Company: Family Heritage Life Insurance Company of America, Cleveland, OH
Company Description: Family Heritage Insurance is an industry leading supplemental insurance company providing Protection, Service and Security to American families. Protection provided by our products, Service delivered by our committed Sales Professionals and our dedicated Home Office Associates.
Nomination Category: Customer Service Categories
Nomination Sub Category: Customer Service Department of the Year

Nomination Title: Family Heritage Life Insurance Company of America's Customer Service Department

1. Tell the story about what this nominated organization/department achieved since January 1 2009 (up to 500 words). Focus on specific accomplishments, and relate these accomplishments to past performance or industry norms. Be sure to mention obstacles overcome, innovations or discoveries made, and outcomes:

Our objective is to deliver “above and beyond” service to customers. Each
policyholder is recognized as a VIP and all calls to Family Heritage are
treated with personalized, concierge-level service. This has resulted in
Family Heritage having the lowest NAIC complaint ratio across competitors.

At Family Heritage, “proactive” is the defining word. Once the company learns
of a claim, the Claims Examiners will take it upon themselves to gather the
needed information from the doctor or hospital to process the claim. Our
objective is to make life as easy as possible for people in their time of need.

A few of the factors that lead to superior service are:

A live person. There are no phone menus to navigate. Each customer speaks
with a live person who will address any questions or issues. In customer
testimonials, many comment on how easy it was to reach a live person and how
quickly their questions were answered

Direct deposit of claim payments into a policyholder’s bank account, which
management believes to be a unique service in the industry. This provides our
policyholders with one less thing to worry about during a stressful time.

An opportunity for all employees to spend a day in the field with agents making
sales calls. This allows them to be more empathetic with both agents and
policyholders.

Quick and accurate document retrieval to minimize the wait time for
policyholders to obtain answers.

A heavy emphasis on employee training with a focus on customer service skills.
Training programs include skill-based courses, seminars on what the various
company departments do, and leadership training for high-potential employees.

We want all employees to realize that “above and beyond” is the standard.
Claim testimonials are shared with all employees to allow them to understand
how their activities impact the lives of our customers. The following provides
an example of the company’s “above and beyond” level of service.

A grieving family submitted a claim related to the death of their young child
after a long battle with cancer. The amount of the bills forced the family to
rely on government assistance to pay some medical costs. To reimburse some of
these costs, the government wanted to attach the Family Heritage claim payment
that was going to be sent to the family, the value of which was several
hundreds of thousands of dollars. Family Heritage could have paid the claim to
the government and let the family fight with the government for the benefits.
Instead, because a hallmark of our company is helping families in times of
need, Family Heritage engaged legal counsel at its own cost. Through counsel,
Family Heritage entered into negotiations with the government to try to reach a
resolution more favorable to our insured. Unable to get the government to
budge, Family Heritage commenced a legal action which resulted in a successful
result for the family.

It is through these efforts that Family Heritage is able to consistently
provide “above and beyond” customer service.

2. List hyperlinks to any online news stories, press releases, or other documents that support the claims made in the section above. IMPORTANT: Begin each link with http://, and enclose each link in square brackets; for example, [http://www.youraddress.com]:

http://www.familyheritagelife.com/PHTestimonials.aspx
http://www.familyheritagelife.com/worldclasscustomerservice.aspx

3. Provide a brief (up to 100 words) biography about the leader(s) of the nominated organization/department:

Howard Lewis began his professional career in the financial services industry
in 1978 with positions at Central Trust and later at Progressive Insurance. In
1983, Mr. Lewis joined Capitol American Life Insurance where he was eventually
promoted to President of Consumer Marketing.

In 1989, Mr. Lewis founded Family Heritage Life Insurance Company of America.
Mr. Lewis built the company based on the principles of service and integrity,
and on the premise that those who help to build the company should have the
opportunity to become owners in the company. Mr. Lewis has grown the company to
$150 million in revenues.