DALLAS - EFG Companies, the innovator behind the award-winning Hyundai Assurance program, announced its status today as the only F&I product provider to be certified as a Center of Excellence by BenchmarkPortal. The Center of Excellence recognition is one of the most prestigious awards in the customer service and support industry.

BenchmarkPortal only awards the Center of Excellence designation to customer service call centers that rank in the top ten percent of the call centers surveyed. To earn this award, EFG demonstrated a commitment to achieving service excellence, as well as superior performance on quality-related metrics.

EFG continuously strives to raise the industry bar when it comes to providing superior products, administration and compliance. Earlier this year, EFG was awarded the Automotive Service Excellence (ASE) Blue Seal of Excellence with close to 100 percent of its claims organization ASE certified. The company was also recognized as being the only product provider of size to AFIP certify 100 percent of its field team. With these three certifications, the EFG sets the industry example for leadership in training, auditing and administering their clients’ business to whom its services are a critical priority.

“Our clients rely on our expertise and quality customer service when it comes to administering customer claims,” said John Pappanastos, President and CEO, EFG Companies. “We operate knowing that our claims administration reflects back on our clients’ business and brand. By demonstrating our high level of expertise with this certification, we are giving our clients the highest confidence that all claims will be handled expertly, efficiently and respectfully, promoting a positive overall customer experience and driving greater customer loyalty for their business.”

Founded in 1995, BenchmarkPortal is a global leader in the contact center industry, providing benchmarking, certification, training, consulting, research and industry reports. Contact centers achieve the Center of Excellence distinction based on an intense onsite evaluation and audit as well as best-practice metrics drawn from the world’s largest database of objective and quantitative data that is audited and validated by researchers from BenchmarkPortal.

“The achievement of the Center of Excellence designation represents EFG Companies’ commitment to delivering expert and professional customer service,” said Bruce Belfore, CEO, BenchmarkPortal. “EFG’s certification is a direct result of its leadership’s commitment to best-in-class service performance that is both effective and efficient from a business standpoint. It’s an achievement of distinction.”

Throughout its 37-year history, EFG has continually demonstrated their commitment to exceed customer expectations. Customer service and claims administration standards and real-time performance is continuously projected on the company’s walls as a constant measure of performance. 95.88 percent of claims calls are answered within 90 seconds, and 96 percent of all claims are paid by corporate credit card within one hour of receipt of invoice.

EFG believes longevity and success is ultimately measured by a simple premise: keeping a promise to a customer at a time when they need it most. EFG prides itself on being a claims-honoring third-party administrator and this certification only enhances the company’s commitment to fulfill that promise.