Media Releases

Allianz Implements Web Self-service Across its Your Cover Products

carl.brown — Wed, 02 May 2012 10:05:58 +0000

Publish Date:

04/05/2012

Solution from Transversal aims to help customers find answers quicker and to reduce call volumes by up to 20%.

Allianz Insurance plc, one of the largest general insurers in the UK, is providing its customers with a new way of getting help for their day-to-day questions.

By using Web self-service technology from Transversal, Allianz aims to reduce calls to its contact centres by up to 20 per cent. This is good for the customer and good for Allianz.

The Transversal solution was implemented in just 12 weeks and has recently gone live on Allianz's Your Cover Web site. Although it's still early days, customer response has been positive. Customers can rate how helpful the answers provided have been, and this feedback is used to continually improve the quality of answers.

Transversal's Web self-service enables customers to ask questions using conversational language. Semantic search technology understands the context of these questions and returns calculated responses from a knowledgebase of several hundred previously prepared answers to common questions.

As well as offering the solution in the help area of the Your Cover site, Allianz has embedded links to self-service content in its Quote and Buy application. This provides users with relevant answers during all stages of the sales process, minimizing drop-outs and enhancing the overall customer experience.

"The vast majority of the customer queries we get are fairly routine but still need to be answered to the customer's satisfaction", comments Gary Lucas, Channel Development Manager, E-Business at Allianz Retail. "For instance, they may want to find out how they can access documents related to their cover or what they need to do to make a claim. Ordinarily, most of these customers would call the contact centre if they could not find the answer they needed online."

Lucas continues: "By providing them with the opportunity to 'self-serve', we’re aiming to take our customer service to another level. For us, a reduction in unnecessary call volume provides agents with time for more complex queries which they can deal with more efficiently; it's a genuine 'win-win' for customers and our business alike."

Davin Yap, CEO of Transversal, comments: "The feedback that Allianz has already gained from customers speaks for itself and demonstrates that empowering customers to 'self-serve' is both more convenient for the customer and efficient for the business. We're seeing demand from a wide range of organizations across different vertical sectors which increasingly recognize that traditional keyword search tools or static FAQs are not enough to help customers and can actually increase frustration and turn them away from the brand."

About Allianz
Allianz Insurance is one of the largest general insurers in the UK and part of the Allianz SE Group, the largest property and casualty insurer worldwide.
About Your Cover
Your Cover Insurance is a company of Allianz Insurance plc, one of the UK’s largest general insurers, established for more than 100 years. They provide comprehensive car insurance and home insurance to thousands of customers across the UK.
Your Cover works differently from other insurance companies because it lets customers build their own insurance policy to suit their needs – adding as much or as little cover as they like, so they never have less cover than they need or pay for more than they want.

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Transversal Launches in Australia and New Zealand

sharon.king-livesey — Tue, 01 May 2012 09:04:59 +0000

Publish Date:

01/05/2012

Transversal Corporation has today launched in Australia and New Zealand.

The Cambridge, UK software firm specializes in online, multichannel and self-service solutions for customer-facing Web sites, contact centres and internal HR functions. In over a decade of being in business, the company has powered self-service functions for a number of blue-chip customers including the BBC, Barclays, Mothercare, Royal Mail, Marks & Spencer, Aviva and John Lewis. Its Australasian arm is aimed at organizations in Australia and New Zealand that wish to automate the process of answering queries from both customers and internal employees. Transversal's solution uses a dynamic, natural-language knowledgebase to deliver information to agents and customers alike via a convenient online self-service function. Transversal customers typically see an immediate, dramatic email reduction of around 60%, and an improvement in email response time from a few days to just a few minutes.

The Sydney office is now open. Transversal CEO Dr Davin Yap today addresses Customer Experience Management 2012 at Dockside, Sydney, alongside customer experience specialists from organizations including Telstra, Commonwealth Bank, National Australia Bank and Australia Post. He comments: "We've been powering the self-service functions at some of the UK's largest businesses for over a decade. We feel that Australia and New Zealand is a natural market for us given a similar culture and Web-savvy consumers, many of which would prefer to serve themselves in the first instance rather than call or email an organization. The Australia location also offers a springboard into the wider Asia Pacific region."

Christian Kirsch, Managing Director of Transversal Australia Pty Ltd, concludes: "The Australasian market is currently under-served by comparative solutions and there's a massive opportunity for organizations in the region to run their customer services operation more efficiently whilst providing consumers with another compelling channel to interact with them. Transversal's success in the UK with a cloud-based, easy-to-implement solution, proves that it delivers benefits to all types of organization and we're looking forward to providing Australasian businesses with the same competitive advantages."

