TORONTO, Jan. 8, 2014 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Today DALBAR Canada released the 2013 winners of its annual Mutual Fund Service Award and Direct Brokerage Service Award. For the Mutual Fund Service Award, Franklin Templeton Investments emerged as the leader in customer service for English language services and BMO Mutual Funds emerged as the leader in customer service for its French language services. For the Direct Brokerage Service Award, RBC Direct Investing and HSBC InvestDirect both emerged as leaders in customer service in 2013.
For nearly two decades, DALBAR has conducted rigorous testing of service delivery and, each year identifies those mutual fund firms and direct brokerage firms that were found to be above their peers in service to clients after a full year of comprehensive evaluation.
These award winning firms understand the importance of delivering superior service and have employed a disciplined approach in servicing its customers well. Key attributes of active listening, showing appreciation for the client, asking relevant questions, providing detailed responses, recapping information and outlining next steps, were consistently found among the award winning firms in the interactions evaluated.
"It is clear, these award winning organizations have created an action plan that holds the company accountable to its brand promises," said Michelle Slute, Senior Director, Client Experience at DALBAR.
The Mutual Fund Service Award and Direct Brokerage Service Award are based on systematic testing of customer service throughout the year. Driven by client preference measurements, DALBAR conducts thousands of rigorous tests each year evaluating a company's quality of performance in product and procedural knowledge, professionalism, ease of doing business and their ability to deepen relationships with clients. Companies that exceed a variety of industry benchmarks after one year of testing earn the DALBAR Service Award.
DALBAR, Inc. is the financial community's leading independent expert for evaluating, auditing and rating business practices, customer service performance, product quality and service. Launched in 1976, DALBAR has earned the recognition for consistent and unbiased evaluations of insurance companies, investment companies, registered investment advisers, broker/dealers, retirement plan providers and financial professionals. DALBAR awards are recognized as marks of excellence in the financial community.