Company: Hyatt Legal Plans, Cleveland, OH
Company Description: Hyatt Legal Plans, a MetLife® company, is the largest provider of group legal plans in the United States, serving 13 million people at 1,600 organizations, including 160 Fortune 500® companies. We have more than 36 years of experience providing group legal plans and are committed to providing excellent service to our plan members, sponsors and plan attorneys.
Nomination Category: Customer Service Categories
Nomination Sub Category: Customer Service Department of the Year

Nomination Title: Hyatt Legal Plans' Client Service Center

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

Hyatt Legal Plans’ strategy is to build our business one customer at a time, through the delivery of world-class service. “Quality Service Always” is our mission, which we achieve through a keep-it-simple approach. Our Client Service Center uses no IVRs because we want callers to gain immediate access to live help. We answer calls with a “once and done” strategy, ensuring that callers speak with the right person in their first call.

Our Client Service Center has a history of great service over the last 25 years:

Service Level Objective: 95% answered in 20 seconds
Average Speed of Answer: 3 Seconds
Abandonment Rate: 0.59%
First Call Resolution: 97.5%

We hire only friendly, compassionate people with four-year college degrees and two years of customer service experience to answer our calls. We invest in our call center as a strategy for growth, choosing to invest in our people and our customers, while depending upon word of mouth advertising. This strategy has allowed us to capture a 78% market share, outdistancing our competition by four times, while spending less than 1% of revenue on advertising.

In our 2014 customer survey, overall satisfaction was 97.9%. Our Net Promoter Score for customer service was +53.9. Any NPS over +50 is exceptional.

In 2014, our call center handled 482,222 calls, our largest call volume to date. Our reps received 93 unsolicited commendations from callers, a 10% increase over 2013, and an important benchmark for satisfaction that we follow closely.

During 2014, we made several significant accomplishments:

1. We rolled out an iPhone app to go with an Andriod app we rolled out in 2013. These apps allow customers to easily access plan information, locate attorneys, get directions, and issue case numbers for billing covered services. Our CSRs promote these apps to members on every call.

2. We upgraded our CRM system to improve CSR’s access to critical data, improve efficiency, and improve the caller experience. We also modified our scripts to sound more natural, and de-emphasized some scripts, allowing veterans to go off script as needed to make a personal connection with callers.

3. We implemented a customer feedback system on our website that allows online users to provide immediate feedback about their legal plan experience. We review this feedback daily and immediately respond to customers to thank them and to resolve any service issues. This acts like a transactional survey in gathering immediate feedback that is not diluted by the passage of time.

4. We implemented quarterly specialized up-training for CSR to hone their skills, such as managing difficult callers, effective phone techniques, dealing with foreign accents, and improving listening and questioning skills.

5. We enhanced our Bravo! Program which is a performance incentive program designed to reward CSRs for outstanding performance monthly and annually. This program received first place for four consecutive years in PACE’s Best Contact Center Incentive Contest. Last year, all CSRs, with the exception of new employees in training, met 100% of their performance goals under this program.

6. We were designated as Finalists by ICMI Global Contact Center awards for best small to medium call center.

7. For the second year in a row, designated as one of the top 10 call centers in the U.S. by Benchmark Portal in the small call center division

8. For the second year in a row, honored by the American Business Awards as the Stevie gold in Best Call Center in the small to mid size class.

9. Two supervisors completed certification through Benchmark Portal, so that all of our managers are now Certified Call Center Managers.

10. Upgraded PC’s for improved response time and a smaller desktop footprint.

At Hyatt, customer service is our business model and our growth plan. Quality Service Always is our mission and the reason why Hyatt Legal Plans is one of the best service providers of any kind, any where. You have our word on it.

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

• Finalists in ICMI Global Contact Center awards for best small to medium call center
• Designated as one of the top 10 call centers in the U.S. by Benchmark Portal in the small call center division, for second year in a row
• Awarded Stevie gold Best Call Center in the small to mid size class by American Business Awards, for second year in a row
• Handled 482,222 calls, our largest call volume to date
• Answered 93.4% of calls within 20 seconds
• Achieved 4 second average speed of answer
• Achieved an answer rate of 99.37%
• Received 97.9% overall customer satisfaction ratings
• Received a +53.9 Net Promoter Score
• All call center managers became Certified Call Center Managers