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MESSA Receives National Recognition for Best Practices in Providing Efficient, Cost-Effective Customer Service

Posted on: Thursday, 12 March 2009, 13:38 CDT

EAST LANSING, Mich., March 12 /PRNewswire/ -- MESSA's East Lansing-based Member Service Center has been recognized for the third consecutive year for superior efficiency and performance in providing outstanding customer service to MESSA members.

MESSA was honored for providing efficient and effective customer service as measured against best practice metrics by The Center for Customer-Driven Quality(TM) at Purdue University and BenchmarkPortal.

"MESSA is constantly striving to become more efficient and effective in delivering its traditional outstanding member service," MESSA Executive Director Cynthia Williams said. "This award is further proof of our continuing success at adopting and implementing efficient and cost-effective business practices."

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 tradition of providing outstanding service efficiently is one of the key factors that have helped MESSA earn and keep the intense loyalty of its members," Williams said. "This national recognition by the industry leader in benchmarking call center quality is further confirmation of our business model and practices."

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."

"Rising medical and pharmaceutical costs coupled with Michigan's perilous budget situation make it very important for MESSA to be extremely efficient and a wise steward of our members' premium dollars," Williams added. "Having our Member Service Center honored as a 'Center of Excellence' is a tribute to our employees' efforts to provide outstanding member service and our leadership in providing that service efficiently."

MESSA coverage is important to Michigan's public school employees and to the success of their school districts. Ninety percent of school employees covered by MESSA say it is an important factor in their job satisfaction. With a strong focus on wellness and supporting members' health care needs, MESSA helps keep school employees healthy and on the job.

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(TM) at Purdue University. 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.

About MESSA

MESSA is a not-for-profit membership association and a Michigan business success story. MESSA employs 300 staff statewide. MESSA regularly earns 98 percent satisfaction scores from its members. Ninety-two percent say MESSA coverage is an important factor in their job satisfaction. MESSA is able to provide a great value in the market because of its member focus and efficient business model. In addition to outstanding customer-service and best business practices, MESSA places a strong emphasis on member education, wellness and preventive care. Discover more about MESSA at www.messa.org .

SOURCE MESSA

Source: PR Newswire

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