Availity Wins Two Bronze Stevie® Awards in 2024 Stevie Awards for Sales & Customer Service

Availity, the nation’s largest real-time health information network, announced that Lori Smith, Regional Vice President, Business Development, has been presented with a Bronze Stevie^® Award in the National Sales Executive of the Year category and that Lyle Lyons, Client Services Manager, has been presented with a Bronze Stevie^® Award in the Contact Center Leader of the Year category in the 18th annual Stevie Awards for Sales & Customer Service.

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 nine of the world’s leading business awards programs, also including the prestigious American Business Awards^® and International Business Awards^®.

More than 2,300 nominations from organizations of all sizes and in virtually every industry, in 44 nations and territories, were considered in this year’s competition. Winners were determined by the average scores of more than 200 professionals worldwide on seven specialized judging committees. Entries were considered in more than 90 categories for customer service and contact center achievements, including Contact Center of the Year, Award for Innovation in Customer Service, and Customer Service Department of the Year; more than 60 categories for sales and business development achievements, ranging from Senior Sales Executive of the Year to Sales Training or Business Development Executive of the Year to Sales Department of the Year; and categories to recognize new products, services, and solution providers.

A results-oriented sales professional with over 20 years of sales management, business development, and account management experience in the healthcare industry, Smith has extensive experience driving the sales of products and services in fast-paced, high-pressure environments. Since joining Availity, she has continuously worked to understand the needs of her clients and has helped them achieve their desired outcomes and goals, while acting as a coach, mentor, and role model to others on how to be successful both in sales and professionally. In both 2022 and 2023, Smith earned Availity’s top Sales Executive – meeting over 300% of her quota for two consecutive years in a row.

Joining Availity over 17 years ago, Lyons drives process and leads teams to ensure a quality client experience, so users can maximize the value of Availity's products. His tenure allows him to serve as a subject matter expert on the company’s solutions, where he often acts as a trusted advisor supporting the launch of new products, technologies, and health plan implementations. In his current role as leader of Availity’s Client Services team, Lyons has been responsible for the implementation of new process improvement initiatives, hiring practices, job fit assessments, simulation software, and performance-based reward programs that have improved associate retention by over 25%. Associates from Client Services are highly sought after for internal roles, and enjoy careers on the Growth, Product, Technology, and Implementation teams. In 2023, his metric-driven leadership was instrumental in reducing average speed of answer (ASA) by over 75% and consistently achieving departmental quality scores over 95%.

“We are thrilled that Lori and Lyle have been awarded this honor by the prestigious Stevie Awards,” said Russ Thomas, CEO of Availity. “Both Lori and Lyle exemplify the core values at Availity – demonstrating their passion and strong work ethic to deliver the utmost in quality and satisfaction to our valued customers. We extend our deepest gratitude for their continuous efforts, which play a critical role in advancing our mission of simplifying healthcare for all.”

“The high scores given to the winning nominations in this year’s competition are evidence of the high levels of achievement portrayed in them,” said Stevie Awards President Maggie Miller. “We join with the judges and all members of the Stevie Awards community in congratulating and celebrating the winners for their accomplishments.”

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 Availity

Availity is the trusted partner for organizations seeking to realize the greatest value from clinical, administrative, and financial data. Positioned at the nexus of provider, health plan, and consumer health information, Availity develops scalable, innovative solutions for healthcare data acquisition, standardization, transparency, automation, and exchange among health plans, providers, and technology partners. As one of the nation's largest health information networks, Availity facilitates billions of clinical, administrative, and financial transactions annually. Our suite of dynamic products, built on a powerful, intelligent platform, enables real-time collaboration for success in a competitive, value-based care environment.

For more information, including an online demonstration, please visit www.availity.com or call 1.800.AVAILITY (282.4548). Follow us on LinkedIn and X.

About The Stevie^® Awards

Stevie Awards are conferred in nine 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 Sales & Customer Service, the new Stevie Awards for Technology Excellence, and the Stevie Awards for Women in Business. Stevie Awards competitions receive more than 12,000 entries each year from organizations in more than 70 nations. More than 1,000 professionals around the world participate in the Stevie Awards judging process each year. 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.

Sponsors of the 18th annual Stevie Awards for Sales & Customer Service include Sales Partnerships, Inc., Support Services Group, and ValueSelling Associates, Inc.

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