[November 04, 2015]

Telerx Introduces Texting Solution for Consumer Product Brands

Telerx, a 30-year leader in multi-channel engagement of consumers, patients, healthcare professionals and enterprise personnel, has launched an SMS (Short Message Service) and MMS (Multimedia Messaging Service) text messaging solution that enables texting to existing 1-800 toll free numbers - empowering leading consumer product brands to deliver services via customers' preferred channel of choice. According to a recent Harris Poll, 64 percent of consumers would prefer to use texting over voice as a customer service channel and 77 percent of millennials with texting capabilities are likely to have a positive perception of a company that offers text capability for support.

As text messaging continues to emerge as the leading channel of communication for consumers, Telerx's cloud-based texting solution delivers advanced technology that enables a single 1-800 number to support both texting and multimedia images and video. Through Telerx's agent-friendly portal, agents can handle multiple text message conversations all in one screen, while viewing the history of each conversation for context - streamlining the process and increasing agent capacity, while reducing contact center costs. Additionally, keyword-based auto reply messages can be set up to handle basic questions such as product location, allowing consumers to receive a relevant response even during unstaffed hours.

"Telerx researched the top 25 consumer product companies globally to determine which were providing texting as a customer service channel. The results of our research were surprising. Only one of the top 25 was offering texting as an option for a select number of their brands - revealing the industry is leaving significant opportunity on the table by not taking advantage of texting as a consumer affairs channel, even though consumers are eager to engage," said Mike Brannan, Telerx's Chief Innovation Officer. "Core to Telerx is our commitment to technological innovation to enhance the customer experience. Consumer product brands are in need of advanced texting solutions that provide the essential tools to more effectively interact with a prospective customer during a purchase decision and deliver high-value results, including new customer acquisition and increased customer loyalty."

Consumer product companies can leverage texting to engage and support their consumers throughout a variety of basic and more advanced scenarios, including:

• Point-of-Sale Consumer Affairs Support: Consumers can text brands right from the store - at the critical point-of-purchase decision - with their product questions, helping to negate competition and improve customer loyalty.
• Offers at Point-of-Sale: Brands can increase sales by providing offers such as coupons, recipes and loyalty programs to their consumers while they shop.
• Enhanced Consumer Complaint Resolution: Consumers can text a picture of a product issue for immediate resolution, and the company can gain immediate insights into product quality issues.
• Proactive Outbound Messages: When leveraged strategically, brands can let consumers know n advance of upcoming renewals or loyalty program offers via their channel of choice.

About Telerx

For more than 30 years, Telerx, a subsidiary of Merck & Co., Inc., has provided customer and patient care services to Fortune 1000 companies in the pharmaceutical, healthcare and consumer packaged goods industries. Using advanced technology, the company takes a customized approach to create highly successful customer experiences for millions of consumers, patients and healthcare providers each year and provide valuable insights that help drive better processes and outcomes. More than 90 percent of the company's clients are FDA-regulated. Headquartered in King of Prussia, Pa., Telerx has additional contact centers in Horsham, Pittston and Wilkes-Barre, Pa.; El Paso, Texas; Kings Mountain, N.C.; Morristown, N.J; Hyderabad, India; Sofia, Bulgaria; and Dalian, China. For more information, visit Telerx.com or connect via Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn.

About Merck

Merck is a global healthcare leader working to help the world be well. Merck is known as MSD outside the United States and Canada. Through our prescription medicines, vaccines, biologic therapies and animal health products, we work with customers and operate in more than 140 countries to deliver innovative health solutions. We also demonstrate our commitment to increasing access to healthcare through far-reaching policies, programs and partnerships. For more information, visit www.merck.com and connect with us on Twitter, Facebook and YouTube.

Forward-Looking Statement of Merck & Co. Inc., Kenilworth, NJ, USA

This news release of Merck & Co., Inc., Kenilworth, NJ, USA (the "company") includes "forward-looking statements" within the meaning of the safe harbor provisions of the United States Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. These statements are based upon the current beliefs and expectations of the company's management and are subject to significant risks and uncertainties. If underlying assumptions prove inaccurate or risks or uncertainties materialize, actual results may differ materially from those set forth in the forward-looking statements.

Risks and uncertainties include, but are not limited to, general industry conditions and competition; general economic factors, including interest rate and currency exchange rate fluctuations; the impact of pharmaceutical industry regulation and healthcare legislation in the United States and internationally; global trends toward healthcare cost containment; technological advances, new products and patents attained by competitors; challenges inherent in new product development, including obtaining regulatory approval; the company's ability to accurately predict future market conditions; manufacturing difficulties or delays; financial instability of international economies and sovereign risk; dependence on the effectiveness of the company's patents and other protections for innovative products; and the exposure to litigation, including patent litigation, and/or regulatory actions.

The company undertakes no obligation to publicly update any forward-looking statement, whether as a result of new information, future events or otherwise. Additional factors that could cause results to differ materially from those described in the forward-looking statements can be found in the company's 2014 Annual Report on Form 10-K and the company's other filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC (News - Alert)) available at the SEC's Internet site (www.sec.gov).

View source version on businesswire.com: http://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20151104005897/en/

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