Bally Total Fitness Selects Sword Ciboodle as Lead Contact Center Technology Provider to Reinvigorate their Customer Service Program

CHICAGO, February 15, 2011 /PRNewswire/ --

- Leading US health club embarks on a mission to create world-class customer experience for its members

Sword Ciboodle, a global provider of customer engagement solutions, today revealed that it is rolling out a new customer service platform for Bally Total Fitness, the most widely recognized health club brand in the United States, with 270 clubs and approximately 3 million members worldwide. Following a recent restructure to Bally Total Fitness' business model the company selected Sword Ciboodle as its lead contact center technology provider to revolutionize their member service center.

The deployment of Sword Ciboodle's agent desktop 'Ciboodle One,' has allowed Bally Total Fitness to dramatically improve member experience when contacting the Bally's member service center. The faster system response for member information, through Ciboodle One, along with the elimination of manual processes, has reduced average handle time (AHT) by 12% within the first 3 months, increased first call resolution and reduced call idle time, leading to increased agent efficiency. Additionally, new member service representatives achieve full productivity three weeks faster due to Sword Ciboodle's intuitive agent desktop.

"We are at the beginning of an exciting time here at Bally. With a number of fantastic new clubs and a number of differentiating features coming soon, we're really excited about the future. Our success is based on providing excellent service to our members, and we are focused on being the best in member service across all touch points. In today's mobile world, service excellence requires a new level of technical sophistication," said Guy Thier, CIO, Bally Total Fitness. "We are confident that Sword Ciboodle is the right choice for us as it offers the kind of world-class software that allows us to communicate with a member whenever and however they choose, and we are looking forward to working with them to help make our member services the best in the industry."

Sword Ciboodle's work has put in place the foundation of a multi-channel member service platform with planned phases to allow a member to communicate with Bally using their preferred method. Future projects include offering a host of multi-channel contact points including kiosks in the clubs, email, and chat.

"Bally Total Fitness is one of the few leading brands that is not only reinventing its business model, but proactively revamping how they engage customers. Sword Ciboodle is excited to be a partner on this journey," said Paul White, CEO of Sword Ciboodle Americas. "The application of our contact center desktop, Ciboodle One, and our process platform will allow Bally's to truly revolutionize their member experience in all the states they operate. This represents another major new client for Sword Ciboodle in the U.S. and demonstrates how organizations are turning to advanced CRM platforms and away from traditional packages."

ABOUT SWORD CIBOODLE

Part of the global Sword Group, Sword Ciboodle delivers award-winning, process-managed CRM software to contact centers worldwide. With staff located across 5 continents, the company's customer service software helps clients achieve higher revenues from their customers and reduce operational costs. Clients include Sears, Sony, Admiral, JP Morgan Chase, Standard Bank and Eskom.

The company's cross-channel software promotes customer intelligence and choice, with their family of products providing a continuum of options to manage customer interactions. Their suite of modules includes: Ciboodle One, an intelligent desktop; Ciboodle Flow, case management software; Ciboodle Live, web based self-service; and Ciboodle Crowd, a social CRM platform.

Sword Ciboodle is consistently recognized by industry analysts as one of the world's leading customer-centric technology providers. The company has been featured in the prestigious Gartner Magic Quadrant, CRM Customer Service Contact Centers, for five consecutive years.

For more information, please visit http://www.sword-ciboodle.com.

CONTACT: Rosemarie Esposito, Senior Account Executive, +1-646-808-3611, rosemarie@dukaspr.com