Genesys Customer eircom Wins Best Contact Centre in the World Award

  • eircom Telesales & Service Centre Outshines 250 Global Entries and is Recognised for its Commitment to Agents and Customers

Wokingham - January 4th, 2007 - Genesys Telecommunications Laboratories, an Alcatel-Lucent company, (Euronext Paris and NYSE: ALU), has announced that eircom, Ireland's leading communications company and a Genesys customer for three years, has won the prestigious title of "Best Contact Centre in the World" at the 2006 World Contact Centre Awards in Las Vegas, Nev. eircom was initially recognised as the Best Contact Centre in EMEA in October 2006 and has advanced to win the industry's most prestigious award - best in world.

eircom TSS (Telesales and Service Centre) won the award for its commitment to customers and for its alignment of contact centre performance and objectives with the organisation's corporate goals. This award acknowledges eircom's key strategic developments including attracting and retaining a high calibre staff, answering 85 per cent of the 6000 calls it receives weekly within 10 seconds, 36 per cent of which present cross- and up-selling opportunities. The award also honours eircom's management of complex customer situations.

"It is fantastic to be recognised as the best of the best by our industry peers from around the world," said Annette Hickey, head of eircom TSS who attended the awards ceremony in Las Vegas. "Participating at these world awards and sharing ideas with our peers will help us to stay focused on doing things better and smarter and remain number one for customer service, innovation and brand differentiation."

eircom also recently won Ireland's Contact Centre Award for best innovative use of technology and the IM B2C Commerce Award for demonstrating vision and skill in new technology. eircom's track record of success demonstrates the company's commitment to be the number one customer service and customer satisfaction communications organisation in Ireland.

"I would like to extend my congratulations to Annette Hickey and her team," commented Mark Turner, vice president UK and Ireland, Genesys. "We are delighted that eircom has been awarded this prize on behalf of the International Contact Centre World Industry. This award, combined with its other customer service accolades, further sets eircom apart as a shining example of how to provide stellar customer service and improved contact centre network efficiency."

eircom uses the Genesys Voice Platform and Nuance speech recognition engine to power its '1901' freefone customer service application that handles 100,000 calls per week. The freefone solution has enabled eircom to ensure first-time call resolution for customers without internal transfers or double-handling of calls, thereby increasing call centre efficiency. eircom is the first organisation to have developed a speech recognition solution adapted to the Irish dialect.

About eircom
eircom is the largest provider of telecommunications services in Ireland with approximately 1.2 million customers. It offers a comprehensive portfolio of Voice, Data, Wireless & Mobile services. eircom has approximately a 79 per cent share of the fixed-line business and, following the November 2005 acquisition of Meteor, the third largest mobile operator in Ireland and its new mobile division, the company has achieved a 15 per cent share of the mobile market.

About Genesys Telecommunications Laboratories, Inc.
Genesys, an Alcatel-Lucent company, is 100 per cent focused on software for customer interactions. Genesys provides an integrated software suite for dynamic environments, automatically adjusting to balance corporate resources, marketing goals, and customer needs. With 3,300 enterprise customers in 80 countries, Genesys directs more than 100 million customer interactions every day. Genesys allows its customers to leverage their entire organisation, from the contact centre to the back office, to improve the overall customer experience. Customers are quickly connected to the right resource - the first time - using sophisticated routing and reporting, integrated voice, e-mail, Web interactions, and self service. As a result, Genesys helps stop customer frustration, drive efficiency, and accelerate business innovation. For more information, visit us at www.genesyslab.com

About Alcatel-Lucent
Alcatel-Lucent (Euronext Paris and NYSE: ALU) provides solutions that enable service providers, enterprises and governments worldwide, to deliver voice, data and video communication services to end-users. As a leader in fixed, mobile and converged broadband networking, IP technologies, applications, and services, Alcatel-Lucent offers the end-to-end solutions that enable compelling communications services for people at home, at work and on the move. With 79,000 employees and operations in more than 130 countries, Alcatel-Lucent is a local partner with global reach. The company has the most experienced global services team in the industry, and one of the largest research, technology and innovation organisations in the telecommunications industry. Alcatel-Lucent achieved proforma combined revenues of Euro 18.6 billion in 2005, and is incorporated in France, with executive offices located in Paris. For more information, visit Alcatel-Lucent on the Internet: www.alcatel-lucent.com


Media Contact:
Lucille Jackson, Genesys, 0118 974 7144, ljackson@genesyslab.co.uk

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