Eckoh wins contract with Lead

RNS Number : 1443W

Eckoh PLC

15 November 2010

 



15 November 2010

Eckoh plc

("Eckoh" or "the Company")

Eckoh wins contract with Lead the Good Life

New three-year contract for the provision of speech recognition solutions and call centre services

 

Eckoh, the UK's leading developer of speech recognition solutions for customer contact centres, is pleased to announce that it has been awarded a three-year contract with Lead the Good Life ("LTGL"), a retailer of plants and garden equipment, for the provision of speech recognition solutions and call centre services.

LTGL, a wholly-owned subsidiary of Ideal Shopping Direct ("ISD"), is a retailer of plants and garden equipment, which are sold directly to customers by mail order, over the internet and the telephone, as well as through ISD's television shopping channels. LTGL was acquired by ISD in January 2010, operating an on-line and mail order gardening business under the Garden Bargains brand. It currently employs more than 500 people, who are based mainly at the broadcasting and distribution site in Peterborough, UK.

The Eckoh service, due to commence on 1 December 2010, is to enhance efficiency and improve customer satisfaction through the introduction of speech recognition technology to LTGL's current order and customer service lines. The solution will also recognise repeat callers and offer relevant information. Payments will be securely processed in real-time using EckohPAY, the Company's PCI DSS compliant payment service, and confirmation of the transaction and order reference will be given to the caller. Eckoh will also provide LTGL's call centre with agents to handle the more complex inbound calls and emails.

Nik Philpot, Chief Executive Officer of Eckoh, commented: "The solution we will be delivering to LTGL demonstrates our technical capability as well as the strength of our new compliant and secure payment service, which is attracting increasing interest. We have worked with Ideal Shopping Direct for over five years and are delighted they have chosen to expand our relationship with the group company, which attests to the value of Eckoh's offering."

Peter McDermott, Managing Director at Lead the Good Life, said: "We selected Eckoh because of the high quality and versatility of the service they provide, and the assurances we have received from our parent company as well as the PCI DSS accreditation. By adopting Eckoh's solution, we will be able to enhance our efficiency and improve customer service by offering callers a quicker, more intuitive and personalised experience."

Ends

Enquiries:

Eckoh plc

Nik Philpot, Chief Executive Officer

Adam Moloney, Group Finance Director

www.eckoh.com                                                                                  Tel: [phone]

Corfin Public Relations          

Harry Chathli, Claire Norbury                                                            Tel: [phone]

Singer Capital Markets

Shaun Dobson                                                                                    Tel: [phone]

Notes to Editors:

About Eckoh

Eckoh plc (AIM: ECK) is the UK's leading developer of speech recognition 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 clients' operational costs, whilst freeing up agents to deal with more complex enquiries. Eckoh is 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 Lead the Good Life

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 and www.gardenbargains.com

 

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