchange and knowledge-sharing between international industry experts.

The ForumZukunftderArbeit (FZDA) was also initiated by Mr Kloibhofer. Since 2006, it has been offering participants and guests an expert platform for the presentation and discussion of topics that will be relevant in the future as well as current trends and developments in the world of work. This year’s 4th FZDA forum taking place on November 19 in Vienna will deal with the topic of “Jugend und Arbeit – Wie kompetent ist die Jugend?” (youth and work – how competent are young people?).

Competence Call Center recently started cooperating with the investment company AXA Private Equity and together with this financially strong investor is planning further expansion and opening up new markets at home and abroad. This represents another step by Kloibhofer to position CCC as a global player on the call center market and to make it even more attractive for internationally operating clients.

Thomas Kloibhofer, M.A., about his most recent award: “For many years now I have been very enthusiastic about customer care and the interpersonal communication associated with it. It is a great honour for me to be able to accept this award. I thank all the people who have accompanied me from the beginning of the CCC success story, who supported my dreams and visions and who believed in me. I would also like to thank my team which has turned CCC into what it is today: an internationally successful quality-oriented companywith great plans and opportunities for the future. With great humility I will take the unique opportunity, in the name of all Austrian entrepreneurs, to represent the country in Monte Carlo.”