From strength to strength: FedGroup awarded for excellence

FedGroup was honoured last night for the fourth year running at the prestigious PMR.africa Excellence Awards. This year, FedGroup won its fourth consecutive (and second consecutive gold) PMR.africa award in the Group Life/Risk category.

FedGroup was also named in the top three in the country in Investment Products, and Group Pension and Provident Funds, further underlining the high quality of the FedGroup offering.

The reason the industry takes these awards so seriously, says FedGroup Life CEO, Walter van der Merwe, is because these awards cannot be entered into and are determined solely by the ratings received from brokers in this field. "Because of this impartiality, they are highly coveted in the industry."

Each year, FedGroup sees a steady improvement in perception and recognition by the industry. This, according to Van der Merwe, is as a result of a thorough examination of the feedback, which is used to constantly improve on systems and procedures. "As a people-centric organisation, we take customer service extremely seriously. We utilise all feedback to ensure we are constantly evolving and improving to meet ever-changing needs and expectations."

PMR.africa measures "competitiveness, effectiveness, excellence, leadership, and resilience", and the awards set a benchmark in the industry.

The allocation of awards is based on a national research process where a company is rated across a range of 14 criteria that include flexibility, innovativeness, quality and competitive pricing of products. Competence, efficiency and integrity are key in the voting process.

"The awards are the culmination of a research process whereby companies and institutions are rated based on respondents' perceptions, with a strong focus on evaluating and measuring customer service and customer satisfaction," according to PMR.africa.

Says Van der Merwe: "FedGroup has always maintained that our staff show a commitment to our clients that is hard to surpass. Additionally, we have a highly innovative management model in place that encourages improvements to service levels, and sophisticated technology supporting our staff. As an independently run company, which encourages and values independent thinking, we do things differently, and attract staff that are motivated by an ethos that runs throughout our company - FedGroup certainly owes this honour to them."