BOSTON, Feb. 23, 2016 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- DALBAR, Inc. announced the Top 5 Quality Rankings across the three most important customer touchpoints of financial services companies: Contact Centers, Statements and Websites, based on 2015 year end data.
Only two firms, AIG and VOYA, made it consistently into the Top 5 across all three of these channels, making them a stand out and well poised to respond to the evolving customer expectation of multi-channel capabilities across devices and channels. With the omni-channel trend picking up steam, companies need to focus on high quality and seamless customer experiences via every channel, from contact centers to web, mobile apps, chat and social media to statements, email, text and IVRs.
AIG ranked in the top 5 for the quality of their contact center service to annuity contract holders, the quality of their retirement plan website for employees and their annuity financial statement. Voya knocked it out of the park for their contact center service to mutual fund investors, the quality of their retirement plan website for employees and the investor financial statement.
Driven in large part by the rapid proliferation of technological innovations, companies can no longer provide customers with just one way to interact with their company but need to evolve to meet changing customer needs and behaviors. Customers all have their preferred way of communicating with their financial services firm and it is essential that all of these methods, old and new, deliver the same high quality of care and ease of doing business. AIG and Voya clearly have an institutional commitment to providing a superior standard of care across all of their channels of communication and understand that with all else being equal, quality care is a powerful differentiator in a very crowded marketplace.
“If a customer is treated with the highest level of professionalism and care when they call their financial provider but can’t find what they are looking for on the website or are confused as to how much their account is worth when opening their statement, it diminishes the entire image of that firm,” said Kathleen Whalen, Managing Director at DALBAR.
Here are the top 5 firms in each category:
| Top 5 for Contact Center Quality | ||||
| Mutual Fund Investors | Annuity Contract Holders | Insurance Policyholders | Advisors | Sales Desks |
| 1. JP Morgan 2. Black Rock 3. Primerica 4. Deutsche Asset Wealth Management 5. Voya | 1. Prudential 2. New York Life 3. AXA 4. AIG 5. Transamerica | 1. Guardian for disability insurance 2. Genworth for life insurance 3. Genworth for long term care 4. John Hancock for long term care 5. Western & Southern | 1. Goldman Sachs 2. Black Rock 3. Pacific Life 4. Delaware 5. JP Morgan | 1. JP Morgan 2. Wells Fargo 3. Security Benefit Life 4. Nationwide 5. Alliance Bernstein |
| Top 5 for Statement quality | |||
| Mutual Fund Investor | Annuity Contract Holder | Brokerage | Defined Contribution |
| 1. Black Rock 2. Voya 3. Invesco 4. American Funds 5. Waddell & Reed | 1. AIG 2. AXA 3. Thrivent 4. Protective 5. Pacific Life | 1. Merrill Lynch 2. Edward Jones 3. Pershing 4. Morgan Stanley 5. Raymond James | 1. Merrill Lynch 2. Prudential 3. MassMutual 4. T. Rowe Price 5. Principal |
| Top 5 for Website quality | |||||
| Employers – Retirement Plans | Employees – Retirement Plans | Mutual Fund Investor | Mutual Fund – Advisor | Annuity Contract Holder | Annuity Advisor |
| 1. TIAA 2. Transamerica 3. John Hancock 4. Principal 5. ICMA-RC | 1. TIAA 2. Transamerica 3. Principal 4. Merrill Lynch 5. Voya | 1. Fidelity 2. TIAA 3. Vanguard 4. E*Trade 5. USAA | 1. Putnam 2. Franklin Templeton 3. Thrivent 4. Fidelity 5. Oppenheimer | 1. TIAA 2. Fidelity 3. Thrivent 4. New York Life 5. Lincoln | 1. Lincoln 2. Principal 3. Nationwide 4. Pacific Life 5. AIG |
DALBAR takes a systematic approach to evaluating contact centers, websites and statements using methods that have been developed and refined over the past two decades. Credit is earned for elements that impact an investor or advisor’s ability to act prudently on the information they receive from their financial firm.
For more information on DALBAR’s Quality Rankings and Services, please contact Brooke Halloran at 617-624-7273 or bhalloran@dalbar.com.
DALBAR, Inc. is the financial community’s leading independent expert for evaluating, auditing and rating business practices, customer performance, product quality and service. Launched in 1976, DALBAR has earned the recognition for consistent and unbiased evaluations of investment companies, registered investment advisers, insurance companies, broker/dealers, retirement plan providers and financial professionals. DALBAR awards are recognized as marks of excellence in the financial community.