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Nicole Ornelas is an extraordinary leader who has been with DDKS for over 18 years. Nicole has held progressive leadership roles at our company and now serves as Customer Service Manager for Delta Dental of Kansas and our subsidiary Surency. Nicole leads the Customer Service department which provides inbound customer service support for four products. The department receives over 335,000 calls annually and provides omnichannel methods for communicating.
Under Nicole’s leadership, the Customer Service team was recently awarded the Benchmark Portal’s Center of Excellence Certification which is given to the top 10% of call centers nationwide. This certification focuses on effectiveness and efficiency, balancing satisfaction and cost across all key performance indicators. The certification was based on our effectiveness in key performance areas compared to our peers in the industry. The examining auditor stated during the closing findings meeting that our results are truly the best he has seen across the industry. Some key findings from this certification include:
- Customer Satisfaction – we ranked 24.04% higher than the industry average
- Agent Satisfaction – we ranked 6.01% higher than the industry average
- First Call Resolution – we ranked 5.5% higher than the industry average
- Average Speed to Answer in Seconds – we ranked 24.19 seconds faster than the industry average
- Calls Transferred – we ranked 6.42% lower than the industry average
- Calls Abandoned – we also ranked lower than the industry average
As further evidence of Nicole’s leadership, the Customer Service team consistently receives satisfaction ratings of over 95%. This achievement is a direct result of her commitment to her team’s success.
Nicole was integral in a Customer Service initiative that provided exceptional results to our stakeholders and led to our company being named the Top Call Center in North America by the North American Customer Centricity Awards. Our average speed to answer time was down to five seconds from over two minutes, and agent availability improved by 15%. In addition, abandoned calls were down to less than a half a percent from over 5.5%. The average call handle time was down 20%, showing that the department’s additional training has positively impacted their ability to handle a customer’s inquiry with advanced knowledge and efficiency. In addition, 99% of our customer inquiries are now resolved on their first interaction, making for a hassle-free experience for our customers with no follow-up call needed.
Nomination Title: Nicole Ornelas