J.D. Power and Associates Reports: PEMCO Insurance Recognized for Call Center Customer Satisfaction Excellence

WESTLAKE VILLAGE, CA - Feb. 21, 2006: PEMCO Insurance has been recognized for call center operation customer satisfaction excellence under the J.D. Power and Associates Certified Call Center Program(SM). This distinction acknowledges a strong commitment by PEMCO's call center operation to provide an outstanding customer service experience.

PEMCO's call center operations handle approximately 772,780 telephone, e-mail and fax interactions annually from its call center in Seattle. The call center operation successfully passed a detailed audit of its recruiting, training, employee incentives, management roles and responsibilities, and quality assurance capabilities. In addition, J.D. Power and Associates conducted a random survey of PEMCO customers who recently contacted its call center. For certification status, a call center must perform within the top 20 percent of customer service, based on J.D. Power and Associates' cross-industry customer satisfaction research.

"PEMCO's call center operations surpassed the rigorous standards of the certification process by an unusually high margin, demonstrating the keen focus of PEMCO's agents, trainers and management on customer satisfaction," said Steve Kirkeby, senior director of the telecommunications practice at J.D. Power and Associates. "Customer interactions with a call center can have a profound and lasting impact on overall customer satisfaction and loyalty. PEMCO has created a highly customer-focused culture that stresses the importance of meeting customer needs at every touch point opportunity. PEMCO customers give particularly high ratings to both its customer service representatives and the timely resolution of problems."

The evaluation criteria used during the survey include: courtesy of the customer service representative (CSR); knowledge of the CSR; the CSR's concern for the customer questions and/or problem; usefulness of the information provided; convenience of customer service operating hours; ease of getting through to a CSR; and the timely resolution of the customer's problem, question or request. Certification is valid for one year.

"This certification demonstrates what we believe to be true about our customer service," said Steve Miller, PEMCO's vice president and chief operating officer. "PEMCO is all about excellence in our relationships and service. The survey results give us a good benchmark, and that helps create new opportunities for us to enhance our customer service and become even better."

The Call Center Certification Program was launched by J.D. Power and Associates in 2004 to evaluate overall customer satisfaction and help call centers in various industries increase their efficiency and effectiveness by establishing best practices for handling service calls.

There are more than 75,000 call centers in North America and an estimated 125,000 worldwide that help customers with product and service questions across a multitude of industries, ranging from credit cards, financial services, investment services, utilities, service warranty and insurance to telecommunications, healthcare and office products.

J.D. Power and Associates is currently evaluating call centers across a variety of industries to determine if they are eligible for certification.