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John Lewis Appoints Transversal to Improve Online Search Function

sharon.king-livesey — Mon, 28 Nov 2011 16:19:09 +0000

Publish Date:

01/12/2011

Transversal has been appointed by John Lewis to help improve its customers’ online experience through a new Web self-service solution.

The Transversal system will allow customers using johnlewis.com to find relevant information quickly and easily by keying in search terms in everyday language. The system is designed to offer customers a new, convenient method for answering their questions.

Answers to the common questions that consumers ask are stored in a knowledgebase which is continually updated with relevant information on products, services and deals. The implementation is part of John Lewis’ strategy to further improve its online shopping experience. The Transversal solution will help improve the already successful Web presence that continues to deliver market-beating growth.

The implementation comes at a time when online shopping is booming. Google announced that retail searches in this year's third quarter were 35% higher than in Q3 2010. This trend is only likely to rise with the Christmas period as British consumers search for their favourite products.

Sean O’Connor, Web site manager at John Lewis, explains: “The way consumers shop is changing rapidly. John Lewis needs to ensure it is at the forefront of this change, and that it gives customers the best shopping experience it can through all channels. People want the ease that the Internet can provide, and when they shop online they expect convenience - the Transversal solution will help us achieve that. By allowing people to search for relevant information easily and quickly it helps ensure the Web site is as usable as possible.”

Davin Yap, CEO at Transversal, said: “Web self-service means that customers can get to the information they want far quicker than using traditional keyword search or by phoning the contact centre. This means that customers can answer the everyday, common questions themselves rather than being directed towards the contact centre. Transversal has delivered results for many other retail chains, including Mothercare and Marks & Spencer, and we expect to see the same or better at John Lewis.”

Transversal and Carnival UK Highly Commended at 2011 CCA Awards

carl.brown — Thu, 10 Nov 2011 12:32:30 +0000

Publish Date:

10/11/2011

For the fourth year in a row, Transversal's major contribution to contact centres across the UK and partnerships with our clients were celebrated at the CCA Awards.

For our multichannel implementation at Carnival UK we were highly commended at last night's awards ceremony in Glasgow. Carnival UK attended the awards dinner with Transversal, along with fellow clients John Lewis and AXA PPP.

To read more about our four major achievements, visit our Awards page, and to see why we were highly commended, watch the Carnival UK case study video.

Carnival UK Waves in New Era of Customer Service with Transversal

carl.brown — Mon, 24 Oct 2011 09:57:21 +0000

Publish Date:

20/10/2011

Carnival UK, the travel giant behind brands such as P&O Cruises and Cunard, has streamlined its customer service operation by using a new Web self-service solution from software provider Transversal. Since implementing the Transversal solution, Carnival has dramatically decreased email enquiries meaning that its P&O Cruises and Cunard operations have slashed response times from four days to just 24 hours.

The Transversal solution enables users to find answers to common questions quickly by keying in questions via the help function on each Web site using conversational language. Answers to over 2500 common questions are stored in a "knowledgebase" which is continually updated and queried approximately 50,000 times every month by customers that research online, by 750 P&O Cruises and Cunard staff (mainly within the contact centre) and by several thousand travel agents across the UK.

The implementation coincides with an extensive marketing campaign by P&O Cruises and Cunard to attract customers. This has seen a near doubling of visitors to its P&O Cruises Web site in 2011 compared with a comparable period last year. Using Transversal has meant that more customers can answer their own questions via the Web site, taking the strain from P&O Cruises' and Cunard’s contact centre staff who can now spend more time dealing with new sales and areas where the human element is really needed.

Giles Hawke, Sales and Customer Services Director at P&O Cruises, explains: “The new Transversal self-help function has caught on quickly. The fact that 50,000 questions are now answered every month by the system shows that customers, staff and travel agents are getting service and value from the flexibility and ease of use Metafaq brings. It has become critical since our extended marketing initiatives are making a big difference in terms of hits to the Web site. Providing customers with the ability to serve themselves via the Web site means that contact centre staff are better equipped to deal directly with sales enquiries.”

Hawke continues: “An additional advantage is that we are able to analyze the questions customers ask. Interestingly, we know that the most common questions relate to dress code on board, which is information that wasn’t captured before. The Transversal solution provides us with valuable insight into our customers' main concerns, and a gold mine of marketing information that enables us to further innovate our services based on real customer feedback.”

