The Ascent Group

What The Ascent Group does

The Ascent Group is a privately-held, woman-owned management consulting and market research firm founded in 1992 and headquartered in Athens, Georgia. The company specializes in customer service operations improvement for the energy, utility, and infrastructure sectors, with a portfolio of eight benchmarking research publications and senior-led consulting engagements focused on customer experience assessment, operational diagnostics, pre/post-CIS optimization, and market due diligence research.

Benchmarking publications cover First Contact Resolution, Call Quality, Customer Experience Initiatives, IVR Self-Service Improvement Strategies, Meter Reading Profiles & Best Practices, Billing & Payment Profiles and Best Practices, Call Center Strategies, and Credit & Collection Practices. Each publication is priced between $425 and $525 as a one-time purchase. Survey data is collected through SurveyMonkey, feeding proprietary benchmarking databases that compound over multiple research cycles, with flagship publications now in their 10th edition. Consulting engagements are delivered directly by principals, supported by voice-of-customer analysis, a proprietary scoring methodology, and joint client-consultant teams.

Revenue is generated through one-time publication sales and professional services engagements sold directly to enterprise and government clients. The company markets via its Insight blog, webinars, benchmarking surveys (which double as lead generation by offering complimentary published reports to participants), email newsletters, and PRWeb press releases. The firm operates with 1-10 employees, holds Woman-Owned Business certification across nine U.S. states and through WBENC, and has expanded beyond its utility-operations core into infrastructure-investor due diligence research on the electric and gas utility value chain.

Name

The Ascent Group

Legal name

The Ascent Group, Inc.

Website

https://ascentgroup.com

Company type

Private

Founded year

1992

Operating status

Operating

Headcount range

1–10 employees

Short description

The Ascent Group is a woman-owned management consulting and market research firm, founded in 1992 and based in Athens, Georgia, serving utilities, energy companies, and infrastructure investors with benchmarking research publications and senior-led customer service operations consulting engagements.

Ownership category

akta.pro rank

Headquarters

HQ city

Athens

HQ country

United States

HQ region

North America

Offices1 record

Markets served

GTM type

B2B

Offering type

Services

Cost components

Personnel, Operations, Marketing or Sales, Technology or R&D, Others

Revenue model

1. Research Publications Sales: The company sells benchmark research reports and publications directly through their website. Publications include Achieving First Call Resolution, Call Quality Practices, Customer Experience Initiatives, IVR Self-Service Improvement Strategies, Meter Reading Profiles & Best Practices, Billing & Payment Profiles and Best Practices, Call Center Strategies, and Credit & Collection Practices. Reports are priced individually ($425-$525 per report). Survey participants receive complimentary copies of published reports as part of lead generation.
2. Consulting Services: Management consulting engagements including customer experience assessments, performance measurement and benchmarking, customer experience improvement, and customer service diagnostic assessments. Services are delivered by senior consultants with direct principal involvement.

Pricing tiers

Go-to-market motion1 record

Distribution channels3 records

Marketing channels5 records

Core offering

The Ascent Group is an independent management consulting and market research firm that sells benchmark research publications and delivers consulting services focused on customer service operations for utilities, telecommunications, and infrastructure companies. Its portfolio includes eight individually sold benchmarking reports (priced $425–$525 each) plus consulting engagements covering customer experience assessments, operational diagnostics, pre/post-CIS optimization, and market/due diligence research on the electric and gas utility value chain.

Product overview

The Ascent Group offers a portfolio of benchmarking research publications and consulting services focused on customer service operations, utilities, and infrastructure. The core offering consists of nine benchmark research publications covering: Achieving First Contact Resolution, Call Quality Practices, Customer Experience Initiatives, IVR Self-Service Improvement Strategies, Meter Reading Profiles & Best Practices, Billing & Payment Profiles and Best Practices, Call Center Strategies, and Credit & Collection Practices. These are complemented by consulting services including customer experience assessments, benchmarking participation programs, market and due diligence research, and customer service operational assessments. The research publications are sold as individual reports (priced at $425–$525 each) and are based on survey data collected from participating organizations, with participants receiving complimentary copies upon completing benchmarking surveys.

