Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Vermont Wins Nine Awards for Excellence in Customer Service

Berlin, Vermont— Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Vermont has won nine awards for excellence in customer service, including the SQM Highest Customer Service Award for the Health Care Industry and the SQM Highest Customer Service Award for the Non-Profit Sector for 2020. Blue Cross was chosen out of over 500 call centers benchmarked in North America.

Blue Cross’s customer service team excelled in several award areas during the pandemic year, taking the First Call Resolution Best Practice Award in Career Development; the World Class Employee Experience Award; and the company was named as a finalist as a Best Performing Small-to Mid-Sized Call Center.

“SQM awards recognize organizations with outstanding customer and employee experience performance and are considered North America’s most prestigious and sought-after contact center industry awards,” said Mike Desmarais, founder and CEO of the SQM Group, Inc. 

Two Blue Cross customer service representatives, Kasia Starzec of Barre and Hannah Tomeny of Williamstown were individually named as finalists for the Customer Service Representative of the Year award, and Janalee Willett, Blue Cross’s Director of Customer Service was awarded the First Call Resolution Leadership Award.

“We take immense pride in our interactions with our members at Blue Cross,” said Janalee Willett. “The goal of our customer service team is to make our members’ health care journey as simple as possible. We take every call as an opportunity to connect with our members in a positive and informative way while solving the problem that led to the call. When our members have a health care question or a challenge, we have a dedicated team of Vermonters standing by locally to help them through it.”

During normal times, the customer service team is based in the Blue Cross office in Berlin, Vermont. This year, the team overcame the challenges of working remotely, navigating school closures and child care, and fears for their families, neighbors, and friends. The pandemic presented unique circumstances and despite it all, the team continued their unflagging support for Blue Cross members.

“Our world class customer service team has stood by our members through all of the uncertainty of the past year and will be here for our neighbors as we continue to work toward a healthier future,” said Don George, President and CEO of Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Vermont. “While this past year has not been easy, we believe the future is bright.”

Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Vermont is Vermont’s only local, not-for-profit health plan. For over 70 years, the company has been enhancing the health and well-being of the Vermonters by offering innovative plans to individuals, seniors and businesses. Our employees are dedicated to developing new ways to support high quality care and programs and events that promote wellness. Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Vermont is an independent licensee of the Blue Cross and Blue Shield Association.