WebCE has won a Gold Stevie Award in the Contact Center of the Year category at the 20th Annual Stevie Awards for Sales & Customer Service. This marks the company's first Gold win and fifth overall Stevie Award in this category, following Silver awards in 2025 and 2024 and Bronze awards in 2023 and 2022. The recognition highlights a significant achievement in customer service excellence during a period when many organizations are shifting toward automated solutions.
The Stevie Awards for Sales & Customer Service are recognized as the world's top honors for professionals in customer service, contact centers, business development, and sales. The judging panel specifically praised WebCE's "people-first" approach, describing it as "contrarian" amid widespread industry trends toward AI integration and outsourcing. Instead of relying on automation, WebCE employs a carefully developed training regimen for each support representative, enabling them to provide live, personalized assistance to 1.5 million customers navigating complex compliance requirements nationwide.
This model allows a single representative to handle inquiries across 22 different licenses and certifications without requiring call transfers, using scripts, or imposing rigid time limits. Director of Support Services Jordan Smith stated, "Our support team is the heartbeat of WebCE, proving that, in an increasingly automated world, the ultimate competitive advantage is genuine human connection." The judges echoed this sentiment, noting that "the WebCE Support Services team delivers exceptional people-first service at national scale, combining speed and trust to create consistently outstanding customer experiences."
The award also recognizes WebCE's operational efficiency. From 2023 to 2025, the company reduced its average time to answer incoming customer calls by 14 seconds, achieving an average speed of answer of just 29 seconds. This improvement lowered the call abandonment rate to 1.5%, significantly better than the 5% industry standard. Customer satisfaction metrics further demonstrate the success of this approach: WebCE earned a 95% Customer Satisfaction Score (CSAT), far exceeding the industry average of 74% reported by the American Customer Satisfaction Index (ACSI).
Stevie Awards President Maggie Miller commented, "The remarkable scores achieved by this year's Stevie Awards for Sales & Customer Service winners reflect the extraordinary levels of excellence, innovation, and customer impact they deliver." The competition received more than 2,100 nominations from organizations across 41 nations and territories, with winners determined by the average scores of 150 professionals on eight specialized judging committees. Winners will be celebrated at a gala event at the Marriott Marquis Hotel in New York City on March 5. Details about the awards and all winners are available at https://sales.stevieawards.com/.
This award matters because it validates an alternative model in customer service that prioritizes human expertise over automation, demonstrating that personalized support can drive both efficiency and high customer satisfaction. In an era where many companies are investing heavily in AI-driven solutions, WebCE's success suggests that well-trained human agents remain a competitive advantage, particularly for complex, compliance-heavy industries. The implications extend beyond WebCE, offering a case study for other organizations considering how to balance technological innovation with human touch in customer interactions.
