Blizzard Entertainment Deploys NICE SmartCenter Solution

NICE Systems (News - Alert), a provider of insight from interactions solutions and workforce optimization services through advanced analytics of multimedia content, announced that Blizzard Entertainment, a premier developer and publisher of entertainment software and maker of award-winning online game World of Warcraft®, will be deploying the full NICE SmartCenter suite in its customer service centers in the US, France, Ireland, and South Korea.

The suite will help Blizzard quickly and efficiently address player issues and optimize scheduling of its 2,500 support representatives, who handle approximately 5 million chat queries, 8 million emails and 7 million calls from players per year.

"NICE is at the forefront of helping companies around the world harness Customer Dynamics by understanding customer intent, gathering strategic customer insights, and leveraging these insights for a valuable impact on customer relationships," said Yochai Rozenblat, CEO and president, NICE Americas. "NICE SmartCenter presents unique capabilities for capturing, analyzing and impacting every customer interaction across multiple channels."

"This is the winning combination that allows companies such as Blizzard Entertainment to improve their customers' experience, positioning NICE at the forefront of the industry," Rozenblat added.

The ongoing interchange between customers and organizations - Customer Dynamics -- is rich, complex, and difficult to manage. Optimizing Customer Dynamics is the key to enhancing the customer experience, mitigating risk, and improving operational efficiency.

"We're committed to achieving industry-leading levels of quality in every aspect of our organization, including customer service," said Paul Sams, chief operating officer of Blizzard Entertainment. "NICE's SmartCenter will help us address our players' issues more quickly and efficiently and continue to ensure they have the best possible experience with our games."

Blizzard Entertainment plans to implement all of the functional components of the NICE SmartCenter suite, including quality management and workforce management, and use NICE cross-channel analytics to prioritize in-game and email tickets from players before they get routed to a customer service representative. This will enable the company to provide faster and more effective service to players who are contacting it regarding technical, gameplay, and other customer-support issues.

NICE's SmartCenter has capabilities to understand the intent, attitudes and needs that are part of every customer interaction. Once uncovered, these insights can be applied to improve every customer interaction to strengthen customer loyalty and help the organization ensure it is able to handle its customers' needs efficiently.

On a separate note, Nice Systems unveiled NICE IEX (News - Alert) Workforce Management Release 4, a solution that offers multi-dimensional visibility, an open architecture, multi-channel adherence, and expanded multiple language support.