Panasonic (News - Alert) has announced today that it will once again offer consumers access to its Plasma Concierge toll-free information service for the holiday season. Normally open exclusively to Panasonic Plasma HDTV owners, the Panasonic Plasma Concierge program will be accessible to any consumer seeking to learn more about flat panel television from a live expert. The service is set to run through February 3, 2008.

This service was first offered by Panasonic last year during the 2006 holiday season and again leading up to Father’s Day 2007.

"The quality and volume of calls our Plasma Concierge experts received from consumers during our open access periods last year told us that we were providing a valuable resource to people looking to buy a flat panel television for the holidays," said Donald Szczepaniak, Panasonic's Vice President of Extreme Customer Satisfaction, in a Friday statement.

Szczepaniak continued: "As more and more consumers make the transition to High Definition television, we feel offering access to our otherwise exclusive group of HDTV experts will continue to be a valuable resource to assist consumers in making educated decisions when purchasing a flat panel HDTV."

The Plasma Concierge Program offers its Panasonic Plasma owner members an exclusive range of free services, such as live access to specialized Plasma TV consultants, a loaner program is a unit needs to be removed for repair, on-line chat capabilities and call staff that are empowered to resolve issues swiftly.

Program experts will also work with consumers to help them determine the types of flat panel television that best suits their needs by asking key questions about their TV-watching environment, viewing habits, room design/dimensions and other conditions.

Panasonic’s Customer Call Center in Chesapeake, VA, which administers the hotline, has been recognized as a Certified “Center of Excellence” by the Center for Customer-Driven Quality™ at Purdue University (News - Alert). This highly respected certification ranked Panasonic's
Call Center in the top 10 percent of the 20,000 call centers studied throughout North America.

"As a maker of both Plasma and LCD flat panels, we know that, especially this time of year, many consumers are confused and often bombarded with information on the pluses and minuses of the various flat panel product offerings, some of which may be outdated or inaccurate," said Dennis Eppel, Vice President, Panasonic Display Company, in Friday’s statement.

Eppel added: "Our goal in providing access to our Plasma Concierge experts is to empower and inform consumers so they can ultimately select the HDTV that best suits their needs."

Consumers can access the service by calling 1-888-777-1170 Monday through Friday 9:00 a.m. to 9:00 p.m. ET and Saturday and Sunday 10:00 a.m. to 7:00 p.m. ET where they will be connected to a Panasonic Plasma Concierge expert.

Panasonic is demonstrating its understanding of how important customer service is to consumers seeking to make larger purchases. Especially in the consumer electronics arena, there are so many technical details, consumers can easily get lost in the information.

The service that this hotline can deliver after the sale is essential as well. While we all love to get the new shiny TV home, many of us find ourselves dumbstruck when trying to implement it into our home entertainment systems. Knowing there is someone to help only a phone call away can ease the mind and even motivate someone to pay a little more for that extra convenience.