Differentiator

Problem solved

Functional benefit

Products and services

• Achieving First Contact Resolution A benchmarking research publication that evaluates how companies measure and track First Contact Resolution (FCR), identifying practices that lead to higher FCR and customer satisfaction. Sold to utility, telecommunications, and customer service leaders seeking peer benchmarking data.
• Call Quality Practices A benchmarking research publication examining how companies monitor call quality and other customer transactions, covering monitoring technologies, approaches, responsibilities, calibration, coaching, and quality assurance group practices.
• Customer Experience Initiatives A benchmarking research publication exploring how companies approach customer experience improvement, covering program structure, strategy, goals, measurement frameworks, performance results, best practices, and lessons learned.
• IVR Self-Service Improvement Strategies

Quantifiable outcome

• 80% of benchmarking participants reported improvement in customer satisfaction, with average gain of 4%
• +4 more outcomes

Named customers15 records

Segments3 records

Ideal customer profiles3 records

Technology focussed No

API detail

Has API

No

API docs

API detail

Core technology

AI maturity

App detail

Integration1 record

Partnerships

One partnership is on record.

• IVR DoctorscoreStrategic or Co-development Partner · 3 October 2019The Ascent Group and IVR Doctors announced a collaboration beginning with cross-promotion of their distinct and complimentary IVR Benchmarking Reports, with plans to explore further teamed activities in customer service, call center consulting, and customer satisfaction research. IVR Doctors brings more than 20 years of human factors and usability experience solving Interactive Voice Response (IVR) system problems through customer satisfaction research testing and results-proven practices.

Scale indicators4 records

Recent moves5 records

Expansion highlights3 records

Direct peers

• Guidehouse (formerly Navigant Consulting): Global consulting firm with a deep energy, utilities, and infrastructure practice providing customer operations, regulatory, and transformation advisory. Comparable utility customer operations and benchmarking-style engagements.
• Aberdeen Group: B2B benchmarking and research firm publishing peer-based performance studies. Closely comparable publishing and benchmarking methodology, though broader industry coverage.
• ScottMadden: Management consulting firm exclusively focused on the energy industry (electric and gas utilities). Comparable utility-sector specialization and mid-sized consulting footprint, though broader in functional scope.
• West Monroe Partners: Management and technology consulting firm with a dedicated energy & utilities practice serving regulated utilities on operations, customer experience, and digital transformation. Closely comparable boutique-to-mid-market utility consulting positioning.
• Forrester Research: Public research and advisory firm covering customer experience, digital transformation, and operational benchmarking. Comparable on the subscription research and CX advisory model, though much broader in vertical coverage.
• J.D. Power: Independent benchmarking and customer satisfaction research firm with deep utility, automotive, and financial services coverage. Direct comparable on the benchmarking-publication business model and customer-satisfaction measurement methodology.
• Gartner (formerly CEB): Global research and advisory firm; CEB legacy division historically published benchmarking and best-practice research similar to The Ascent's customer service operations studies. Comparable on research-driven benchmarking and advisory monetization.

Broad incumbents

• Accenture: Global professional services firm with a Utilities industry group covering customer service transformation, digital platforms, and CX modernization. Competes for end-to-end utility transformation programs where Ascent typically serves narrower sub-workstreams.
• Black & Veatch: Large engineering, procurement, construction, and consulting firm serving the water, power, and telecommunications sectors. Overlapping utility-sector client base and customer service/operations work, but embedded within a much broader infrastructure services portfolio.
• McKinsey & Company: Global management consulting firm with a dedicated Energy & Materials practice serving utilities on operations, customer experience, and transformation. Competes for senior utility executive mandates, but at materially larger scale and broader scope.

Market position

Strengths5 records

Weaknesses5 records

Competitive moat3 records

Key risks5 records

Key highlights6 records

Customer concentration

• Xx.com/ascentgroup
• Facebookfacebook.com/AscentGroup
• LinkedInlinkedin.com/company/the-ascent-group-inc.

Compliance1 record

Revenue estimate

Valuation estimate

Number of profiles

Funding overview

Funding rounds

Investors

Funding detail is available on the Subscription and Enterprise plan.Contact sales →

M&A

Investments

M&A and investment is available on the Subscription and Enterprise plan.Contact sales →

Frequently asked questions about The Ascent Group