Dubai, December 24, 2008: Dubai Islamic Bank (DIB) has received the “Best Call Centre Performance” Award in the fourth Annual Service Quality Benchmarking Study, conducted by Ethos Consultancy, the region’s leading provider for benchmarking service performance, mystery shopping, customer satisfaction surveys and brand audits.

Left to Right: Dr. Adnan Chilwan, Chief of Retail and Business Banking, Amr Abbas, Head of Call Centre at DIB, Nasser al Awadhi, Head of Distribution, Retail Banking, Dubai Islamic Bank, and Robert Keay, Managing Director at Ethos Consultancy.

In the benchmarking study, conducted across all UAE banks, Dubai Islamic Bank came out on top for a second successive year within the Best Call Centre Performance category. According to the study, the bank has improved considerably from the previous year with a response rate of less than one minute for all calls and the call centre agents showed good depth of knowledge and empathy for customer enquiries.

Dr. Adnan Chilwan, Chief of Retail and Business Banking, Dubai Islamic Bank, said: “Al Islami Phone Banking, DIB’s call centre, is a vital part of our service delivery program. We have made considerable investments in the latest technology, staff recruitment and training to provide superior service in the fastest possible time to all our customers. The award is proof of our service commitment to our customers. Al Islami Phone Banking has also been at the forefront of launching innovative services to customers like Etisalat, E-vision, Salik and du payments.”

The Ethos benchmarking study included 29 banks and the process involved branch visits, website contact and call centre telephone calls. The study was carried out by trained and experienced researchers, who focussed on real scenarios, whereby a prospective customer approaches a retail bank via three channels: branch, call centre or website. These channels are then evaluated on key differentiators that define customer experience at a bank and include interpersonal performance, response time, service quality and satisfactory outcome.

Nasser al Awadhi, Head of Distribution, Retail Banking, Dubai Islamic Bank, said: “Ethos is renowned for its ability in assessing organisations thoroughly and rigorously from top to bottom. We are proud to win the Best Call Centre Performance award and we will continue to assess new ways in which we can improve our customer service solutions. We intend to win the award again next year and for many more years to come.”
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About Dubai Islamic Bank:
Dubai Islamic Bank (DIB), established in 1975, is the first Islamic bank to have incorporated the principles of Islam in all its practices. DIB is a public joint stock company and its share is quoted on the Dubai Financial Market. The bank enjoys a reputation as a leader and innovator in maintaining the quality, flexibility and accessibility of its products and services. In a very short space of time it has created market leading services and products that are setting benchmarks for the rest of the sector.

The bank reported AED 2.5 billion in net profit for the year ending December 31, 2007, rising by 60 per cent compared to AED 1.56 billion for 2006. The bank recorded total revenues of AED 7 billion for 2007, rising by 46 per cent compared to AED 4.8 billion for 2006. Total assets in 2007 reached to AED 84.3 billion, an increase of 31 per cent compared to AED 64.4 billion in 2006.

DIB set a world record by raising a US$3.52 billion sukuk for the Nakheel Group. This sukuk adopted an innovative structure never used before in Islamic or conventional banking history.

The bank has been proactive in creating partnerships and alliances at both the local and international level. DIB has adopted an aggressive expansion strategy, which started with the establishment of DIB Pakistan Limited, a wholly owned subsidiary of DIB. DIB opened its first representative office in Turkey to enhance its access to that market. DIB has also acquired a stake in Al Khartoum Bank and a stake in Emirates and Sudan Bank (ESB). These steps mark DIB’s ambitious plans to roll out its operations into regional and international markets as part of its overall strategic plan.

DIB has won the respect of its peers around the world. The bank was recently named by Islamic Finance News the UAE’s Best Islamic Bank. DIB has also received many awards from international organizations, such as the prestigious “Bank of the Year – UAE” award from The Banker magazine and additional accolades from Euromoney.

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