Solstice Wins Two Gold Stevie® Awards, Named 'Account Management Team of the Year'

PLANTATION, Fla., February 5, 2021 (Newswire.com) - Dental and vision insurer Solstice Benefits, Inc., (Solstice) was presented with the Gold Stevie® Award in the "Account Management Team of the Year" category in the 15th annual Stevie Awards for Sales & Customer Service.

Solstice also won the Gold Stevie® Award in the COVID-19 category for "Most Valuable Response by a Sales Team" and a Silver Stevie® Award in the COVID-19 Response category for "Most Valuable Response by a Business Development Team."

The Stevie Awards for Sales & Customer Service are the world's top honors for customer service, contact center, business development and sales professionals.  The Stevie Awards organizes eight of the world's leading business awards programs, also including the prestigious American Business Awards^® and International Business Awards®.

Winners will be recognized during a virtual awards ceremony on April 14.

Solstice provides dental and vision insurance to employer groups and individuals nationwide. Facing a widespread, unprecedented challenge in the COVID-19 pandemic, Solstice's Account Management team worked to help clients who were abruptly facing provider office closures, layoffs, budget shifts, and altered revenue streams - on top of the immediate health concerns of the coronavirus.

Furthermore, while dental care is critical to maintaining overall bodily health, and dental premiums are stable and relatively affordable, it was possible that dental would fall by the wayside as companies sought to cut costs or focus on medical benefits in the wake of the coronavirus.

Once the pandemic struck, Solstice's Account Management team developed a strategy to support clients emotionally and financially:

1. engage in open, frequent communication with nearly 2,000 phone calls per week to check in with clients
2. offer flexibility to clients with new services, e.g., a free teledentistry program for its 750,000+ dental members
3. provide financial relief where needed to support customers facing financial difficulties, e.g., credits, flat renewals, and temporary, budget-friendly 'COVID-19' dental plans for employer groups and for individual employees who'd been laid off from a Solstice client company.

Solstice achieved 91% client retention and 93% revenue retention from the onset of the pandemic to year-end 2020, an improvement of five to six percent over the company's typical retention levels - which were already consistent with industry-standard expectations.

In this year's Stevie Awards for Sales & Customer Service, more than 2,300 nominations from 51 nations in 60+ categories for sales and business development achievements and 90+ categories for customer service and contact center achievements were considered. Winners were determined by the average scores of more than 160 professionals worldwide on nine specialized judging committees.

Judges' comments for Solstice included:

• "... it's inspiring to see a company with some compassion for customers who were in a tight spot."
• "Extremely innovative approach to client retention ..."
• "Great planning and execution ... job well done."
• "An energetic and remarkably successful program."

"Solstice's mission is to improve the lives of those we serve, and there has not been a more critical time to support our clients," said Brian Correia, Solstice's Vice President of Sales and Account Management. "The COVID-19 pandemic has affected all of us, and we made it our focus to provide uninterrupted service, steady information, access to care, and empathy. We're proud of our team's efforts during this challenging time."

Details about the Stevie Awards for Sales & Customer Service and the list of Stevie winners in all categories are available at www.StevieAwards.com/Sales. 

About Solstice

Solstice is a dental and vision insurance carrier serving employer group and individual clients in both the commercial and public sectors. Solstice has built the largest open access DHMO provider network and boasts a national DPPO network. Solstice created an award-winning benefits administration platform — the Solstice Marketplace. In 2018, Solstice was ranked the No. 54 insurance company on Inc. magazine's 5,000 fastest-growing private companies list, and has made the list eight times. Learn more about Solstice at http://www.solsticebenefits.com.

About The Stevie Awards

Stevie Awards are conferred in eight programs: the Asia-Pacific Stevie Awards, the German Stevie Awards, the Middle East & North Africa Stevie Awards, The American Business Awards®, The International Business Awards®, the Stevie Awards for Great Employers, the Stevie Awards for Women in Business, and the Stevie Awards for Sales & Customer Service. Stevie Awards competitions receive more than 12,000 entries each year from organizations in more than 70 nations. Honoring organizations of all types and sizes and the people behind them, the Stevies recognize outstanding performances in the workplace worldwide. Learn more about the Stevie Awards at http://www.StevieAwards.com.

Source: Solstice Benefits