Northeast Delta Dental: A Relentless Customer Driven Role Model

Every year I highlight Northeast Delta Dental. This is an insurance company based in New Hampshire, Maine and Vermont (Every 4 years, anyone running for U.S. President spends a lot of time there).

I have been working with Tom Raffio, President of Northeast Delta Dental, since March 1990. That is 33 years. Tom implemented The Guarantee of Service Excellence starting April 1, 1990, at Dental Dental Plans of Massachusetts before becoming President of Northeast Delta Dental in 1996.

In both my “Relentless”  and “Achieving Excellence Through Customer Service” books, I featured Tom Raffio and Northeast Delta Dental. Very few firms in the world provide Relentless customer service.

Northeast Delta Dental’s Guarantee of Service Excellence

These seven guarantees are very important to the companies and employees that use Delta Dental. Instead of saying, “I am sorry,” when they fail to deliver on any of these seven guaranteed services, they pay money to the company.

Reviewing #5 From Northeast Delta Dental’s Guarantee of Service Excellence

The Guarantee: Accurate and Quick Turnaround of Identification Cards. Accurate identification cards will be available within 15 calendar days upon receipt of a completed enrollment form. Refund: Your group will be reimbursed $25 per pair of identification cards

What Happens if They Fail to Provide Identification Cards in 15 Days?: If a company with 200 employees signed up and the cards arrive one day late, or 16 calendar days after requested, Northeast Delta Dental would have to pay out $5000. In 2022, they only had one card that was not delivered on time.

Here is the link for Northeast Delta Dental’s 2022 payouts. This is the only firm I know of that guarantees delivery promises with their own money. Very few firms are willing to gamble real money when they screw up. Maybe that is one of the reasons their market share is so high.

They have 179 full-time employees, so they are smaller than many of the firms I talk about. However, the results are incredible every year. Market share is 60% in Maine and Vermont and 55% in New Hampshire. This is an insurance company offering Dental insurance to companies for their employees. I suspect they have the largest market share of any insurance company in the world. Relentless customer service pays off.

View the Results From Northeast Delta Dental’s Previous 26 Years

In 2022 total revenue was $451,595,767. Total 2022 net income was $8,137,101. Northeast Delta Dental is a non-profit. The Reserve/Surplus is $168,952,835 vs $8,573,838 when Raffio started in 1995 as CEO with the GOSE plan. Primary subscribers are 551,857, and they Cover  1,014,059 individuals.

The amount spent on training in 2022 was $133,835, which was $750 per Full Time Employee. The percentage of payroll spent on training was 0.88%.

Northeast Delta Dental’s Historical Corporate Records

Northeast Delta Dental has always measured the results each year. They understand the power of their Guarantee of Service Excellence.

Tom Raffio’s books are available on Amazon, Prepare for Crisis – Plan to Thrive: The Inside Story of How One Company did it Right in 2020 and invested $27 million (about 8% of their annual revenue) in stakeholder relief, and there are No Do-Overs.

Tom Raffio can be reached at traffio@nedeltal.com. Their website is www.nedelta.com Their office phone is 1-800-537-1715 or 1-603-223-1000. They are open from 8 am – 8 pm, and a live person answers the phone. We are now open until 8 pm with live people.  (Northeast Delta Dental did this for a customer who had a branch on the west coast. Then discovered our New England customers love having live support till 8.  And people who know what they are talking about and answer in less than 30 seconds, with no miserable menus.)

If you have a firm in New Hampshire, Maine or Vermont, make sure you experience Northeast Delta Dental in 2023.