MetLife Honored for the Fifth Consecutive Year with Industry-wide Center of Excellence Certification

Jan. 5, 2010 - PRLog -- New York, December, 2009 – MetLife, Inc. announced today that its Customer Sales & Service Group (CSSG) has, for the fifth consecutive year, earned the prestigious designation of Certified Center of Excellence by Purdue University's Center for Customer-Driven Quality in conjunction with BenchmarkPortal, a national benchmarking firm. Call centers are evaluated in 28 categories on their ability to exceed rigorous statistical standards in comparison to their industry peers. Only the top ten percent of contact centers that apply for certification earn the designation, and MetLife’s CSSG is among only two winning centers to have earned this certification five years in a row.

“This achievement demonstrates how our Customer Sales & Service Group’s overall results stand out as best in class in its industry, even despite tough economic conditions”, said Maria Morris, executive vice president, Technology & Operations, MetLife. While continuing to increase efficiency and effectiveness, CSSG delivers superior customer service, strengthens existing customer relationships, and provides an opportunity to attract new customers.

MetLife’s CSSG provides sales and customer-service support for 17 different product lines, including such high-volume ones as life, dental, auto, and home insurance. To ensure effective and efficient handling of the more than 27.5 million customer phone and email requests in 2009, CSSG has continued to streamline and optimize its operations to maximize the time representatives are on the phone with customers or available to handle a call. Through these efforts, CSSG has been able to contain costs, maintain associate productivity, and deliver high customer satisfaction.

“Our success could not be possible without the continued dedication and talent of our customer service representatives”, said Karen Hemenway, vice president, Customer Sales & Service Group, MetLife. “Receiving the Center of Excellence certification five years in a row demonstrates our continued focus on superior service that deepens customer relationships, providing MetLife with an invaluable competitive advantage”.

In recent years, the competition for Center of Excellence certification has become tougher as more companies focus on improving customer satisfaction. Despite increased competition, MetLife continues to maintain its industry-exceeding very satisfied customer rating. Additionally, while the industry as a whole has seen its very dissatisfied rating increase from 2 percent to 7 percent during the past year, MetLife has successfully driven down its rating to 1 percent – a clear indication of its quality service.  

“The hallmark of a great center is the ability to not only achieve top tier performance, but to maintain that performance over time”, said Bruce Belfiore, CEO, BenchmarkPortal.  “MetLife has shown consistently that it is dedicated to continuous improvement for the benefit of its customers and its employees, which is the only way to maintain a Center of Excellence over a five-year period”.

About MetLife
MetLife is a subsidiary of MetLife, Inc. , a leading provider of insurance, employee benefits and financial services with operations throughout the United States and the Latin America, Europe and Asia Pacific regions. Through its subsidiaries and affiliates, MetLife, Inc. reaches more than 70 million customers around the world and MetLife is the largest life insurer in the United States (based on life insurance in-force). The MetLife companies offer life insurance, annuities, auto and home insurance, retail banking and other financial services to individuals, as well as group insurance and retirement & savings products and services to corporations and other institutions. For more information, visit www.metlife.com.

About Purdue University's Center for Customer-Driven Quality (CCDQ)  
Purdue University’s CCDQ is internationally recognized as the premier research and education organization for behavior in customer access and access channel management issues.  

About BenchmarkPortal  
BenchmarkPortal is the custodian of the Purdue University Center for Customer-Driven Quality database of contact center metrics, the largest in the world. Founded in 1995 by Dr. Jon Anton, it provides reports, products and services for contact centers in the areas of operational metrics, customer satisfaction measurement and agent satisfaction measurement. BenchmarkPortal’s Web site can be found at: http://www.benchmarkportal.com

BenchmarkPortal
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BenchmarkPortal is the custodian of the Purdue University Center for Customer-Driven Quality database of contact center metrics, the largest in the world. Founded in 1995 by Dr. Jon Anton, it provides reports, products and services for contact centers.