FANUC Robotics Selects Avaya IP Contact Center Solutions to Turn Customer Service Into a Competitive Asset

BASKING RIDGE, NJ--(Marketwire - May 19, 2008) - FANUC Robotics America, Inc., the world leader in industrial robots, has turned its customer care operations into a competitive business asset with an Internet Protocol (IP)-based contact center solution from Avaya Inc.

FANUC Robotics America, based in Rochester Hills, Michigan, provides intelligent robot solutions to businesses around the world. This includes large auto manufacturers that use robotic arms to assemble, weld and paint cars, and small and mid-size industrial companies which use the company's units to pick products, pack boxes, and handle other applications. When the company experienced rapid growth and increased demand, new challenges began to tax FANUC Robotics America's customer care team, which could cause lengthy wait times when customers called for support.

The company took swift action to improve performance by transforming its customer care operations with an Avaya IP contact center solution powered by Avaya Communication Manager IP telephony software. Additionally, an Avaya Call Management System provided the FANUC Robotics America care team with the information and management tools needed to analyze performance quickly, and make fast and effective improvements.

"Our call volume grew by an estimated 10 percent in 2006 alone, with more than 120,000 customers calling us for parts or technical support," said Joe Cvengros, director of the Customer Resource Center for FANUC Robotics America. "We've continued to address demand while improving our responsiveness, and with new solutions from Avaya, customer wait times decreased dramatically. Now, 99 percent of our calls are answered in 15 seconds or less."

They also rely on Avaya Interaction Center, a critical contact center application that enables FANUC Robotics America to improve responsiveness, despite growing call volumes. The software can segment highly-skilled engineers in customer support by their area of specialty. This enables incoming calls to be quickly routed to individuals most familiar with a particular robot or problem. In addition, Interaction Center provides screen pops containing profile information on each customer, which helps engineers deliver a more personalized and productive response.

"Through smarter routing and screen pops, we're able to handle more customer inquiries with the same number of agents," Cvengros said. "For example, if a customer calls back within 36 hours, they are automatically routed to the same agent for follow up. They don't have to repeat the background on their issue. We can get them to the same exact agent, even if it's a different day."

IP telephony also makes FANUC Robotics America a more attractive employer to engineers and specialists. Avaya IP Agent Softphone, for instance, lets engineers easily log into the company's contact center operations from a home office or remote location using a virtual representation of a phone console right on their PC. This makes it easier to recruit top talent for the FANUC Robotics America Customer Resource Center team, since engineers are not required to relocate.

Most importantly, Avaya's intelligent communications solution has helped FANUC Robotics gain significant improvements in customer satisfaction.

"We conduct annual surveys of how our care team is performing and whether we're meeting customer expectations," Cvengros said. "The results show that our investment in contact centers has paid off with significant increases in response times and satisfied customers."

About Avaya

Avaya delivers Intelligent Communications solutions that help companies transform their businesses to achieve marketplace advantage. More than 1 million businesses worldwide, including more than 90 percent of the FORTUNE 500®, use Avaya solutions for IP Telephony, Unified Communications, Contact Centers and Communications-Enabled Business Processes. Avaya Global Services provides comprehensive service and support for companies, small to large. For more information visit the Avaya Web site: http://www.avaya.com.

About FANUC Robotics

FANUC Robotics America, Inc. designs, engineers and manufactures industrial robots and robotic systems for a wide range of applications including arc and spot welding, material handling (machine tending, picking, packing, palletizing), material removal, assembly, paint finishing and dispensing. The company also provides application-specific software, controls, vision products, and complete support services. After 25 years of success, FANUC Robotics maintains its position as the leading robotics company in the Americas. A subsidiary of FANUC LTD in Japan, the company is headquartered in Detroit, and has facilities in Chicago; Los Angeles; Charlotte, N.C.; Cincinnati and Toledo, Ohio; Toronto; Montreal; Aguascalientes, Mexico; and Sao Paulo, Brazil. Over 190,000 FANUC robots are installed worldwide. Contact FANUC Robotics at www.fanucrobotics.com or by calling 248-377-7000.

Contact Information: Media Inquiries: Jonathan Varman (908) 953-6432 jvarman@avaya.com