Virgin games to open multimedia contact centre

Virgin Games is to implement a multimedia contact centre solution, as part of its strategy to provide a streamlined customer experience.

The solution, which utilises the latest IP and contact centre technology from NEC Philips, will bring together the various customer touch points throughout Virgin Games to ensure all customer enquiries are handled efficiently and by the most appropriate person.

The company, which has been established for almost five years, competes in the increasingly popular and yet competitive online gaming market, offering customers the choice of three different gaming areas including poker, bingo and casino. The customer experience is critical in such online business models and relies on cohesive and intelligent customer management processes.

In the past, the company has utilised outsourced services to support its activities but has encountered difficulties in delivering a streamlined customer experience. This latest project will bring all the facilities relating to the customer touch points in-house, resulting in greater control, improved efficiency and enhanced customer communications.

The solution utilises the latest multimedia contact centre technology to blend voice, email and web-chat communications into a single environment. In addition, the solution is fully integrated with the customer CRM system, whereby agents are able to see and update the customer records, enabling them to provide a better and more informed service. The solution is underpinned by a centralised IP solution with built-in disaster recovery features to support the company’s 24/7 operations.

Initially the solution will be rolled out to 80 agents across the two Virgin Games sites (based in London and Guernsey) but Operations Manager, Christina Thakor-Rankin, is confident the software has the potential to expand with the company. As she explains, “We began our research at the end of 2007 and must have looked at the best part of a dozen systems before we came across the NEC Philips solution. NEC Philips not only understood our current needs but also what we would need in the future, such as the facility to enable home-working which is something we may need to consider in the future to support our 24/7 activities. The solution not only provides us with more control and management information today, but has huge potential for future developments. Indeed with all the potential the solution provides I can see it supporting our company for at least the next ten years.”

The solution underwent a rigorous assessment process to ensure it met the current and possible future business requirements. “As this is the first time Virgin Games has brought everything in-house, we did not want to be worrying about whether the software would work”, explains Thakor-Rankin, “but the team at NEC Philips have come up with a solution to all we have thrown at them. The whole system has been a worthwhile investment and we look forward to developing our relationship with them.”