The Global Association for Contact Center Best Practices & Networking

I was recently involved in an auto accident. I was anticipating a poor customer service experience in contacting someone else's insurance customer in order to receive payment for an accident that was no fault of my own.  I called State Farm to file a claim and through that claim process I had to make approximately seven phone calls. I hardly had to repeat any information and they were not only extremely friendly they were also knowledgeable about my case.

The best customer service story that I've had recently was with Golden Rules Health Insurance, that is the consumer division of United Health Care.

When I started my new job I didn't need this insurance anymore and I had only had it for about a week so. I called Golden Rule and I got into the call centre. A women got on the phone (very nice) and I explained to her that I bought this insurance as bridge insurance but that I didn't need it because my job was starting sooner then I thought it would, so I needed to cancel the policy and get a refund. I said to her what do I need to do? she replied with "you've just done it!, we' will be sending you a check in the mail".

It was the easiest experience,  the service rep was empowered to help me, she was right there to guide me with everything that I needed. I didn't have to fill out any forms, I didn't have to go to a web site, I didn't have to talk to somebody else, or fax something in. I just explained what I needed and she said "it's done." I would recommend that insurance company to anyone just because of that experience.

Anne Miano - PR Manager, etalk

The event that precipitated this good customer experience story was about a year and a half ago when I had gone in for a physical from my doctor. He was in the Blue Cross Blue Shield plan and he billed me more then he should have. Just recently his office administrator sent me an invoice demanding payment. I called up Blue Shield and Blue Cross in California and I spoke to a very pleasant agent.

I informed the agent of what was going on and she was able to bring up the record of my visit to that office a year and a half ago, and the payment that had been authorized. She verified for me that I was not responsible to pay that amount, and in an act of rare courtesy (something I had not seen before) she offered to call the administrator while I was on the line and let me hear her tell the office administrator that this is an inappropriate invoice and it needed to be withdrawn.  She did exactly that, and the situation was instantly resolved with the quickest resolution to a problem that I had ever experienced and I would like to give them kudos.

Bill Durr -  Chief Evangelist, Blue Pumpkin Software