Ideal Shopping Direct extends

RNS Number : 1647P

Eckoh PLC

12 July 2010

 



12 July 2010

Eckoh plc

("Eckoh" or "the Company")

Ideal Shopping Direct extends contract with Eckoh until 2013

Over one million orders are placed using Eckoh's service

Eckoh, the UK's leading developer of speech recognition solutions for customer contact centres, is pleased to announce that Ideal Shopping Direct ("ISD"), a leading digital retailer, has extended its contract for a further two-year period up to October 2013. ISD were one of Eckoh's largest client's in the year ended 31 March 2010.

ISD sells its products to consumers via the internet and its four television shopping channels: Ideal World, Ideal Extra, Ideal & More and Create and Craft - broadcasting to more than 23 million households in the UK. Television is a uniquely powerful selling medium for consumer products and services, and gives ISD the opportunity to demonstrate products in detail, explain the story behind them and add an element of entertainment along the way.

The Eckoh service was originally launched in May 2005 for the provision of inbound telephony. The contract was renewed in May 2008 and the services extended to also include advanced speech recognition and interactive voice response (IVR) solutions to simplify the product ordering process and improve customer service. The service is fully integrated with ISD's database ensuring that up-to-date information on products, stock levels and membership details are available.

During periods of high demand and agent availability, callers are given the option of pressing 2 at anytime to beat the queue by using the Eckoh automated service. When 100% of agents are utilised all calls switch to the automated service, which is scalable.

The Company also provide the Customer Service line for ISD. Improvements have been introduced to allow new customers to register more easily and provide existing customers access to detailed information on product tracking.

The Orderline and Customer Service lines have provided ISD with the capability to deliver a much improved customer service.

Nik Philpot, Chief Executive Officer of Eckoh, commented: "Ideal Shopping are a long standing client and we have worked closely with them over a long period to implement enhancements to the functionality of the service to create a more satisfying customer experience. The volume of orders taken by the service is a clear demonstration of how successful this has been and I'm delighted that by extending the contract our relationship will continue for many years to come."

David Peck, Head of Customer Service at Ideal Shopping, said: "Customer service is a vital part of our strategy whilst maintaining operational efficiency and Eckoh have a crucial role to play in helping us to fulfil this. We are extremely pleased with the services that have delivered and we're thrilled to have extended our relationship with Eckoh and to be able to continue working with them to extend the automated services for our customers."

Ends

Enquiries

Eckoh

Nik Philpot, Chief Executive Officer

Adam Moloney, Group Finance Director

www.eckoh.com                                                  Tel: [phone]

Corfin Public Relations          

Harry Chathli, Claire Norbury                            Tel: [phone]

Seymour Pierce

Jonathan Wright                                                  Tel: [phone]

Notes to Editors:

About Eckoh

Eckoh plc (AIM: ECK) is the UK's leading developer of speech recognition and IVR solutions for customer contact centres.

Eckoh's sophisticated technology enables routine enquiries, transactions or payments to be processed without the need for the consumer to actually talk to an agent. This significantly reduces its client's operational costs, whilst freeing up agents to deal with more complex enquiries. Eckoh are the largest developer of such hosted services in the UK.

Eckoh's secure and resilient infrastructure has the scalability to handle over 650,000 calls an hour and up to 8,000 calls simultaneously, which means calls can always be answered no matter how unpredictable the circumstances.

For more information, visit: www.eckoh.com

About Ideal Shopping Direct

Ideal Shopping Direct Plc is a leading digital retailer, selling products to consumers via its television shopping channels and the internet. ISD operate four television shopping channels; Ideal World, Ideal Extra, Ideal & More and Create and Craft.

Broadcasting to more than 23 million households in the UK; each channel is supported by a transactional website, which also streams the TV broadcast.

Its subsidiary company, Ideal Sourcing Ltd, supplies major UK retailers and wholesalers with craft and related products. The recently acquired 'Lead the Good Life' operates an on-line and mail order gardening business under the Garden Bargains brand. Currently employing more than 500 people, mainly at the broadcasting and distribution site in Peterborough, UK.

For more information, visit: www.idealshoppingdirect.co.uk

 

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