3rd Party Remote Call Monitoring Feature

Insurance provider Aflac has announced that it has achieved certification by J.D. Power for its phone customer service.

"As a founding principle of Aflac, we value our customers above anything else," said Aflac U.S. President Teresa White. "We are both honored and pleased that our contact center program has been certified for customer service excellence by J.D. Power. We see this as the ultimate recognition of our efforts."

The company -- best known for its TV commercials featuring a duck quacking the company’s name as users discuss its supplemental insurance programs for people who get injured on the job -- received the J.D. Power 2015 Certified Contact Center Program certification after passing a rigorous audit.

J.D. Power looked at Aflac’s training, recruiting, employee incentives, management responsibilities and quality assurance. The company was evaluated on things like representative courtesy, knowledge, concern for the customer, promptness and timely resolution of customer issues.

Since almost all contact centers use some kind of automated phone system, J.D. Power also looked at how well Aflac’s system worked, including how clear the information was and how easy it was to navigate the phone menu.

In addition to the audit, J.D. Power also derived its results from a random sample of customers who’d interacted with the company’s call centers in Columbus, Georgia, and Omaha, Nebraska.

A company must perform in the top 20 percent of customer service scores to be certified.

The certification will certainly give Aflac an edge, even though it already has a well-recognized brand with its famous commercials. Dealing with insurance isn’t a pleasant affair, since when people really need it they’re dealing with one of the worst moments in their lives.

In the case of Aflac, most of its customers have suffered some kind of serious injury at work when they call in. If word spreads that it’s easy to deal with a provider over the phone, it could help the company attract more business.