Aflac, the leading provider of voluntary insurance at the work site in the United States, announced today that the company's contact center operations has achieved J.D. Power certification for providing an outstanding live phone channel customer service experience under the J.D. Power 2015 Certified Contact Center Program.

The Certified Contact Center Program distinction acknowledges a strong commitment by Aflac's contact center operations to provide "An Outstanding Customer Service Experience," according to J.D. Power.

"As a founding principle of Aflac, we value our customers above anything else," said Aflac U.S. President Teresa White. "We are both honored and pleased that our contact center program has been certified for customer service excellence by J.D. Power. We see this as the ultimate recognition of our efforts."

To become certified, the contact center successfully passed a detailed audit of more than 100 practices encompassing their recruiting, training, employee incentives, management roles and responsibilities, and quality assurance capabilities. As part of its evaluation, J.D. Power conducted a random survey of Aflac customers who recently interacted with its contact centers in Columbus, Georgia, and Omaha, Nebraska.

According to J.D. Power, this achievement demonstrates Aflac's commitment to providing an outstanding customer experience to their clients when they contact Aflac through the live phone channel.

To achieve Certification Status:

• A contact center must perform within the top 20 percent of customer service scores, which are based on benchmarks established in J.D. Power's cross-industry customer satisfaction research.

• The evaluation criteria include the customer service representatives' courtesy, knowledge and concern for the customer; promptness in speaking to a person; and timely resolution of the problem or request.

• The experience with the automated phone system is evaluated based on the clarity of the information provided, ease of navigating the phone menu prompts; and ease of understanding the phone menu instructions.