CHELSEA BUILDING SOCIETY FIRST UK BUILDING SOCIETY TO LAUNCH VOICE DRIVEN AUTOMATED TRANSACTION SERVICE

Chelsea Building Society is setting new standards for customer service with the launch of its voice driven telephone account service - the first of its kind for a top ten building society in the UK.

The new voice driven telephone account service went live to all Chelsea Building Society's Call-Direct account customers in December 2002. The service enables Call-Direct account holders to transfer money, enquire about their balance and obtain information on recent transactions all by speaking naturally and without needing to talk to a member of staff. In excess of 13,000 calls have already been made, successfully using the service.

The solution has been supplied and installed by Vocalis, a leading provider of voice driven solutions to the UK call centre market. Vocalis and Chelsea worked together to cover all areas of the customer experience. This involved Vocalis' expertise in the dialogue design through to the selection of voice for the service in order to ensure the transaction success for the customer.

Tony Wright, General Manager (Systems) from the Chelsea Building Society said: "In the competitive financial services marketplace it is vital that we provide our customers with the highest level of service possible. By introducing this voice driven telephone account service we are able to ensure that whenever a customer calls they receive consistently high levels of service."

"This service supports enquiries at busy times and when new products are introduced. We are confident that this new system will increase the service levels received by our customers."

Paul Wright, CEO at Vocalis said: "We are delighted to be working with the Chelsea Building Society and to assist them in leading the way in customer service for the Building Society industry. I am confident that Chelsea's customers will appreciate the advantages of the new voice driven service immediately. By introducing this service the Chelsea Building Society are allowing their customers easy and direct access to their account information and a natural way of interacting, by simply saying what they want."

Recent research shows that nearly half (48%) of people think that dealing with their bank by phone is a frustrating experience, but at the Chelsea Building Society they are confident that their new automated transaction service will make their customers' experiences hassle free.