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Contact Center Customer Service Industry Award Winners for 2018

2018 Contact Center Industry Award Winners

SQM benchmarks over 500 leading North American contact centers on an annual basis and has been conducting customer experience (CX) and employee experience (EX) benchmarking studies since 1996. SQM annually conducts 1.5 million surveys with customers who have used a contact center, email, website, IVR, or site contact channel service. SQM also conducts over 25,000 surveys annually with employees who work in contact centers. Our customer and employee survey benchmarking database is one of the largest in North America. SQM does business in 15 countries around the globe including the United States, Canada, Australia, India, Philippines, Chile, Mexico, Jamaica, Costa Rica, Peru, and the United Kingdom. Based on our contact center benchmarking studies, SQM awards excellence in FCR, and customer and employee satisfaction for the contact center industry. We have recognized top-performing contact centers for customer and employee satisfaction since 1998. SQM awards are based on customers who have used a contact center and employees who work in a contact center. SQM conducted the benchmarking studies for the period of January 1, 2018, to December 31, 2018.

For each contact center that participated in our customer benchmarking study, SQM completed 400 post-call phone surveys, conducted by SQM's telephone survey representatives. A sample size of 400 surveys provides a margin of error of +/- 5% with a confidence level of 95%. All customer post-call phone surveys have 12 or more questions and take approximately 5 minutes to complete. The surveys were conducted within 2 business days of the customer's call to the contact center in order to understand their satisfaction with their contact center experience. SQM uses an in-depth, post-call customer survey approach that consists of both rating questions and follow-up customer feedback questions that can be used to help the contact center improve its customer experience and FCR performance.

In addition, for each contact center that participated in the employee benchmarking study, SQM completed a minimum of 100 customer service representative (CSR) surveys, or if the contact center had less than 100 CSRs, 90% of the CSR workforce completed surveys. Employee surveys were conducted online at the CSR level. This confidential employee online survey took approximately 30 minutes to complete. SQM uses an in-depth, online employee survey approach that consists of both rating questions and follow-up employee feedback questions. The employee survey focuses on the contact center's FCR, Esat, and Csat performance from a CSR and supervisor perspective and provides opportunities to improve the contact center's FCR performance in terms of people, process, and technology practices.

SQM has more than 50 different award categories that recognize the top-performing organizations in CX, EX, and CX Best Practice performance. Based on the organizations we benchmarked, SQM is honored to recognize the following Service Quality Award of Excellence Winners for 2018. These prestigious customer experience industry awards were presented at our 20th annual conference, held at Washington's grandest hotel, the Historic Davenport in Spokane, May 7 – 9, 2019.

Customer Experience Awards

Contact Center of the Year

Criteria used for Contact Center of the Year is based on having the highest combined customer experience (CX) and employee experience (EX) ratings. CX measurement is based on the FCR metric and EX measurement is based on employee satisfaction (top box) rating.

Winner

Genworth

Finalists

SQM Customer Experience Award

Best Performing Small- to Mid-Sized Contact Center

Criteria used for Best Performing Small- to Mid-Sized Contact Center (between 25 to 99 CSRs) is based on having the highest combined customer experience (CX) and employee experience (EX) ratings. CX measurement is based on the FCR metric and EX measurement is based on employee satisfaction (top box) rating.

Winner

World Vision Canada

Finalists

SQM Customer Experience Award

Web Self-Service World Class CX Certification

Criteria used for Web Self-Service World Class CX Certification is based on 80% (or higher) of customers getting their contact resolved on the first contact with the website (FCR) for 3 consecutive months or more.

Winner

FortisBC

SQM Customer Experience Award

Customer Experience Best Practices

These awards recognize the organization that has demonstrated they have improved or helped maintain high FCR and customer experience (CX) performance. Organizations submit specific practices they have used to improve or maintain high FCR and Csat performance.

Category Winner
Omni-Channel Canadian Tire Financial Services
Web Self-Service Security Health Plan
Emerging Channels BlueCross BlueShield of North Carolina
Quality Assurance Program Genworth
Desktop Application(s) Mr. Cooper
CSR Recognition Program FortisBC
Career Development Program BlueCross BlueShield of Alabama
Call Handling Practice BlueCross BlueShield of Kansas City
Escalation CSR Support EA Worldwide Customer Experience
Performance Management System (CSR) BlueCross BlueShield of South Carolina
Performance Management System (Vendor) UPMC Health Plan
CSR Coaching Program Consumer Energy and BlueCross and BlueShield Nebraska (tie)
CSR Training Program Consumer Energy
CSR Selection Process Blue Cross Blue Shield of Massachusetts
Standard Operating Procedures Blue Cross Blue Shield of Massachusetts
Continuous Improvement Process Regence Blue Cross Blue Shield Plans

CSR of the Year

To be eligible the customer service representative (CSR) must be World Class CX Certified. The criteria for a World Class CX Certified CSR is 85% or higher of the calls surveyed are at the World Class Call (WCC) level. SQM's WCC criteria is based on the customer's call being resolved and the customer is overall very satisfied (top box response) with the CSR who handled their call. Call center management must also send an example of a great customer service story that the CSR delivered.

