MESSA's East Lansing Call Center Again Recognized for Best Practices in Cost-Effectiveness and Customer Service

For the fifth consecutive year MESSA's East Lansing-based Member Service Center has been recognized as a “Certified Center of Excellence” by BenchmarkPortal (News - Alert) in collaboration with the Center for Customer-Driven Quality™ (CCDQ) at Purdue Research Park.

MESSA's call center is one of only four Centers of Excellence in Michigan. BenchmarkPortal is the custodian of the Purdue Research Foundation database of contact center performance metrics, the largest such database in the world. 

“MESSA is a smart, efficient and cost-effective Michigan company that has long provided great value in our market because of our strong focus on customer service, quality coverage, wellness and preventive care – plan features that have been proven to reduce costs,” MESSA Executive Director Cynthia Williams said. “We take pride in seeking continuous improvement in our business practices and benchmarking our success.”

Dr. Jon Anton of Purdue’s Center for Customer-Driven Quality™ said, “This certification attests to the fact that MESSA has successfully balanced efficiency and effectiveness in its call center operations. Certification is such a distinction because it is based on best-practice metrics drawn from the center’s database of contact center metrics, the largest in the world.”

“MESSA’s successful business model has earned exceptional loyalty from education employees. “Real people answer our phones and provide personalized member service. MESSA’s statewide network of Field Representatives provides local support. Our Member Health Education Programs are recognized nationally for quality and effectiveness. And MESSA’s wide array of wellness programs improve employee health and will help reduce costs over the long term,” Williams said.

“MESSA’s Member Service Center staff is knowledgeable and helpful—providing personal, friendly assistance to callers. Over the past 50 years MESSA has made a significant and powerful difference in the lives of hundreds of thousands of Michigan education employees and their families. MESSA has paid more than 300 million claims, and answered more than seven million member phone calls and 15 million letters. And MESSA has covered the births of more than 150,000 infants!”

MESSA consistently earns 99 percent member satisfaction scores in our annual measurements. MESSA’s survey data also shows that MESSA is an important factor in job satisfaction for 92 percent of education employees.

In order to be certified as a “Center of Excellence,” MESSA's Member Service Center had to meet or exceed key performance indicators and metrics established by BenchmarkPortal as standards of quality, cost-efficiency and best practices. MESSA's call center is one of only four in the state of Michigan named “Centers of Excellence.”

                       

About BenchmarkPortal

BenchmarkPortal is the custodian of the Purdue Research Foundation database of contact center performance metrics, the largest such database in the world. Data is collected in conjunction with the Center for Customer-Driven Quality™ at Purdue University (News - Alert). In 2005, BenchmarkPortal received U.S. Patent #6,877,034 for its unique methodology of call center performance evaluation through metric gap analysis. They provide reports, products and services for contact centers in the areas of operational metrics, customer satisfaction measurement and agent satisfaction measurement. For further information visit www.BenchmarkPortal.com.

For more information contact:

Brian Carrington

805.618.1576

brian@benchmarkportal.com

About MESSA

MESSA is a not-for-profit membership association and a Michigan business success story. MESSA employs 300 staff statewide. MESSA earned a 99% satisfaction score from its members in its last member survey. MESSA is able to provide a great value in the market because of its member focus and cost-effective business model. In addition to outstanding customer-service and best business practices, MESSA places a strong emphasis on member education, wellness and preventive care to reduce the cost of health care while supporting its members’ good health. Discover more about MESSA at www.messa.org.

For additional information contact:

Gary Fralick, MESSA Director of Communications and Government Relations517.336.4077gfralick@messa.org

TMCnet publishes expert commentary on various telecommunications, IT, call center, CRM and other technology-related topics. Are you an expert in one of these fields, and interested in having your perspective published on a site that gets several million unique visitors each month? Get in touch.

Edited by Juliana Kenny