Aeroplan Transforms Customer Service with Genesys Dynamic Contact Center

Today at G-Force San Diego, Genesys Telecommunications Laboratories, Inc., an Alcatel-Lucent company (Euronext Paris and NYSE: ALU), announced that Aeroplan, a Canadian-based loyalty marketing company, has been selected from more than 240 applicants as a finalist for the second annual 2007 Genesys Customer Innovation Awards. Aeroplan attained perfect scores in several of the 17 scoring categories, receiving recognition as the leader in voice self-service and proactive customer service.

Using technology innovatively to streamline and optimize customer service, Aeroplan partnered with Genesys to transform its customer contact center into a Dynamic Contact Center (DCC), increasing customer satisfaction as well as improving the contact center’s alignment with company business goals. Finalists strive to provide excellent customer service through the innovative use of technology in highly dynamic environments. Furthermore, the DCC showcases how customer service can be elevated to a strategic business asset designed to increase overall customer loyalty and business value. A DCC stops customer frustration, drives contact center efficiencies and accelerates business innovation.

“The goal of the awards program is to recognize the world’s most dynamic contact center environments,” said Wes Hayden, president and CEO, Genesys. “Aeroplan has strategically leveraged the Genesys suite of contact center solutions to achieve an optimal balance of customer traffic, internal resources and business outcomes. The most universal common thread among all of the innovators is the ability to link business issues to customer service, achieve optimization and treat the contact center as a strategic opportunity.”

Aeroplan had been pursuing an aggressive growth plan for several years, including new products, members and partners. This growing partnership and membership base meant increased pressure to offer top-quality service more often across the different delivery channels.

With four million calls handled in the contact centers annually, and over half of all rewards claimed via aeroplan.com, the company provides robust channels for members to obtain the services they need.

Aeroplan sought to absorb this growth in the contact center while reducing the total number of agents that responded to routine member inquiries. Based on Aeroplan’s philosophy that speech gives customers a reliable, integrated, anywhere access channel that provides a viable alternative to contact center agents, the company uses speech in varying and unique ways.

Aeroplan implemented a speech solution to replace its touchtone IVR, and equipped the speech application with voiceprint recognition and authentication for security access.

“The application records the member’s voice print by asking the member to say their Aeroplan number three times, and after confirmation of their identity, stores this voice print in a secure database,” said Brian Rowland, director of Customer Service Technology and Member Experience, Aeroplan. “When the member calls back and provides the speech system with their account number, the system will compare the voice on the phone with the stored voice print. If there’s a match, the member has full access to their account via the speech application, with no need to provide additional information like a password or PIN.”

The speech application also helps Aeroplan improve customer service when wait times are high in the contact center. While waiting on hold for an agent, the speech application asks the member if there is a need to change the mailing address, or to add an e-mail address to the account. By ensuring that the customer service organization has the most up-to-date member profile information on file, Aeroplan’s marketing department is able to use this updated information to communicate with members for things like e-statements and targeted promotions.

The contact center is a critical component of the business of customer care and Aeroplan leverages advanced solutions to provide world-class service to its members. The integration of technology with business processes optimizes agent work allocation, helps Aeroplan flatten the peaks and valleys in the customer service demand curve, and even during peak times, allows Aeroplan to service many more customers than would otherwise be possible with the number of agents available.

In defining its DCC vision, Genesys looked at the global customer service leaders among the 4,000 companies currently using its software. Genesys recognized that customers have started to deploy elements of the DCC vision today, based on key capabilities. Genesys created the Genesys Customer Innovation Awards to recognize those customers who are already making strides toward creating DCCs. The program also enables sharing of experiences among the Genesys customer community.

Aeroplan presented to a panel of analyst judges during the semi-finals at the Alcatel-Lucent Forum held in Paris in February 2007. Aeroplan will receive recognition at G-Force San Diego, Genesys’ annual user conference, today in San Diego, Calif. For more information on the event, visit: http://www.genesysgforce.com.