Annual Report 2015 | Page 26

Annual Report 2015 comprehensive multi-site contact centre resource further strengthens the end-to-end customer contact proposition. The acquisition of Grosvenor follows our 2011 purchase of Inter-Credit International, which continues to demonstrate a consistent ability to outperform competitors on the contracts in which it operates. Customer contact service excellence Our Bristol operation continues to provide specialist outsourced, managed and insourced multichannel customer contact services to leading public and private sector organisations, offering end-to-end contact management capabilities, from entry level bureau services through to comprehensive, analyticsenabled multi-channel programmes. We were particularly proud to be chosen, due to our agile and flexible approach, to provide the customer contact service for the high profile Tower of London Remembers 24 campaign, an installation of 888,246 ceramic poppies to commemorate the fallen in World War I. In addition, Echo Bristol developed its 24/7 and out of hours services during the year with contract awards to deliver incident management services for Mouchel and Anglian Water. In the water sector, SIM continues to shape companies’ approaches to improving the service provided to customers, including a focus on first contact resolution and reducing repeat and unwanted contacts. Echo works closely with its clients to improve their SIM performance, demonstrating a total commitment to quality customer experiences. Since the new Northern Ireland Water contract was signed last July, Echo has been busy delivering service whilst implementing the structure and updated technology set to support the new contract. The new service combines innovative new functionality within RapidXtra including knowledge management and multi-channel capabilities. The contract transition went smoothly and phase one of new technology deployment was successfully deployed in May 2015, with further software releases planned in S eptember 2015 and in early 2016. Our expertise in managing multi-channel customer contact programmes has assisted South Staffs Water in delivering their Digital Programme, providing enhanced Intelligent Voice Recognition (IVR) capability, a new website with extended “My Account” functionality and a richer, more flexible approach to handling multi-channel customer enquiries, designed to make it easy for customers to engage with their water company and resolve queries. During the year, Echo’s customer service excellence received external recognition, as we were named as finalists for two European Contact Centre and Customer Service awards