DALLAS - EFG Companies, the innovator behind the award-winning Hyundai Assurance program, announced today that it has been certified as a Center of Excellence by BenchmarkPortal for the third year in a row. For more information, visit: http://bit.ly/2lztMvm.

Each year, researchers from BenchmarkPortal audit and validate best-practice metrics drawn from the world’s largest database of objective and quantitative data to determine which contact centers should be awarded this designation. Only contact centers that rank in the top ten percent of those surveyed achieve the award.

“Contact center leaders who seek this certification demonstrate an ongoing commitment to achieving service excellence in the most cost-effective ways possible,” said Bruce Belfore, CEO of BenchmarkPortal. “This certification means that EFG’s center has reached an optimized balance between efficiency and effectiveness.”

EFG has long recognized the importance of providing the highest level of customer service to its clients through high quality employees. In 2016, the company made its mission to better equip those employees with the tools and processes that only enhance their ability to service their clients and customers.

This effort started with the implementation of the company’s proprietary part sourcing platform, the Parts Wizard. In early 2016, EFG launched the Parts Wizard to reduce client reinsurance exposure, streamline claims administration and increase customer satisfaction. The Parts Wizard automates the manual process of sourcing parts for vehicle repairs.

Traditionally, claims administrators must research vehicle parts on several vendor websites, before negotiating with a service center. The Parts Wizard sources parts from all EFG-approved vendors at once, drastically shortening the time it takes to research parts by up to 30 minutes per claim. In addition, the technology prioritizes results based on availability and price to factor in to the decision process.

To further ensure the success of every customer contact, EFG invested in and implemented Castel Detect^TM LIVE Speech Analytics to provide EFG claims adjusters and management teams with real-time insight into the health of every call. Each adjuster has a direct feed on their monitor of analysis regarding call content, including:

• specific phrases;

• agitation level; and,

• higher than acceptable instances of talking over one another; etc.

Based on the course of the conversation, adjusters receive on-screen notifications to help guide them to more intuitively and successfully steer the conversation. In addition, managers have access to all adjuster analytics and receive notifications to step in to conversations that need their attention without the adjuster actually having to seek them out for assistance. Since implementing this software, EFG has seen a decrease in formal escalations, thereby increasing the number of successful calls and high customer satisfaction ratings.

“With achievements like these, we intend to continue to push the industry to serve contract holders more expertly, efficiently, and respectfully,” said John Pappanastos, President and CEO, EFG Companies. “This will inevitably promote a more positive overall customer experience and decisively impact the growth and success of the consumer protection product industry.”