2nd Quarter 2007

Covance's Issue Resolution Process

A Streamlined, Comprehensive Approach to Issue Resolution

By Laurie Huegerich

The fifth habit cited by Stephen Covey in his book The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People is Seek First to Understand, Then to Be Understood. A major part of all of our jobs is to convey information effectively; that is, to be understood. However, to ensure that we are conveying the correct information, we must first seek to understand the needs of our clients. To that end, Covance has a rigorous issue resolution process that helps ensure that we seek first to understand, then to be understood, especially at those critical junctures where we have failed to meet the expectations held by a client.

Covance's issue resolution process sets a standard response to customer issues and concerns to ensure Covance's timely resolution and consistent follow up. This process is comprised of the following five stages:

• Notify - We identify an issue and quickly work to understand it fully.
• Analyze - We analyze the issue to determine the root cause and develop a Corrective Action Issue Resolution (CAIR) plan.
• Communicate - We share our proposed action plan with the customer for review and approval.
• Execute - We execute the plan and work to full issue resolution.
• Follow-Up - We contact the customer to ensure satisfaction with the plan.

Customers can be confident that Covance takes their concerns seriously and will work diligently, efficiently, and systematically to resolve them. By seeking to understand each customer's concerns, we help make certain that all customers have a superior experience with Covance.

- Excerpts taken from the Covance Issue Resolution Process brochure, copyright 2006.