Last checked at 1 Mar 2010 07:00
1 March 2010
Eckoh plc
("Eckoh" or "the Group")
Eckoh secures three-year renewal of William Hill contract
Eckoh plc ("Eckoh"), the UK's largest provider of hosted speech recognition services, is pleased to announce it has successfully renewed its contract with William Hill, a leading provider of fixed odds bookmaking services, for a further three-year period, valued at up to £2.75 million over the term of the contract. Eckoh's automated solution extends the customer service options for William Hill's UK and Irish customers by providing 24-hour access to results, live racing commentary and contact centre services for placing bets.
The service was originally launched in October 2003 to the UK market and, due to its overwhelming success, it was extended to the Irish market in February 2006. During 2009 the service received over 6 million calls.
Callers dial one number to listen to odds - they are then able to place a bet by selecting a button on their telephone keypad to connect to a live contact centre advisor. From there, callers are returned directly to the action to hear the race commentary as it happens. As well as providing live commentary on all UK and Irish horse and greyhound race meetings, the service offers the latest in race previews and top tips.
The scalability and reliability of Eckoh's carrier-grade platform is of particular importance to William Hill during busy racing periods when thousands of account holders use the service simultaneously. This allows advisors to focus on more complex calls whilst enabling customers to connect straight through to live racing commentary and results without having to queue or hold.
Nik Philpot, Chief Executive Officer of Eckoh, commented: "We are extremely pleased to continue our long-standing relationship with William Hill. We are delighted that the solution has had, and continues to have, such a positive impact, and we look forward to working with William Hill to ensure a continued level of operational and service excellence over the next three years."
Mike Grenham, Head of Sports Information at William Hill, said: "The 24-hour racing commentary line is an extremely popular service that continues to deliver real-time racing information, results and commentary to over 6 million callers every year. Eckoh has performed excellently for us over the years and continues to be the right supplier for William Hill, ensuring our customers need never miss a race and can always keep up-to-date with the latest information."
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Enquiries
| Eckoh plc |
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| Nik Philpot, Chief Executive Officer |
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| Adam Moloney, Group Finance Director |
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| www.eckoh.com | Tel: 01442 458 300 |
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| Corfin Communications |
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| Harry Chathli, Claire Norbury | Tel: 020 7977 0020 |
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| Seymour Pierce |
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| Jonathan Wright | Tel: 020 7107 8000 |
Notes to Editors:
About Eckoh
Eckoh is the UK's largest provider of hosted speech recognition services, with over 7 years of experience in successfully deploying speech solutions. These allow our clients to efficiently manage their contact centres by replacing the more repetitive calls with an effective and intuitive automated service. Our solutions address high volume service requests including billing queries, delivery tracking services, travel timetable checks or transactional payments at a fraction of the cost of a live advisor and on a 24 hour a day basis.
Our carrier-grade platform has the scalability to handle over 650,000 calls an hour and up to 8,000 simultaneously. Our platform has the capacity to manage even the most dramatic and unexpected call peaks, making it the most scalable and flexible speech-enabled platform in Europe. All of our clients' automation requirements; from speech, SMS, web to touch tone IVR are met via a single infrastructure, protecting them from the need for large scale technology investment - now or in the future.
Eckoh formed a strategic business alliance with BT in 2003. Working in partnership we have helped 20 clients across the financial services, government, utilities, retail & distribution, telecoms and travel & leisure sectors to transform their business operations through the introduction of hosted self-service solutions.
About William Hill
Founded in 1934, William Hill is one of the best-known names in the gambling industry, providing gaming and betting services across three channels: online, on the high street and on the phone. We have been listed on the London Stock Exchange (WMH.L) since 2002 and employ over 15,000 people in the UK, Ireland, Israel and Bulgaria.
Our aim is to give our customers what they want, when they want it, where they want it. We are one of the UK's leading bookmakers, with a trusted high-street brand based on our in-depth knowledge of fixed-odds betting and our unrivalled customer service. With the advent of internet betting and gaming, we have extended our market-leading brand to a new generation of customers around the world.
Key facts about William Hill's retail business:
·; We operate in around 2,300 betting shops across the UK and Ireland, most of which are open seven days a week, offering odds and taking bets on a wide range of sporting and other events
·; We process over one million betting slips every day
·; The gaming machines that we offer in the majority of betting shops enable customers to bet on roulette, slots and other random number generated events
·; Our call centres for telephone betting can handle over 600 calls simultaneously
·; We own and operate two Greyhound stadia (in Sunderland and Newcastle)
For more information, visit www.williamhillplc.com