READING, England, February 19 /PRNewswire/ --

- Fully Managed Contact Centre Solution Provides an Effective, 
Cost-Efficient Solution for Customer Queries

Verizon Business has expanded availability of its Hosted Interactive
Voice Response (IVR) service to the European market. Targeted at
organisations with large or geographically dispersed contact centre
operations, Verizon Hosted IVR is a fully managed, advanced voice response
service that enables organisations to improve contact centre efficiency and
enhance overall customer satisfaction.

Verizon Hosted IVR maximises the potential of the network, ensuring that
there is always sufficient capacity to handle customer calls, even when call
volumes are high. Customer enquiries are directly routed to the appropriate
agent while call transfers are set up on a network level, preventing
infrastructure congestion and reducing costs. Standard responses to questions
are made available through self-service features, enabling organisations to
more effectively manage their call-agent resources and network capacity. In
addition, the solution enables automatic call routing to alternate contact
centre locations when required, enhancing business continuity capabilities.

Roberta Mackintosh, executive director global voice, Verizon Business,
comments, "Customers requiring support for complex installation issues or
with service-related queries still see the telephone and a live agent as
their primary resource. Any customer-facing organisation therefore remains
under constant pressure to provide effective and responsive customer support
to maintain satisfaction, but increasingly needs to do so in a cost- and
resource-efficient manner.

"Our award-winning Hosted IVR solution enables our customers to leverage
the power of their existing communications infrastructures to cost
effectively increase their operational flexibility and functionality. The end
result is an optimal customer experience and a happy customer. In today's
competitive global environment, that is every business' key goal," Mackintosh
said.

Verizon Hosted IVR is currently sold in 11 European countries -- Austria,
Belgium, France, Germany, Ireland, Italy, Netherlands, Spain, Sweden,
Switzerland and the U.K. -- as well as in the United States. The service
provides caller access from 70-plus countries, and Verizon customers can
terminate these calls worldwide.

About Verizon Business

Verizon Business, a unit of Verizon Communications (NYSE: VZ), is a
leading provider of advanced communications and information technology (IT)
solutions to large-business and government customers worldwide. Combining
unsurpassed global network reach with advanced communications, security and
other professional service capabilities, Verizon Business delivers innovative
and seamless business solutions to customers around the world. For more
information, visit www.verizonbusiness.com.

Web site: http://www.verizonbusiness.com