Reader’s Digest relies on Genesys Dynamic Contact Center platform to cost-effectively manage more than three million calls annually

Genesys Telecommunications Laboratories, Inc., an Alcatel-Lucent company (Euronext Paris and NYSE: ALU), announced today that it has been selected to deliver its Customer Interaction Management (CIM) platform across The Reader’s Digest Association’s four North American contact centers. The Genesys CIM platform will improve customer service, route incoming customer calls more effectively and better manage the multimedia giant’s growing call volume.

The advanced CIM platform incorporates advanced routing technology, called skills- based routing, designed to help The Reader’s Digest Association better manage customer interactions by matching customer needs and inquiries with the best available resource. The company’s flagship publication, Reader’s Digest, is the world’s most widely read magazine, reaching nearly 80 million readers each month. As a $2.8 billion diversified publishing and direct-marketing company, The Reader’s Digest Association, Inc. understands the importance of customer service.

Across its four virtual contact centers, The Reader’s Digest Association fields as many as three million calls annually, facilitating ongoing communication with customers and actively soliciting readers’ responses and feedback. The new contact center platform will enable the company to manage incoming contacts more effectively, improving their customer relationship management and driving new business. With the new Genesys’ technology in place, The Reader’s Digest Association expects that the number of customers who enter their account number into the systems interactive voice response (IVR) system will increase by about 50 percent, saving agent time on each call and reducing customer frustration by eliminating the need to repeat account information.

Intelligent routing technology from Genesys, in conjunction with the company’s existing IVR system, will allow Reader’s Digest to identify and precisely route customers based on call type and value according to specific attributes of the call. Once the customer provides information on the reason for the call and the contact center has access to the customer’s information, the routing technology will send the customer to the agent best trained to handle that type of call.

“To reach our goal of improving our customers’ experience while maximizing the value of each interaction, it is clear we needed to get away from putting all of our customers into one general queue and then sending them to the next available agent,” said John Delgado, Associate Director, Customer Care for The Reader’s Digest Association.

“With skills-based routing, calls are fielded to the most appropriate agents, providing a better experience for the customer and, by making better use of those agents skilled at up-selling and reversing cancellations, helping to boost the bottom line.”

“For consumer-oriented companies like Reader’s Digest, answering calls quickly and efficiently is extremely important,” said Brian Galvin, Genesys chief technology officer. “The Reader’s Digest Association clearly understands the impact intelligent contact center technology can have on the customer call experience and took the steps necessary to ensure that each customer interaction is given the level of attention, responsiveness and care that it deserves.”