Student Survey Results Reveal Apogee's Commitment to Customer Service

AUSTIN (February 14, 2002) -Apogee, a leading provider of local, long distance and broadband services to university communities, has learned from a recent survey of University of Texas students that its customer service department is exceeding its own lofty expectations.

Apogee surveyed a portion of its 1,800 students living in Apogee-serviced properties to grade services and products on a scale of 1 to 5. Students gave a score of 1 when they strongly disagreed with a statement, 2 when they somewhat disagreed, 3 when they were neutral, 4 when they somewhat agreed, and 5 when they strongly agreed.

Importantly, the company was given a 4.28 rating when students were asked whether the company's customer service representatives had been "helpful." That trend continued when the students were asked if the CSRs had been "respectful" (4.66) and if the service was fixed "promptly" (4.00).

"We pride ourselves on our customer service," said Apogee CEO and founder Chuck Brady. "If you don't treat the students the right way, they'll tell their friends and you'll start losing customers. At the same time, courteous customer service is already leading students away from the competition and straight to Apogee."

Brady also noted the extremely high marks that the students gave Apogee when asked to rate the "Ease of Use" of its voice (4.02) and data (4.17) services. In addition, students rated the value of its data service a superlative 3.93, while finding the data service to also be very reliable (3.46). Apogee's voice service was given a mark of 4.17 when asked about its reliability.

"Collecting information from our customers about our services and products is an important initiative for this company as we grow to meet the needs of the University of Texas, as well as other universities," said Brady.