The EckohPAY solution that UK speech technology firm Eckoh designed for RCI Financial Services, has already processed transactions worth more than $5 million since its launch in April.

RCI Financial Services provides financing to Renault and Nissan customers and funding to the Renault and Nissan dealer networks.

Prior to adopting Eckoh's technology, all customer service calls, including payment requests, contract settlement figures, and dealer calls, were dealt with by agents. More than 400,000 calls were received by the contact center annually, with the majority of the calls being for information on contract settlement amounts.

A critical requirement for RCI was to select a provider that was compliant with the Payment Card Industry's Data Security Standards and would free up agents to handle the more complex customer service requests.

"It was critical for RCI to work with a payment supplier which could demonstrate full PCI DSS compliance," said Alan Heaffey, director of operations at RCI Financial Services. "Eckoh not only provides this but also has the infrastructure required to serve our customers securely, quickly, and efficiently. The Eckoh team has shown itself to be highly responsive to our business needs, and we have confidence that our customers' future demands will be well catered for."

Following an on-site contact center discovery session, Eckoh proposed its real-time payment solution, EckohPAY combined with EckohID, an automated solution that captures and validates a caller's details, to securely authenticate the caller. The solution includes payments, provision of settlement figures via phone and SMS, a dedicated Dealer Network number, and the ability for agents to transfer the caller to the automated payment service.

Using Eckoh's speech recognition capability, customers are identified and verified by EckohID for all services, capturing agreement number or postcode followed by car registration and date of birth. Callers are then able to make real-time secure card payments or receive contract settlement figure via phone or SMS.

Callers have the option to speak to an agent at any time. Prior to connecting the call, the agent receives a "whisper message" that gives information the caller has already provided. This enhances the caller experience and ensures maximum agent efficiency.

Additionally, agents can transfer a call to the automated service when a payment is going to be made. This reduces the risk of agent error and provides the caller with confidence that the payment is being handled securely.

"The success of the service has proven how the automation of appropriate calls has brought significant and rapid benefits to our organization," Heaffey said. "EckohPAY gives our customers complete peace of mind that their payments are being handled in a PCI DSS-compliant manner."

The solution has already reduced the scope of RCI's compliance project by outsourcing its payment processing to a Level One service provider, which has avoided costly expenditure on equipment or licences.

"The solution reflects the importance of ensuring cardholder data is handled securely while still maintaining the highest level of customer service," said Nik Philpot, CEO of Eckoh. "Eckoh's solution provides a payment service that is secure, compliant, and available 24x7, and also maximizes the efficiency of RCI's contact center by freeing up agents to focus on more complex customer service requests."

About Eckoh

Eckoh is the UK's leading provider of customer service solutions using speech recognition and complementary services on the Web and mobile. Eckoh's solutions enable routine transactions, enquiries, or payments to be processed without the caller needing to talk to a contact center agent. This significantly reduces its clients' costs, while freeing up agents to deal with more complex enquiries. Eckoh is the largest provider of such hosted services in the UK.

Eckoh's secure and resilient infrastructure can handle more than 650,000 calls an hour and up to 8,000 calls simultaneously, which means calls can always be answered no matter how unpredictable the circumstances.

For more information, visit: www.eckoh.com

About RCI Financial Services

RCI Financial Services finances a car every eight minutes and prides itself in offering the top-quality services that its customers have come to expect from a specialist motor company. It provides finance solutions to Renault and Nissan customers of new and used cars and light commercial vehicles. The company also acts as an insurance intermediary for payment protection and GAP products. In addition, RCI Financial Services provides funding to the Renault and Nissan dealer networks.

For more information, visit: www.renault.co.uk