VeCommerce Solution Reducing Call Time for Suncorp

SYDNEY, AUSTRALIA - VeCommerce Limited (ASX:VCM) announced it has been working for the last year with Suncorp to assist customers in locating and communicating with the right call center agent. According to VeCommerce, results from the speech enabled call routing solutions show increased customer satisfaction levels as well as improvements in service, operational and cost efficiencies such as a reduction in the initial call time by as much as 50 percent. Suncorp's call centers currently handle 4.5 million calls per annum (forecast to reach volumes of over 400,000 calls per month). The call centers provide customers basic information such as branch location details, or more in-depth service and sales enquiries about insurance policy benefits and policy information, claims advice, personal and home loan applications, wealth management products. "Speech recognition allowed Suncorp to provide its customers with a easier, faster and more efficient method of delivering the customer call to the best skilled, available agent the first time," said Andrew Mulvogue, general manager, personal customer sales and service for Suncorp. Suncorp selected VeCommerce as its speech-enabling partner in May 2002 with the project going live in December 2002. VeCommerce developed an open dialogue'speech system specifically for the Australian financial services industry and provided Suncorp with a speech enabled front end' for its entire organization. "Whilst this seems to be a deceptively simple application for speech recognition, it is actually quite the opposite," said Paul Magee, managing director of VeCommerce. "Suncorp's callers can dial any of six '13' service phone numbers and be effectively routed into one of 20 areas of their business by simply speaking in a natural, and more importantly, unrestricted manner."