Call Center News

MAXIMUS Call Centers Recognized for Superior Performance

RESTON, VA -- MAXIMUS, a leading provider of government services worldwide, announced today that its Massachusetts Health Benefits (MassHealth) Customer Service and Georgia Families call center operations have once again been recognized as "Certified Centers of Excellence" by BenchmarkPortal in collaboration with the Center for Customer-Driven Quality (CCDQ) at Purdue Research Park.

Both call centers received the award certification following a rigorous review by BenchmarkPortal. To earn the Center of Excellence designation, the call centers had to meet objective and quantitative criteria, as well as pass audits conducted by BenchmarkPortal researchers. The call centers were evaluated across several key indicators, including operational efficiency, service level standards, process management, customer satisfaction, leadership resources and employee training.

MAXIMUS has provided services for MassHealth participants since 1998. Through its Boston-based call center, the Company enrolls Medicaid participants into managed care health plans, processes provider claims, enrolls and credentials providers, and maintains self-service online options for both providers and participants. The Company has operated the Georgia Families Program for the Georgia Department of Community Health since 2005, facilitating program enrollment for eligible members of Medicaid and PeachCare for Kids, Georgia's Children's Health Insurance Program.

"Efficient and effective call center operations are a critical component to connect consumers to health insurance coverage. Our customer care representatives provide choice counseling to help Medicaid and CHIP participants evaluate and select the health insurance plan that best meets their needs," commented Bruce Caswell, President and General Manager of the MAXIMUS Health Services Segment. "We are pleased to see that our MassHealth and Georgia Families customer service operations are once again recognized for providing a superior level of service to public health insurance program participants."

About MAXIMUS

MAXIMUS is a leading health and human services administrator for governments in the United States, United Kingdom, Canada and Australia. The Company delivers administrative solutions to improve the cost effectiveness, efficiency and quality of government-sponsored benefit programs, such as Medicaid, Medicare, Children's Health Insurance Program (CHIP), Health Insurance BC (British Columbia), as well as welfare-to-work and child support enforcement programs across the globe. The Company's primary customer base includes federal, provincial, state, county and municipal governments. Operating under its founding mission of Helping Government Serve the People(R), MAXIMUS has more than 8,800 employees located in more than 270 offices worldwide. For more information, visit www.maximus.com .

About BenchmarkPortal, Inc.

BenchmarkPortal is the custodian of the Purdue University Center for Customer-Driven Quality database of contact center metrics, the largest in the world. It provides reports, products and services for contact centers in the areas of operational metrics, customer satisfaction measurement and agent satisfaction measurement. For further research information, visit www.BenchmarkPortal.com .

 

UCN First to Offer Real-Time Call Center Benchmark Analytics

Salt Lake City, Utah - UCN, Inc., the leading provider of all-in-one, off-premises contact center technology services, today announced inContact/PeerCompare(TM), a real-time performance benchmarking service to be provided in conjunction with BenchmarkPortal(TM). PeerCompare(TM) enables contact center managers to compare their center's performance against that of other call centers in similar industries.

This unique service will enable participating inContact call centers to have their ACD (automated contact distribution) performance metrics automatically uploaded to the BenchmarkPortal database of best practice indicators. Submitted data is compared to other call centers in the same industry, then a gap analysis table is presented within the inContact real-time reporting tool. All individual data is kept in strict confidence by BenchmarkPortal.

The Ascent Group is Pleased to Announce the Publication of 'Call Center Quality Practices 2006'

KITE, GA --March 2, 2006 -- The Ascent Group, publisher of the Service Delivery Advantage Customer Service Quarterly and Call Center E-Journal, announces the availability of its latest research report--Call Quality Practices 2006.

New technology and dedicated quality assurance groups now make it possible to monitor more calls per month per employee than in the past. Has this technology led to higher customer satisfaction, improved call center performance, or more effective agents? Based upon extensive research conducted during the end of 2005 and early 2006, Call Quality Practices 2006 reveals that employing this new technology does not guarantee success. Some companies have experienced great success, while others still struggle. As most have discovered, call quality assurance is a highly complex process that involves its own risks and rewards.

Contact Centers Now on Boardroom Agenda

HAUPPAUGE, NY -- Dimension Data, a $2.7 billion IT solutions and services provider, today announced results from its annual Contact Center Benchmarking Report. According to the Report, organizations are increasingly understanding the significance of the contact center in creating customer value and achieving commercial returns. This is evident by the finding that now 70% of contact centers report to director level, including 25% now reporting directly to the CEO.

The eighth Global Contact Center Benchmarking Report reveals that organizations are placing higher importance on contact centers, as they interact with an organization's most important resource -- its customers. As such, contact centers and their strategies are slowly maturing with 51% of participants in the study aligning their contact center development strategy with the corporate strategy.