Verizon Business Expands Hosted Interactive Voice Response Service to Europe

READING, U.K. - Verizon Business has expanded availability of its Hosted Interactive Voice Response (IVR) service to the European market. Targeted at organisations with large or geographically dispersed contact centre operations, Verizon Hosted IVR is a fully managed, advanced voice response service that enables organisations to improve contact centre efficiency and enhance overall customer satisfaction.

Verizon Hosted IVR maximises the potential of the network, ensuring that there is always sufficient capacity to handle customer calls, even when call volumes are high.  Customer enquiries are directly routed to the appropriate agent while call transfers are set up on a network level, preventing infrastructure congestion and reducing costs.  Standard responses to questions are made available through self-service features, enabling organisations to more effectively manage their call-agent resources and network capacity.  In addition, the solution enables automatic call routing to alternate contact centre locations when required, enhancing business continuity capabilities.

Roberta Mackintosh, executive director global voice, Verizon Business, comments, "Customers requiring support for complex installation issues or with service-related queries still see the telephone and a live agent as their primary resource. Any customer-facing organisation therefore remains under constant pressure to provide effective and responsive customer support to maintain satisfaction, but increasingly needs to do so in a cost- and resource-efficient manner.

"Our award-winning Hosted IVR solution enables our customers to leverage the power of their existing communications infrastructures to cost effectively increase their operational flexibility and functionality. The end result is an optimal customer experience and a happy customer. In today's competitive global environment, that is every business' key goal," Mackintosh said.

Verizon Hosted IVR is currently sold in 11 European countries -- Austria, Belgium, France, Germany, Ireland, Italy, Netherlands, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland and the U.K. -- as well as in the United States.  The service provides caller access from 70-plus countries, and Verizon customers can terminate these calls worldwide.

About Verizon Business
Verizon Business, a unit of Verizon Communications (NYSE: VZ), is a leading provider of advanced communications and information technology (IT) solutions to large-business and government customers worldwide.  Combining unsurpassed global network reach with advanced communications, security and other professional service capabilities, Verizon Business delivers innovative and seamless business solutions to customers around the world.  For more information, visit www.verizonbusiness.com.

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