Winner

Robert Mills, Horizon BCBSNJ

Finalists

Name Organization
John Kolath Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Minnesota
Eric Ashby Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Kansas City
Trish Smith
Charles Sanders Blue Cross and Blue Shield of North Carolina
Carmen Storey BlueCross BlueShield of South Carolina
Lapriel Williams
Abigail Fifield BlueCross BlueShield of Vermont
Cerridwen Moser-Bertsche
Jennie Shangraw
Rebecca Lee
Katrina Lloyd Consumers Energy
Rebecca Newman
Toni Fox
Allistair Cockrell FedEx Express Canada
Jasmine Austin Florida Blue
Hailey Steele Marchon/Altair
Juliana Klingel
Brittany Pitts Premera Blue Cross
Shandra Roberts
Hannah Morphis Regence Blue Cross Blue Shield Plans
Karla Bare
Kelly Carpenter
Jafar Abbas Scotia iTRADE
Nic Carter Name Withheld

CSR Top World Class CX Improvement

To be eligible the customer service representative (CSR) must have a 10% or greater annual world class CX metric improvement from the previous year. SQM's WCC criteria is based on the customer's call being resolved and the customer is overall very satisfied (top box response) rating with the CSR who handled their call. Call center management must also send an example of a great customer service story that the CSR delivered.

Winners

Name Organization
Syreeta Branch BlueCross BlueShield of North Carolina
Debra Knight Consumers Energy
Patricia Newman Genworth
Steven Weber Regence Blue Cross Blue Shield Plans
Christina Billue VSP Vision Care

Supervisor of the Year

To be eligible the supervisor must be World Class CX Certified. The criteria for a World Class CX Certified Supervisor is 85% or higher of the calls surveyed are at the World Class Call (WCC) level. Call center management or CSRs must also send an example of a great Call Resolution or Csat coaching story.

Winner

Brenda Parker, Consumers Energy

Finalists

Name Organization
Drew Shirack Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Kansas
Kathy Cordonnier Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Kansas City
Bridget Gaitan Name Withheld
Anda Imper Premera Blue Cross
Katie Johansson Security Health Plan

Highest Customer Experience for the Contact Center Industry

 

Winners Category Criteria
Vancity Best Selling Customer Satisfaction This award recognizes the contact center with the highest Csat (top box rating) for selling approach.
FortisBC Highest Enterprise-Wide One Contact Resolution This award recognizes the organization with the highest enterprise-wide one contact resolution over two or more contact channels, with one being the call center and one being the website.
Marchon/Altair Highest Omni-Channel Customer Service This award recognizes the contact center with the highest overall Csat (top box rating) where the experience was seamless for the entire multi-channel experience.
FortisBC Highest Web Self-Service Customer Service This award recognizes the contact center with the highest overall Csat (top box rating) for their respective category.
FortisBC Highest IVR Self-Service Customer Service

Highest Customer Service by Industry

CX is based on the organization having the highest FCR rating in each specific industry or sector.

Winners Category
Vancity Banking
Canadian Tire Financial Services (CRCC) Credit Card
Jackson Financial
VSP Vision Care Insurance
Security Health Plan Health Care
Highmark Health Care Federal Employee Program
HealthNow New York Inc. Pharmacy
Petro-Canada (Concentrix) Retail/Service
FortisBC Energy
TELUS Québec Telco/TV
Blue Cross Blue Shield of Michigan (Web Support Help Desk) Helpdesk
Name Withheld Government
Marchon/Altair and VSP Vision Care (tie) Business to Business

First Call Resolution Improvement

Criteria used for First Call Resolution Improvement is based on a 5% or greater annual FCR improvement from the previous year.

SQM Customer Experience Award

Employee Experience Awards

Highest Employee Experience for the Contact Center Industry

Criteria used for Highest Employee Experience for the Contact Center Industry is based on having the highest employee overall very satisfied (top box rating) with working in their contact center.

Winner

Genworth

SQM Customer Experience Award

Most Improved Employee Experience

Criteria used for Most Improved Employee Experience is based on having the most improved employee overall very satisfied (top box rating) with working in their contact center.

Winner

Marchon/Altair

SQM Customer Experience Award

Highest Employee Experience by Industry

Criteria used for Highest Employee Experience by Industry is based on having the highest employee overall very satisfied (top box rating) with working in their contact center for each specific industry or sector.

Winners Category
Canadian Tire Financial Services Financial
Genworth Insurance
Blue Cross and Blue Shield Nebraska Health Care
SQM Customer Experience Award

Highest Work From Home Employee Experience

Criteria used for Highest Work From Home Employee Experience is based on having the highest employee overall very satisfied (top box rating) for work from home CSRs.

Winner

Jackson

SQM Customer Experience Award

World Class Employee Experience

Criteria used for World Class Employee Experience is based on 50% or higher of employees rate their overall experience of working in the contact center as very satisfied (top box rating).

Winners

SQM Customer Experience Award

Outstanding Lifetime Achievement

This award is judged by a panel of SQM Client Account Managers who work closely with our tracking clients on an ongoing basis. Final award determination made by Mike Desmarais, CEO and Founder of SQM Group.

Winner

Kathy Rodine, VSP Vision Care

SQM Customer Experience Award

CX Leadership

These awards are judged by a panel of SQM Client Account Managers who work closely with our tracking clients on an ongoing basis. Final award determination made by Mike Desmarais, CEO and Founder of SQM Group.

Winners

Name Organization
Amy Walt Consumers Energy
Lana Pruett Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Kansas
Lisa Moody World Vision Canada
Louise Buchanan Marchon/Altair

Previous Award Winners

Explore our awards archive to discover all the past winners of SQM's Call Center Customer Service Industry Awards, spanning from 2006 onwards!