DALLAS -

Coinciding with the recent hiring of a former executive at Hyundai and Nissan as vice president of product development, EFG Companies highlighted this week that it is the only F&I product provider to be named to the BenchmarkPortal Top 100 call centers for 2016.

EFG Companies also was ranked in the Top 25 quartile for call centers with five to 50 staff members. The BenchmarkPortal Top 100 competition compares the performance of contact centers throughout North America by evaluating their key metrics against industry peers.

Based entirely on statistical comparison to the world’s largest and most respected database of call center metrics, the BenchmarkPortal Top 100 competition is designed to objectively identify centers who are achieving superior results both in financial and qualitative terms.

EFG’s average claims call speed to answer is less than 30 seconds, while 67 percent of its total claims are one-call claims. The company also pointed out 96 percent of all claims are paid within one hour of receipt of invoice.

“Our clients rely on our expertise and quality customer service when it comes to administering customer claims,” EFG president and chief executive officer John Pappanastos said. “We operate knowing that our claims administration reflects back on our clients’ business and brand.

“By demonstrating our high level of expertise with this certification, we are giving our clients the highest confidence that all claims will be handled expertly, efficiently and respectfully, promoting a positive overall customer experience and driving greater customer loyalty for their business,” Pappanastos continued.

SubPrime Auto Finance News investigated whether more auto finance companies were included among the BenchmarkPortal Top 100 call centers for 2016. However, BenchmarkPortal indicated that it only publishes the specific ranks for the top three companies in each category. BenchmarkPortal does not publish specific rankings for all participants because the firm does not want them to be improperly used for competitive purposes by others.

BenchmarkPortal CEO Bruce Belfore added that the firm is also mindful of legal issues related to the use of company names.

“The award process is based on actual performance,” he said. “Recipients of the Top 100 Award have demonstrated, on a very objective basis, that they provide superior service and financial performance as compared with our database overall.”

Belfore did share why EFG ranked so highly in the analysis.

“The EFG Companies contact center is among the best in its industry,” he said. “This award was granted on the basis of objective, metrics-driven performance. EFG Companies stood tall against its competitors according to the world’s largest database of call center metrics. This is not easy to do, and we congratulate them on their accomplishment.”

New VP of product development

In other company news, EFG recently added Richard Christensen as vice president of product development. The company highlighted that Christensen offers a wealth of direct experience in initiating and launching corporate strategic initiatives with companies like Hyundai Capital America and Nissan North America.

In his previous roles, Christensen has overseen the launch of global strategic alliance formations with product, brand development and rollout, in conjunction with development of sales processes, reinsurance models, and regulatory and compliance practices. This experience will be well utilized as he leads the strategic efforts of EFG’s product development team, including product lifecycle and relationship management.

With more than 25 years of retail and wholesale automotive and reinsurance experience, Christensen most recently served as a senior director at Hyundai Capital America, where he was responsible for launching and managing a captive insurance subsidiary of HCA.

Christensen also served as president at Nissan Global Reinsurance based in Bermuda, and functioned as a senior manager of vehicle service contracts for Nissan North America in Los Angeles. 

“Today’s dealers are under an immense amount of pressure, from undertaking stringent compliance initiatives to incentivizing new consumer groups to enter an automotive market with ever higher entry-level price tags,” Pappanastos said. “Dealers need agile partners who are constantly looking ahead to see where the industry is going and to look at new challenges as opportunities to increase dealer profitability. At EFG, we consider ourselves one of those partners.

“The addition of Rick to our leadership team strengthens our position in leading the industry in terms of product innovation and administration of quality consumer protection products that benefit consumers, dealerships and the industry as a whole,” Pappanastos continued.

Reflecting on his new post, Christensen added, “Dealerships and lenders need better ways to connect and retain purchase behavior with a more informed and demanding consumer.

“We’re doing very progressive work that is aligned with our goals of leading the industry in focusing on customer service and consumer benefits, with an eye towards compliance and sales process for the dealers, and I’m excited to be a part of it,” he went on to say.