Diligent Honored As Silver Stevie® Award Winner in 2014 American Business Awards(SM) for Exceptional Customer Service and Unparalleled Call Response Rate

NEW YORK, June 18, 2014 /PRNewswire/ -- Diligent Board Member Services, Inc. (NZX: DIL) (www.boardbooks.com), provider of the world's most widely used board portal, announced that it won a Silver Stevie® Award in the "Customer Service Team of the Year" category and a Silver Stevie® Award in the "Customer Service Department of the Year" category at the 12^th Annual American Business Awards. The awards were presented at a banquet at the Fairmont Millennium Park Hotel in Chicago on June 13, 2014.

The American Business Awards are the nation's premier business awards program. All organizations operating in the US are eligible to submit nomination – public and private, for-profit and non-profit, large and small. 

"To win an American Business Award for the second year running is an honor and a testament to our dedication to going above and beyond for our clients," said Jeffrey Hilk, executive vice president and director of client services at Diligent. "Being recognized here again demonstrates the consistency and excellence of our customer support team and underscores our continued commitment to providing exceptional customer service."

Last year, Diligent won a Gold Stevie® Award in the "Customer Service Team of the Year" category and a Bronze Stevie® Award in the "Customer Service Department of the Year" for providing unmatched customer service during Superstorm Sandy.

In 2013, an astonishing 99 percent of all incoming calls were answered directly by support staff engineers who were able to answer the customer's question and solve the problem, up from an already impressive 98 percent in 2012. This unparalleled response rate was achieved despite a 36 percent increase in the number of clients and a 44 percent increase in the number of individual users of the Diligent Boardbooks portal over 2012.

During 2013, Diligent's customer service and support team enhanced its continuous coverage with the implementation of new call routing technology. This is because the company understands that its customers use the Diligent Boardbooks® solution for delivery of critical, time-sensitive materials and cannot afford to wait for assistance.

Stevie Award winners were selected by more than 150 business professionals nationwide who participated in the judging process this year. More than 3,300 nominations from organizations of all sizes and in virtually every industry were submitted this year for consideration in a wide range of categories, including Most Innovative Company of the Year, Management Team of the Year, Best New Product or Service of the Year, Corporate Social Responsibility Program of the Year, and Executive of the Year, among others.

Stevie Award winners were selected by more than 240 executives worldwide who participated in the judging process this year.

"It's an honor for us to recognize and celebrate such an outstanding class of organizations and individuals," said Michael Gallagher, president and founder of the Stevie Awards. "The judges were especially discerning this year. All of this year's Gold, Silver and Bronze Stevie winners should be proud that the judges recognized their achievements and their ability to express those achievements in a way that captured the judges' hearts and imaginations."

Details about The American Business Awards and the lists of Stevie Award winners who were announced on June 13 are available at www.StevieAwards.com/ABA.

About Diligent Board Member Services, Inc. (NZX: DIL)

Over 3,500 boards and 77,000 individual directors, executives and board teams worldwide rely on Diligent Board Member Services, Inc. to speed and simplify how board materials are produced, delivered and reviewed. Providing the world's most widely used secure board portal, Diligent has pioneered ease of use, stringent security, and superior training and support since 2001. 326 of the Fortune 1000 companies and 37 of the FTSE 100 listed companies use Diligent Boardbooks, as well as a variety of private firms, non-profits and government agencies globally. We are a Delaware-incorporated US public company traded on the New Zealand Stock Exchange. Our offices are located in New York (corporate headquarters), Montreal, London, Frankfurt, Sydney, Christchurch, Singapore and Hong Kong. To learn more visit www.boardbooks.com.

Diligent Boardbooks is a registered trademark of Diligent Board Member Services, Inc. with all rights reserved. ©2014 Diligent Board Member Services, Inc.

About the Stevie Awards

Stevie Awards are conferred in five programs: The American Business Awards, The International Business Awards, the Asia-Pacific Stevie Awards, the Stevie Awards for Women in Business, and the Stevie Awards for Sales & Customer Service. A sixth program, the German Stevie Awards, will debut later this year. Honoring organizations of all types and sizes and the people behind them, the Stevies recognize outstanding performances in the workplace worldwide. Learn more about the Stevie Awards at www.StevieAwards.com.

Safe Harbor Statement

Statements made in this press release that state Diligent Board Member Services, Inc.'s or management's intentions, beliefs, expectations, or predictions for the future are forward-looking statements within the meaning of The Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. Readers are cautioned that these statements are only predictions and may differ materially from actual future events or results. All forward looking-statements are only as of the date of this press release and Diligent Board Member Services, Inc. undertakes no obligation to update or revise them. Such forward-looking statements are subject to a number of risks, assumptions and uncertainties that could cause Diligent Board Member Services, Inc.'s actual results to differ materially from those projected in such forward-looking statements. For example, if we do not successfully develop or introduce new product offerings, or enhancements to our existing Diligent Boardbooks offerings, or keep pace with technological changes that impact the use of our product offerings, or suffer security breaches or service delays or interruptions, we may lose existing customers or fail to attract new customers and our financial performance and revenue growth may suffer. Factors which could cause our actual results to differ materially from those projected in forward-looking statements include, without limitation, economic, competitive, regulatory and technological factors affecting Diligent Board Member Services, Inc.'s operations, markets, products, services, and other factors set forth in Diligent Board Member Services, Inc.'s updated Risk Factors filed as Item 1A to its Annual Report on Form 10-K filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission on May 19, 2014 for further information.

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SOURCE Diligent Board Member Services, Inc.