Anthem Blue Cross and Blue Shield
Joseph LaGuardia, regional vice president
“From a health and wellness perspective, innovation is imperative. Anthem is constantly creating new ways to communicate needed health information to its customers.”
For example, Anthem’s broad network of physicians and hospitals can be reviewed online at the company’s Web site, www.anthem-inc.com. As Anthem’s corporate mission is ‘To improve the health of the people we serve,’ it continues to develop educational materials and provide more services to customers on the Internet.
“By sharing valuable information on everyday health and on effective treatment and prevention of illness, Anthem works diligently to improve the health and quality of life of our members.”
Brouse McDowell, Akron
Carol Todd Thomas, director of administration and COO
“It’s clear that if you don’t innovate, you’re out of business. Brouse McDowell decided a couple of years ago that in the legal profession, you need to innovate and understand the environment in order to serve your clients.
“Our clients are looking for new solutions from us and it’s an entirely different market out there than it’s ever been. We’ve had to be responsive to the needs our clients have by innovating the way we deliver service. We’ve done that through the use of technology.
“We use technology to increase the service level to our clients, reduce their costs, speed up the delivery of our services and communications and to really operate in the same environment that they’re living with on a day-to-day basis.”
Nextel
John Opdycke, event marketing manager
“Without innovation, we (Nextel) can’t be the industry leader. That’s our goal — to bring new products and new applications for those products to our target market sooner than anybody else. And without being innovators, that’s hard to do.”
Sarcom
Terry Tung, regional director, enterprise services
Sarcom innovates by developing best practices in customer satisfaction. Through these initiatives, the company has achieved a 99.32 percent customer satisfaction level.
It’s done through surveys, completed monthly, and all employees are trained monthly in ways to help customers better. It’s a constant reinforcement of the company’s mission.
“That’s been the company’s claim to fame and the reason we feel we’re so successful,” Tung says.
For example, each employee is empowered to solve customers’ problems: Up to $500 per incident with no prior management approval or paperwork. Problems are resolved quickly — within 48 hours.
ICG Communications
Teresa Wetzel, marketing manager
ICG, headquartered in Englewood, Colo., is a telecommunications provider of high-quality, integrated communications solutions. ICG offers local, long distance and enhanced telephony and data communications to small- to medium-sized businesses.
“As a leading competitive telecommunications provider, ICG Communications Inc., embraces the notion of innovation. In fact, its employees’ creativity and ingenuity have put ICG on the forefront of the voice and data industry. As a telecommunications leader, ICG continues to play a revolutionary role in the industry, which is rich with past, present and future technological accomplishments.”
