MIAMI, May 15 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ -- Royal Caribbean Cruises Ltd. earned one of the highest international accolades for best practices by call centers when Call Center Magazine bestowed its prestigious "Best Call Center of the Year Award" on the cruise company's operations in Wichita, Kansas. Editors of the trade publication selected only nine call centers for the 2003 award, including ones in India and Northern Ireland. There are 83,000 call centers in North America alone, according to the research firm Frost & Sullivan.

Call Center Magazine, which has an international circulation of 60,000, made its annual selections from a group of 43 call centers profiled in the magazine's case studies during the past year. The case study of Royal Caribbean, published in December 2002, focused on retaining employees through better recruitment, training, and work environment. Among other winners were Continental Airlines, Convergys, Dixie Stampede, Linksys, and SafeHarbor Technology.

"We are greatly honored to be considered among the very best of the many thousands of call centers," said Brad Miller, Royal Caribbean's vice president of Guest Sales and Services, after accepting the award at the Call Center Demo and Conference in Orlando. "Our Wichita team has displayed a strong focus on delivering outstanding service to our customers.

"We believe it is important to create an enjoyable and rewarding work environment for our employees," Miller added, "and we have gone to great lengths in terms of facilities, supervisors, and trainers. Our aim is to convey that philosophy to every job candidate. We want to set them up to be successful and to meet the needs of our customers."

The Guest Sales and Services Center in Wichita, led by director Mike Semler, opened with 150 employees in 1997. Today, the center is staffed by 600 persons handling 5,000,000 calls annually for Royal Caribbean International and Celebrity Cruises. Calls are mostly from travel agents to reservations, customer service, groups, and loyalty programs.

In the Call Center Magazine case study, Margo Watkins, Royal Caribbean's regional human resources consultant, explained some strategies that have cut the turnover rate in half since January 2002. Hiring and profiling techniques included: instituting a three-hour assessment for each job candidate, including the use of software to simulate typical calls; paying bonuses to current employees who would recommend a successful job applicant; setting up a voluntary buddy system with mentors for new employees; and creating a supervisory "core team" to help interview and train new hires, distribute calls, and assist agents on the floor.

"Royal Caribbean stands out in how it has significantly improved its ability to retain agents, one of the toughest challenges in customer care," said Joe Fleischer, chief technical editor of Call Center Magazine.

The "Best Call Center Award" also was a reflection of the Wichita facility itself -- a modern, Caribbean-style village of almost 90,000 square feet. An $18-million, two-story addition was completed in 2000. There is an on-site fitness center, library, and other amenities, such as extensive cruise-ship memorabilia and ship models.

"Our facility was designed with the employee in mind," Semler said. "We made sure we had an employee-focused environment with career opportunities and great benefits and facilities. We recognized that we couldn't bring the ships to Wichita, so we brought the feel and ambiance of cruising to Wichita, and it is reflected in the architecture and the amenities."

Royal Caribbean Cruises Ltd. is a global cruise vacation company that operates Royal Caribbean International and Celebrity Cruises, with a combined total of 25 ships in service and three under construction. The company also offers unique land-tour vacations in Alaska, Canada and Europe through its cruise-tour division. Additional information can be found on www.royalcaribbean.com, www.celebrity.com or www.rclinvestor.com.