Company: Allianz Global Assistance, Richmond, VA
Company Description: Allianz Global Assistance USA (AGA Service Company) is a leading consumer specialty insurance and assistance company. We insure 16 million customers annually and are best known for our Allianz Travel Insurance plans. In addition to travel insurance, we offer event ticket protection, registration protection for endurance events and travel assistance and concierge services.
Nomination Category: Customer Service Categories
Nomination Sub Category: Customer Service Team of the Year

Nomination Title: Allianz Global Assistance's Customer Service Team

Tell the story about what this nominated team has achieved since January 1, 2014 year (up to 650 words). Focus on specific accomplishments, and relate these accomplishments to past performance or industry norms.

Allianz Global Assistance (AGA) is the worldwide leader in travel insurance and global assistance services. We consistently provide immediate assistance to our customers 24 hours a day, 7 days a week and 365 days a year. AGA is a full-service insurance company owned by financial services giant Allianz.
In addition to travel insurance, AGA serves as an outsource provider for in-bound call center services and claims administration for credit card companies, health insurers, property and casualty insurers. We have been a leading provider of card benefit solutions since 1985.

Why We’re Different

We have a customer-centric culture. We consistently deliver on high expectations for exemplary customer service through rigorous quality assurance, flawless assistance and seamless execution. We are also focused on continuous process improvement and are dedicated to maintaining an agile environment.

AGA has a robust telephony and customer service technology platform that provides our contact center staff with immediate access to our customer’s records.

AGA does not outsource calls to anyone outside the Allianz group. It is our preference to oversee the recruiting, hiring and training processes to uphold our high standard of service.

We regularly leverage the expertise of our workforce management and human resources teams to train and manage our staff to meet the highest levels of customer satisfaction. In addition, we provide our customers with a robust self-service platform that enables customers to complete many tasks from the convenience of their desktop. We also support email and social media as contact center channels .

Recruitment and Hiring

Unlike many customer service centers, our recruitment philosophy is to “hire for heart,” meaning that we put a potential associate’s dedication to helping others above other hiring considerations. We are also focused on training of our associates, the lifecycle of their employment with the company and promoting them into positions of increased responsibility. In fact, three former front-line customer service associates are currently senior executives in our Operations and Sales Divisions.

Associate Engagement
We continuously strive to maintain an engaged and dedicated workforce. Our customer service team currently has an engagement score of 87%, which is extremely high for any industry and particularly high for a call center environment. Forty percent of our associates participate in an ongoing mentor program and cross-training opportunities. We awarded 350 “Access Stars” to top performers in the last quarter, recognizing about 15% of our call center associates. In addition, we have created new, more flexible opportunities through home-agent (agent works from home) and flex-agent (flexible scheduling) positions. These additional opportunities have led to increased job satisfaction and even stronger effectiveness.

Constant Improvement
Later this year we will roll out precision routing for calls. Precision call routing optimizes the way calls are routed to ensure that they are answered by the most appropriate person for that particular call.

“Voice of Customer” Measurement
We use several “Voice of Customer” tools to measure the satisfaction of our customers, including automated phone surveys, call monitoring and recording, paper surveys mailed to customers, electronic surveys emailed to customers and market research to benchmark our results. The purpose of our Voice of Customer program is to constantly gauge our success and find innovative ways to improve what we do.

Our Stunning Results
Our latest customer surveys show a year to date customer satisfaction level of 96%, which is extremely high and nearly perfect. Our Net Promoter Score of +72 is virtually unheard of in our industry. By comparison, Apple smartphones, which are highly valued by consumers, have a net promoter score of +67. Online retailer Zappos, known for its extraordinary customer service, has an NPS score of +60.
http://customergauge.com/news/2014-net-promoter-benchmarks/

Our company culture is squarely focused on leading the financial services industry in the quality of our contact center operations and the satisfaction of our customers. A combination of an engaged workforce, advanced technology and constant improvement help us to meet that goal every day.

In bullet-list form, briefly summarize up to ten (10) accomplishments of the nominated team since the beginning of 2014 (up to 150 words).

- 100% of contractual standards met in 2014: Our associates always respond to meet our customers’ needs throughout numerous weather events.

- 100% Client retention: Every client up for renewal extended their relationship with us reconfirming their trust in us to take care of their customers

- Customer Satisfaction is at 96%: Our Customers are highly satisfied with our service, including our associates’ ability to listen effectively, offer product knowledge, and demonstrate as sense of urgency.

- Net Promoter Score is 72% (up 3 points YOY): As measured by service calls, claims, and medical assistance cases handled

- Phone Sales improved 66% YOY: Our sales associates received an NPS of 83%

- Improved Claims handling: Cycle time reduced by 9%, Compliments up 7% referring to timeliness of claims handling

- Employee Recognition: Awarded 137 different associates over 310 monthly Super Star awards