Pictured above: Bobby Nahal, Emma Longstaff, Kiran Johal and
Steve Boyle (far right) from Wesleyan's Customer Relationship
Centre celebrate their BESMA award win with David Beard from award
sponsors Sage CRM Solutions (second right)
Wesleyan Assurance Society's Customer Relationship Centre has
scooped a major prize for outstanding customer service at the
British Excellence in Sales & Marketing Awards.
The Birmingham-based financial services specialist was named
Customer Service Team of the Year at the awards organised by the
Institute of Sales & Marketing Management at the Lancaster
Hotel in London.
Martin Howard, Operations Director at Wesleyan, said: "It's
great that the Customer Relationship Centre (CRC) has been rewarded
for demonstrating outstanding customer service.
"This award is testament to the hard work that everyone in
Customer Services has put in over the three years that the CRC has
been established. During this time we've gone from strength to
strength in the drive to 'Be the Best' and deliver a quality
customer experience. Our aim now is to be recognised as one of the
top ten customer relationship centres within the UK financial
sector."
There are more than 50 people working in Wesleyan's CRC at its
Colmore Circus head office, dealing with hundreds of enquiries
every day. It is more than just a call centre, with staff members
dealing with customers by telephone, e-mail, written correspondence
and the recently introduced innovative 'Click to Chat' messaging
service through the website, that enables customers to submit short
questions and get instant replies from an adviser.
As staff are primarily dealing with a professional customer base
of doctors, dentists, lawyers and teachers, it is important they
too have a high level of professionalism. To achieve this they
receive good rates of pay and training that encourages them to take
responsibility for each enquiry and ensure every customer has the
same quality service.
A key part of the award application was the work it has done to
ensure customers only have to deal with one team from start to
completion when they make an enquiry. Out of 153,000 transactions
last year, 97% were dealt with in this manner.
This is the latest in a line of award wins for Wesleyan. Earlier
this year Chief Executive Craig Errington was named Director of the
Year in the Large Business category by the Institute of Directors
West Midlands, while the company was crowned UK Life Insurer of the
Year' at the 2010 British Insurance Awards for the second time in
three years and has been a finalist for the award for the past five
consecutive years.