Davin Yap, CEO of Transversal, said: “Web self-service means that customers and partners can get to the information they want far quicker than using traditional keyword search or by phoning the contact centre. This enables contact centre staff to concentrate on more complex queries – particularly important when we’re talking about a high value sale such as a cruise.”

Users can access the service by clicking on: https://ask.pocruises.com/ or https://ask.cunard.com/. There is also additional information for travel agents at a dedicated travel agent portal.

You can also watch a case study video covering Carnival UK's implementation.

Web Self-service is the New Ace up the Sleeve of Sportingbet

carl.brown — Thu, 22 Sep 2011 15:46:14 +0000

Publish Date:

11/07/2011

Transversal helps improve in-play betting rates.

Leading online gaming operator, Sportingbet plc is hoping to increase the volume of customers and bets with Web self-service technology from Transversal. By using Transversal's technology to help users find answers to common questions quickly, Sportingbet plans to improve the usability of its platform and boost rates of in-play gaming still further.

Sportingbet operates Web sites in 21 different languages in 26 countries, accepting bets in 20 different currencies. The Transversal implementation will be implemented firstly on Sportingbet's English-language site and then rolled out across 22 different countries and 18 languages.

On the Sportingbet service the Transversal solution will be implemented with the aim of providing potential gamers with information quicker, making it more likely for them to be able to place their bets before the event has passed. Unlike search engines that simply match keywords or patterns, Transversal's technology understands the underlying concepts of natural language, so that it can provide intelligent answers to questions and suggest a "train of thought" to guide a customer to a desired outcome. If the query remains unresolved the customer has the option to elevate the enquiry to an online chat function and discreetly ask an expert for help.

Steve Talbot, Customer Conversion Manager at Sportingbet, comments: “Sports betting is a very time-sensitive activity. We anticipate that by using the Transversal solution we will improve the usability of the site, in turn this will help customers to find information quicker and ultimately increase the number of bets placed. In addition we are aiming to achieve a 20% reduction in inbound queries to our contact centre.”

Davin Yap, CEO of Transversal, comments: “Traditional keyword search tools are increasingly becoming a thing of the past. Because they're not contextual it can be a real battle for customers to get to the information they need. The gaming industry is highly customer focused and as in-play betting has emerged those customers' needs have become more time sensitive. Any time delay means customers will miss opportunities, which is an obvious source of frustration. The Transversal solution will avoid this and lead to a greater gaming experience, a higher retention of customers and a stronger traffic-to-play conversion rate.”

Transversal Launches Partner Programme

carl.brown — Thu, 22 Sep 2011 15:46:14 +0000

Publish Date:

07/04/2011

Web self-service specialist launches Transversal Partners for providers dedicated to improving customer service operations within UK organizations.

Transversal has today launched its partner programme for the UK channel community. Partners will benefit from rapid returns and high margins on market-leading software that already enables companies such as the BBC, Mothercare, Tesco and Marks & Spencer to improve their customer service operations and reduce call volumes.

Transversal Partners is aimed at systems integrators, managed service providers, business process outsourcing, digital marketing agencies, value-added resellers and independent software vendors.

Capita is an early pioneer for the programme and partnered with Transversal to implement the automated self-help function for the BBC iPlayer site. It has since extended its partnership agreement for the next ten years across the breadth of BBC Audience Services. Jonathan Rush, at Capita, said: “To provide efficient support for BBC iPlayer users, it was important to select the right partner and product to meet our self-service objectives. To date, less than one per cent of customers using the iPlayer Help service have sought further help, demonstrating its value to the service we provide the BBC.”

Marc Quantrill, Partner Sales Director at Transversal, said: “Partners will find our solutions very easy to implement with a minimal level of training required because our solutions are both managed and cloud based. This will enable them to offer genuinely innovative solutions to their customers and enjoy a very quick return on investment with a margin that compares very favourably.”

“Web self-service is used across the enterprise on Web sites, by call centre agents and for HR purposes by employees to help resolve queries quickly and effectively. Our patented natural-language technology means that end users simply ‘ask’ questions using conversational language. Because our technology understands meaning in context, it finds answers a lot quicker than traditional search. Marketers can also view the questions their customers have been asking. This helps them build a picture of what customers are looking for in order to fully understand their customer needs,” Quantrill added.

A portal containing all relevant information for potential partners is now available at www.transversalpartners.com.

