Akron, OH —August 2, 2010 –Customers interact with companies across many channels. From the contact center to the Web site, customer conversations are always going on, and when conversations are interrupted, customers usually have to start all over again. But with a unified view of all interactions, companies can finish those conversations, increasing revenue, enhancing the customer experience and improving operational efficiencies.

During this week's SpeechTEK show in New York City, Virtual Hold Technology (VHT), the leading developer of virtual queuing solutions, will demonstrate how it has used the Alcatel-Lucent Genesys intelligent Customer Front Door™ (iCFD™) solution with Conversation Manager – in booth #413 – to build customer-focused applications that finish conversations through integrating self-service, customer data and the customer experience.

"The flexible architecture of iCFD makes it easy for VHT to develop cross-channel applications. With access to every customer interaction, the number of potential applications is endless," said Robert Brazier, product manager, VHT. "One way we've chosen to take advantage of the Conversation Manager is by helping customers and companies finish incomplete conversations. Unfinished conversations lead to lost revenue and lost opportunities to nurture customer loyalty."

Unresolved customer interactions, like incomplete bookings for airlines, are unfinished conversations that cost an airline money. VHT has built a sample application that identifies those incomplete bookings. If a customer begins booking a flight over the phone or via the airline's Web site and doesn't finish, VHT can find out and automate SMS notifications that give the customer a chance to be reconnected with the airline to finish booking the flight.

"Self-service applications sometimes lack personalization, and it's easy for unfinished conversations to get lost," said Max Ball, director of Genesys product management at Alcatel-Lucent. "VHT's application demonstrates just one way that companies can finish those conversations, and we're looking forward to seeing what other applications that VHT will develop to enhance the customer experience while minimizing operational costs."

To learn more about improving customer conversations, visit the Alcatel-Lucent Genesys Booth #413 at SpeechTEK, Aug. 2-4, 2010, in New York City. SpeechTEK is recognized as the industry's leading event focusing on products, services, applications, solutions and innovations using speech technologies. Find out more about SpeechTEK at www.speechtek.com/2010/.
Virtual Hold Technology began its partnership relations with Genesys in 2003. Since then, the two companies have worked together to provide innovative queue management solutions for more than 100 client sites worldwide.

Genesys software solutions from Alcatel-Lucent manage customer interactions over phone, Web and mobile devices. The Genesys software suite handles customer conversations across multiple channels and resources – self-service, assisted-service and proactive outreach – fulfilling customer requests and optimizing customer care goals while efficiently using resources. For more information, visit www.genesyslab.com.