Teams With Alcatel-Lucent Enterprise’s Genesys to Deliver Advanced Contact Center Services to Speed Customer Service and Ticket Sales
May 11, 2011
NEW YORK – As quickly as the curtain goes up at the start of a show, Ticketmaster wants to answer customers’ calls while delivering world class service.
Ticketmaster fields millions of calls a year for thousands of events and needed to ensure it could manage call volumes – particularly during peak calling times. The company, which merged with Live Nation last year to become one of the world’s largest live entertainment and eCommerce companies, turned to Verizon for a contact center solution that meets Ticketmaster’s immediate needs while paving the way for a range of advanced services.
Verizon professional consultants are working with Alcatel-Lucent Enterprise’s Genesys to help Ticketmaster deploy an Internet Protocol-based global customer communications platform to upgrade and consolidate contact center technology worldwide. The North American platform has been successfully deployed since February, and work on deploying the international locations is under way.
With the new platform, Ticketmaster will be able to leverage Voice over Internet Protocol for toll-free calling integrated with an IP contact center solution to manage the calls and respond even more quickly to customer demand.
The new virtual contact center solution combines the power of Verizon’s global IP network with a Genesys customer voice portal and session initiation protocol (SIP) server to enable call delivery to the appropriate agent for handling. The new IP-enabled foundation allows customers to obtain service via multiple communications channels — voice, video and chat – while helping Ticketmaster quickly and easily increase the number of call center agents in response to a surge in calls.
“Our new system is designed to help customers more quickly secure the most sought-after tickets — with the best possible experience,” said Elizabeth Gotto, Ticketmaster’s vice president of global contact center technology. “For a hot concert or sporting event, we can receive thousands of calls in a matter of seconds. The new IP-based system provides us with the flexibility to deal with the steady calling as well as the bursts in calls.”
Previously, the company published local phone numbers for those interested in buying tickets. With the flexibility of the new IP network, the company can publish one national toll-free number supported by an IP network-management solution to manage calls.
Scott M. Powell, Ticketmaster’s executive vice president of global call center operations, said: “At Ticketmaster, we strive every day to provide a world class experience to our customers and clients whenever and wherever we interact with them. Our partnership with Verizon and the team from Genesys allowed us to not only deploy a state of the art telephony solution, but also to help improve the fan experience and drive lower operating costs at the same time.’’
Verizon also provides a variety of voice and data services to Ticketmaster, including the company’s IP Trunking Service with Burstable Enterprise Shared Trunks (BEST), which enables Ticketmaster to use idle trunk capacity at one location to accommodate an increase in traffic at another. This provides cost savings by reducing the total number of voice communications trunks required to link the company’s locations.
“The new virtual contact center architecture helps reduce call-handling times while helping to improve the calling experience for concert-goers, sports enthusiasts and other fans,” said Bruce Rosen, vice president for enterprise sales for Verizon. “Ticketmaster is seeing the real power of IP to help transform its business.”
Ticketmaster, the world’s leading ticketing company, serves more than 200 million fans globally every year and is one of the top five eCommerce sites in the world. Ticketmaster was recognized on Wednesday (May 11) with the Alcatel-Lucent Dynamic Customer Enterprise award in Dallas for the project to convert to a total Genesys SIP implementation.
Verizon is a member of the Alcatel-Lucent Enterprise Gold Certified Genesys Suite Partner program, whose members are recognized as expert providers of service with a focus on high customer satisfaction. Verizon was also recently recognized by Alcatel-Lucent Enterprise as the 2010 North American Hosted Solution Partner of the Year, based on the company’s success winning and implementing several large hosted contact center solutions.
About Live Nation Entertainment:
Live Nation Entertainment is the world’s leading live entertainment and eCommerce company, comprised of four market leaders: Ticketmaster.com, Live Nation Concerts, Front Line Management Group and Live Nation Network. Ticketmaster.com is the global event ticketing leader and one of the world’s top five eCommerce sites, with over 26 million monthly unique visitors. Live Nation Concerts produces over 20,000 shows annually for more than 2,000 artists globally. Front Line is the world’s top artist management company, representing over 250 artists. These businesses power Live Nation Network, the leading provider of entertainment marketing solutions, enabling over 800 advertisers to tap into the 200 million consumers Live Nation delivers annually through its live event and digital platforms. For additional information, visit www.livenation.com/investors.
Verizon Communications Inc. (NYSE, NASDAQ:VZ), headquartered in New York, is a global leader in delivering broadband and other wireless and wireline communications services to mass market, business, government and wholesale customers. Verizon Wireless operates America’s most reliable wireless network, with more than 104 million total connections nationwide. Verizon also provides converged communications, information and entertainment services over America’s most advanced fiber-optic network, and delivers seamless business solutions to customers around the world. A Dow 30 company, Verizon employs a diverse workforce of more than 196,000 and last year generated consolidated revenues of $106.6 billion. For more information, visit www.verizon.com.
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| Media Contacts: |
| Stefanie Scott |
| 512-495-6730 |
| stefanie.scott@verizon.com |
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