Transversal and Mothercare Win at Customer Contact Association Excellence Awards

carl.brown — Thu, 22 Sep 2011 15:46:14 +0000

Publish Date:

17/11/2010

Recognition in Best Technology Partnership

Transversal and Mothercare have won in the Best Technology Partnership category at the prestigious Customer Contact Association Excellence Awards. The award is recognition for the deployment of Web self-service technology at Mothercare, encompassing its contact centre, Web site and in-store point of sale terminals.

Technology provider Transversal worked with Mothercare to develop “Ask Carrie”, an innovative virtual help assistant. This enables Web site users and contact centre agents to “ask” questions using natural language, with relevant answers returned instantly. Customers are currently asking 2000 questions per day using Ask Carrie, with only 3.5% needing to escalate queries. Within the contact centre environment, agents are now able to answer questions quicker and emails are answered promptly.

Davin Yap, CEO of Transversal, comments: “The relationship with Mothercare is a true partnership and this has clearly been recognized by this award. There are few examples of genuine cross-platform customer services deployments, however we believe this serves as a good model for the retail industry as a whole.”

The CCA is a membership body of 900 organizations across the UK with over 5000 senior customer services practitioners. Its Excellence Awards programme is designed to recognize achievements of individuals and organizations committed to delivering outstanding customer service.

Marks & Spencer Launches New Customer Service Tool from Transversal

carl.brown — Thu, 22 Sep 2011 15:46:14 +0000

Publish Date:

27/09/2010

Marks & Spencer (M&S) has today launched a new customer service tool called Smart FAQ to help visitors to its online retail Web site www.marksandspencer.com find answers to their most common questions more quickly and easily.

Using software from Transversal, the new tool allows customers to simply "ask" questions in their own words, using everyday language, via the search field on the M&S Web site. Customers will then be given relevant, real time answers ensuring they receive the most accurate and up-to-the-minute information.

The powerful reporting tool contained within the Transversal technology will also provide M&S with better insight into the questions its customers are asking, allowing the retailer to continuously improve the responses and information it provides.

Dave Hughes, Director of Marks & Spencer Direct, said: “The introduction of smart FAQs will improve service and help reduce the need for customers to email or phone for basic queries. The Transversal solution also allows us to better understand our customers – by knowing exactly what they are asking we can continually evolve our Web site to give them precisely the information they are looking for.”

Davin Yap, CEO of Transversal, said: “Web self-service technology is essentially a 'win win' for customers and business alike. Customers get to the information they want far quicker than using traditional methods. In turn businesses provide a more efficient service that helps improve retention rates by understanding the issues that are important to customers.”

The Smart FAQ service is now live. Users can access it by clicking on http://help.marksandspencer.com.

Universities Must Try Harder as Students Fear Fee Hike Will Force Them out of Education

carl.brown — Thu, 22 Sep 2011 15:46:14 +0000

Publish Date:

17/08/2010

59 per cent of UK students will not attend university if fees rise above £5k, research finds.

With A Level results announced this week, UK students say universities are going to need to work harder to tempt them to study and most (59 per cent) will consider dropping out of education if annual tuition fees are hiked beyond £5,000. Research out today spotlights a new tipping point for those contemplating university but worried by the prospect of mounting debts as the Government considers increasing the current £3,225 fees. And those deciding which university to apply for say the establishments must do more to inform them on courses and tempt them, with many Web sites seen as mediocre.

The research also reveals that course choice is the primary consideration for students selecting a university, ahead of other factors such as academic reputation and social life. Current students generally like their university experience – 78 per cent would pick the same university again, however nearly half (48 per cent) wish they had found out more about job and career prospects before applying.

Most students (95 per cent) browse university Web sites before making a decision, however the research indicates that these frequently fail to deliver the information students need. Just 38 per cent of UK students say university Web sites answer their questions and nearly half (47 per cent) rate university Web sites as "poor" or "average".

The importance for universities of having a good Web site is highlighted by the fact that students use more channels than ever before to reach a decision on their university, with social media, careers advisers and independent Web sites the most popular research methods.

Davin Yap, CEO of Cambridge-based software company Transversal, which commissioned the research, said: “In these tough times, it’s getting more and more important for universities to compete for students. However they appear to be shooting themselves in the foot with Web sites that are not fit for purpose. Choosing a university is one of the most important decisions anyone can make. Universities need to make sure their Web sites answer the many questions students have.”

The survey was carried out in July 2010. All of the 1000 participants were aged 18 to 22 years and were either current students at UK universities or due to enrol in September 2010.

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