Dixons Business Improvement Speaks Volumes about the Power of Speech Recognition

-eircom and SpeechStorm help deliver major customer service benefits and lower costs-

Dublin, Ireland, July 11th, 2007 - Dixons Stores Group (DSG), the largest electrical retailer in Ireland, announced today that it has seen dramatic improvements in its customer service through the introduction of a streamlined telephone service for customers of PC World, Dixons and Curry’s. The intelligent call handling solution from eircom, incorporating advanced technology from the speech recognition experts at SpeechStorm, has helped DSG Ireland better handle the massive volume of 56,000 calls it receives each week. Sixty per cent of customer queries have been re-directed from local shop floors providing telephone customers with the information they need instantly.

Previously these calls were entering the company in an unstructured way -- most callers rang their local shop, and often found they needed to ring a different number to get the information they needed. Meanwhile, so many ringing phones were pulling sales teams away from shop floors.

"We wanted to streamline the whole system - get customers to their destination as quickly as possible, and remove a lot of this unnecessary call volume from the stores," said Paul May, Services Manager for DSG Ireland.

The Power of Speech

With 22 Irish stores and plans to expand, Dixons knew it needed a solution that offered power and flexibility. In consultation with eircom and SpeechStorm, Dixons resolved to implement a new, intelligent call handling solution that has significantly improved the service it offers to all its customers:

• Unified inbound calls: each Dixons brand - including Dixons, PC World and Curry's, now has its own dedicated 1890 number from eircom. This offers one, convenient way for a shop's customers to get in touch and, on a network level, it brings all calls into a single stream, a necessary step to facilitate advanced call handling features.

• Speech-powered menu for fast service: every call, 24 hours a day, is answered by eircom Information Line powered by SpeechStorm. Callers hear a series of easy-to-use menu options that they can navigate by voice and quickly get the information they want. Customers can also choose to be connected to their local shop. Dixons can update this menu anytime with a convenient web-based tool from SpeechStorm. "The system is very flexible. I can add or take away stores at the flick of a switch," Paul says. "Everything is in my own hands. We find the web-based management tools especially handy. As our business changes, we can change the system."

• Fully hosted service makes rollout simple: following the design and consultation phase, rollout was completed in a matter of weeks in September 2006, thanks to eircom's hosted service model. This means the speech recognition technology, call routing intelligence, customisable speech menus and call analysis tools all live inside the eircom network itself, instead of requiring Dixons to purchase expensive additions to its in-house switchboards or other hardware.

• Dramatic drop in service calls to shops: eircom and SpeechStorm have helped Dixons cut its costs as well as achieving a 60 per cent reduction in the number of service calls going into its branches. All customer calls are now answered promptly, with waiting times eliminated.

"We got expert advice from eircom and SpeechStorm around the whole area of automated speech solutions and we wouldn't have been able to get these impressive results without them, they advised us every step of the way," Paul said.

Paul May also says that DSG Ireland has continued to expand since implementing the system with 30 shops nationally. Going back to the old way would literally be impossible. The advisory relationship with eircom has also continued, with a dedicated account manger for Dixons providing ongoing business support.