Vertex Aims Higher with ResponseTek to Improve Customer Experience


Partnership set to improve customer experience by bringing the 'Voice of the Customer' into outsourced contact centres

LEADING international business process outsourcer Vertex has announced the formation of a service partnership with Vancouver based customer experience management (CEM) software supplier ResponseTek Networks.

The innovative partnership, the first of its kind in the UK, comes after Vertex, which provides business support and customer services to some the UK's most successful brands, identified the UK BPO industry was failing to keep pace with customers' demands for better service1. To address this, Vertex, the UK's second largest business process outsourcer (BPO)2, looked to ResponseTek, the leading CEM software vendor, to provide clients real-time transparency into their customers' experiences.

The software suite provided by ResponseTek, combined with Vertex's own in-house technology platforms, will enable businesses to:
o monitor their customers' experiences 24 hours a day, seven days a week
o encourage customers to share their experiences and listen to what they want and expect
o Integrate insight from customers into the organisation's own quality performance systems in order to respond to, and act upon, customer feedback

John Hall, Vertex Private Sector & Utilities Managing Director said: "Naturally we are continually striving to improve the quality of experience for our clients' customers. The BPO industry needs to tackle not only the cause of dissatisfaction amongst customers, but its effect on productivity and performance. By listening to how customers respond to our service and being able to act quickly to put things right when they go wrong, we have a solution that is both technologically advanced and a real differentiator in customer management outsourcing."

The CEM solution is already being used successfully by online travel and lifestyle retailer lastminute.com - an existing client of Vertex - who use the product to resolve individual customer issues and drive enhancements to the overall customer experience.

Julian Kent, Senior Customer Services Manager of lastminute.com says: "This kind of innovative technology is really helping us deliver significant improvements in levels of customer service."

The Vertex/ResponseTek partnership comes as Vertex sponsored Henley Management College's Research Centre for Customer Management, whose primary objective is to promote customer focus and service excellence best practice. Recent research led by Professor Moira Clark, Director of the Henley Centre for Customer Management, looked at what factors help make a great customer experience. Prof Clark's research found that customers are becoming increasingly experience-orientated and discerning. Using the basis of the research, Vertex decided to spearhead the use of technology enabled customer management systems to help monitor and improve the customer experience overall.

"Organisations are increasingly aware that delivering positive customer experiences is essential to long term success, and that the contact centre, whether in-house or outsourced, is a critical channel for delivering those experiences," commented Syed Hasan, ResponseTek CEO. "We have been working alongside Vertex at a client location for some time now and are excited to be partnering with industry leaders who share our vision of integrating the voice of the customer into contact centres. While others continue to build outsourced silos, Vertex will be offering real-time transparency into the customer experiences it delivers on behalf of its clients."

1 Vertex customer survey results 2006
2 According to Ovum Holway BPO survey 2006

About Vertex
Vertex is a leading international provider of business process outsourcing and technology services. As the UK's leading provider of innovative customer management and back office solutions, we understand how important high performance is to our clients. Operational and customer service excellence is what our clients expect, and our solutions deliver measurable results - that's why we are the partner of choice for some of the UK's leading brands in the commercial, financial services, utility and public sectors. The company has 9,000 employees across 3 continents - the UK, North America and India, and delivers global solutions and capabilities to a wide range of clients, 365 days a year.
Vertex is backed by private investors. For more information, see vertex.co.uk

About ResponseTek
ResponseTek Networks Corp. (http://www.responsetek.com) enables Global 2000 firms to increase revenues and profits by building customer advocacy and reducing customer defection. The company's on-demand Customer Experience Management (CEM) software helps organizations continually improve how they deliver their customer promise by driving the right information to the right people at the right time. Clients include HSBC, T-Mobile, ntl, lastminute.com, Portugal Telecom, and Xerox.
Press Office contacts:

ResponseTek Networks:
Sarah Stephen sarah.stephen@responsetek.com 604-484-2900

Vertex
Deborah Morris deborah.morris@vertex.co.uk
0151 443 9831
07917347060

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