IRVINE, Calif., (June 26, 2002) – Toshiba America Business Solutions (TABS) today announced it has awarded 61 of its national dealers with the prestigious, annual ProMasters Award for their unwavering commitment to providing the highest standard of technical customer service and support for 2002. Dealers were recognized for service and support excellence at a ceremony conducted at Toshiba’s 2002 National Dealer Meeting held in Dana Point, Calif., on May 29 – June 1. Developed by TABS, the ProMasters Program and Award were designed to identify exceptional dealers who have surpassed rigorous standards and evaluations to provide an uncompromising level of service and support, meeting the quality standards established by TABS for its copier, printer and facsimile products. To receive a ProMasters Award, dealers must attain a score of 700 or better out of a possible 1,000 points in the evaluation process. This year’s award recipients included the following TABS dealers who were recognized as top achievers with the highest ProMasters scores overall of 850 or better in each of their respective regions: - Coast to Coast Business Equipment – Western Region - Atlantic Business Products – Northeast Region - Coastal Business Products, Inc. – Southeast Region - Wagers Business Systems, Inc. – Midwest Region "We’re extremely proud of all our ProMasters dealers and their continued efforts toward achievement in the areas of technical service and support," said George Colborn, vice president, Service, TABS. "TABS developed ProMasters to raise the bar for service standards, as well as assure our customers that reliability and unparalleled customer support continue to be a priority, even after the sale of a Toshiba product. We’re pleased to see so many Toshiba dealers demonstrate a desire to participate in this intense program and uphold TABS’ quality commitment and customer service standards to become the best of the best." All TABS dealers nationwide are eligible to enter the ProMasters competition. However, qualifications for receiving the ProMasters Award are challenging and entail a number of specific requirements: - Toshiba Trained Technicians – ProMasters dealers must maintain a number of technicians with authorized training on each TABS copier, printer and facsimile model. These technicians must be certified through TABS’ training and service development programs. - Field Service Operation – ProMasters dealers must manage a comprehensive field service operation and possess proper service tools and manuals, and technical bulletins to ensure timely onsite repair and maintenance of customers’ products. - Ongoing Customer Relations Program – To ensure all TABS customers receive responsive customer support, ProMasters dealers must maintain an ongoing customer relations and satisfaction training program for all technicians and customer support personnel. - Pro-Active Preventative Maintenance Scheduling – ProMasters dealers must maintain a preventative maintenance scheduling program for all customers’ equipment based on TABS’ periodic inspection policies and procedures, ensuring reliability of TABS’ products and eliminating unnecessary downtime and operating expenses. - Equipment Appraisal – To ensure all ProMasters dealers are maintaining TABS’ products according to prescribed standards, all dealers are subjected to a random, semi-annual field equipment appraisal by TABS Regional Service specialists. These appraisals ensure customers’ products are adequately maintained. - Dealer Computer System Capabilities – All ProMasters dealers are strongly encouraged to maintain an online computer system to incorporate spare parts inventory control, field technician dispatching, maintenance agreement, service record tracking and service billing, ensuring more responsive and efficient customer service support. In addition, TABS dealers who meet these standards are then scored and evaluated by Toshiba’s Regional Service Department in a number of service, competency, efficiency and customer satisfaction areas. Detailed, onsite evaluations of customer equipment also are performed with grading on equipment condition, performance and overall customer satisfaction. Only those dealers earning satisfactory scores receive the honor of a ProMasters designation. For more information regarding the TABS ProMasters Award or to receive the complete list of the 2002 ProMasters Award dealers, please contact Sandi Greene at (949) 462-6801, or via e-mail at [email protected].