2nd May 2006

London, UK – May 2nd, 2006 - Fluency Voice Technology, (www.fluencyvoice.com) the speech recognition application company, today announced that First Choice, the leading international leisure travel company, has joined its rapidly growing customer base and deployed its speech recognition technology to enhance customer service.

Having experienced the technology in action with another travel firm, First Choice was eager to implement speech recognition technology at its Manchester-based call centre.

“The concept of using a virtual agent to efficiently and effectively handle the routine transactional calls makes good business sense,” says Julia Sockett, Head of Call Centres at First Choice. “The decision to offer our customers an automated and convenient service for routine calls is further endorsement of our commitment to enhance the customer experience and improve service levels through innovative and appropriate technology application.”

The speech system uses Fluency’s Prioritiser, part of the Virtual Speech Agent (VSA) Suite ™, which ensures the caller is promptly routed to the appropriate agent depending on the service they require. Using Identification and Verification with Status (IDVS) technology, First Choice can quickly identify and verify their direct holiday caller.  The caller is then given three options; to check a balance, make a payment or check ticket status. “Our own analysis showed that these were the most common, routine calls,” Julia says.

The Fluency speech recognition solution is now successfully handling 600 of these calls each day, Julia notes. “Customers have the option to exit the system and come through to an agent at any time.”

“We are delighted to have been chosen by such a familiar and respected brand as First Choice to underpin their speech recognition project to enhance customer service,” said Paul Barnes, Fluency’s Vice President of Global Sales. “Voice Self-Service applications have huge potential to radically improve the customer contact experience and First Choice is a clear testament to the service improvement that can be achieved by automating a high volume of routine call types.”

About Fluency Voice Technology

Fluency Voice Technology is a leading provider of packaged speech recognition applications for use in call centres. Our solutions enable enterprises to significantly reduce costs and enhance customer service by automating much of the high volume call centre activities.

Key sectors for which Fluency has developed applications are Financial Services, Travel & Transport, Utilities, Telecoms and Retail. Fluency has always been at the forefront of speech recognition and has changed the way in which businesses use speech by introducing the first ever packaged speech application in 2002. Fluency has offices in the UK, US and India.