Walter van der Merwe, CEO of FedGroup Life.
FedGroup voted tops by financial advisors.
For the third year running, South Africa's leading independent financial services group has been honoured with a sought-after Professional Management Review (PMR).africa award.
In 2014, FedGroup walked away with the Bronze Arrow award. 2015 saw the independently-minded financial services group claim Silver. This year, FedGroup won a Golden Arrow, being rated with a mean score of 4.00 out of a possible 5.00 in the Group Life/Risk Products category.
“The PMR.africa Awards are not a competition companies can enter or apply for. Scores are determined following a voting procedure based on a random national survey conducted on local intermediaries, including independent brokers and financial advisors. Because of this impartiality, they are highly coveted in the industry, and we are very honoured to have been recognised with a Golden Arrow this year,” says FedGroup Life’s CEO Walter van der Merwe.
According to PMR.africa, “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.”
FedGroup’s steady and sustainable improvement has been, says Van der Merwe, as a result of a thorough examination of the feedback received each year. “Our staff is deeply committed to clients. Due to this, we evaluate both positive and negative feedback. This provides us with an incredibly powerful tool to determine which processes require improvement. Our ongoing reviews of the services we provide have allowed us to improve across all areas of our business.”
PMR.africa claims the awards represent competitiveness, effectiveness, excellence, leadership, and resilience, and 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.
“FedGroup is an independently run company, which encourages and values independent thinking,” says Van der Merwe. “Our ethos places our members and their well-being at the centre of all that we do, and certainly ahead of the financial gain of shareholders. It is this ethos that has allowed us to take on the industry giants, and being awarded a Golden Arrow Award this year is testament to the success we have achieved in doing so.”
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