Belfast, 29 April, 2013 – Leader in phone-based and mobile customer service, SpeechStorm, in co-operation with Genesys and NextiraOne, has completed the implementation of a new Interactive Voice Response (IVR) solution for bpost (Belgian Post Group) at their Centre Monnaie HQ in Brussels.


bpost HQ
The flexible new IVR implementation of SpeechStorm, re-sold by Genesys as ‘Conversation Manager Applications, powered by SpeechStorm’, was successfully integrated into the current contact centre infrastructure by NextiraOne. It will enable bpost to respond quickly to changing business needs and guide customers more efficiently through their inbound contact-centre calls by routing them to best suit each individual customer’s needs.

One of the largest civilian employers in Belgium, bpost provides a wide range of services across postal and financial services and the new IVR will be experienced by the company’s residential customers and those of bpost bank.

The implementation was completed in six weeks and was live at the start of February. The SpeechStorm application replaced a less flexible bespoke, IVR installation, previously requiring a technically complex, time consuming and costly ‘change’ process before the solution could then, itself, be adapted, technically, to meet new business demands.  This latest application, however, makes it much easier for corporate users to adapt the IVR system themselves without involving IT departments and other resources.

“bpost needed the deployment of a flexible IVR solution to enable our businesses to respond quickly to changing needs, and to inform customers immediately of well-known circumstances impacting bpost’s service. At the same time, we want a smart tool to further develop intelligent call steering and self-service functionality, providing a customer experience that we could fully understand, and manage,” said Jan Smets, Director of Marketing & Customer Service, bpost.

“Not only did SpeechStorm, Genesys and NextiraOne Belgium successfully deploy the solution within six weeks,” Smets added, “but they also exceeded our expectations in terms of the support and commitment that was shown.  We now have business users building personalised customer service applications and pitching those into other parts of the business in rapid time. Less restricted by technology and process, we can now start to think differently about real-time personalisation and improvement to customer interactions.”

Oliver Lennon, CEO, SpeechStorm, commented, “We are delighted that bpost is already seeing the benefits of implementing our software.  Many businesses still have inflexible and static IVR development tools at the heart of their customer interactions. Changes to such solutions can be complex, costly, time consuming and involve high risk. The situation is often compounded by limited, or no, IVR reporting, which means that they end up providing poor customer experience.

“With SpeechStorm at the heart of its new IVR, bpost’s customers will be treated to a new, intelligent interaction with their ‘service provider’, and their experience will, without doubt, make their everyday lives that much easier. Like other customers using our software, we are confident this will lead to greater satisfaction and, ultimately, increased loyalty and retention.”