Darlington Building Society Modernises Employee Communications and Customer Engagement with 8x8 XCaaS

The Society Deploys Integrated Cloud Contact Centre and Communications to Enable Employees to Work and Engage Customers Remotely

8x8, Inc. (NYSE: EGHT), a leading integrated cloud communications platform provider, today announced that Darlington Building Society has deployed 8x8 XCaaS (eXperience Communications as a Service) as part of their wider digital transformation effort.

Darlington Building Society has been based in the town of Darlington since 1856. Today, the Society has nine branches spread across the North East, County Durham, and North Yorkshire, supported by Darlingtonline, the Society’s dedicated online banking service. The Society offers a range of savings and mortgage products designed to enable members to save for the future and realise the dream of home ownership.

Due to the sensitive and high-value nature of daily calls, the Society needed a robust communications and customer engagement system that could reliably handle steep call volumes, facilitate employee collaboration, and provide secure payment options, regardless of where employees and customers were located.

The Society wanted to invest in a cloud communications platform, providing staff with continuous access, whether they are working in the head office, one of the branches, or from home. Ensuring the organisation was fit for a hybrid workforce that could consistently deliver a high level of customer service was paramount to Darlington.

Darlington selected 8x8 XCaaS, which includes integrated contact centre, voice, video meetings, and chat capabilities. The Society implemented 8x8 across the entire business, ensuring that callers are quickly directed to the correct person, and staff can communicate and collaborate from anywhere. Additionally, with 8x8 Secure Pay, the Society’s employees can provide reliable and secure payment options to their members.

Sara Robinson, Savings Support Operations Manager at Darlington Building Society, oversaw the project and said, “We chose 8x8 because of their single, integrated cloud platform, and deep financial services industry expertise and experience, in order to deliver on our goals. We deployed in July 2021 with head office and branch numbers staying the same, ensuring a smooth transition as members are still able to communicate with us easily. Through this and more, 8x8 was able to demonstrate that they were the right partner for us, and we are excited to be working together as we continue to enhance customer and employee experiences at the Society.”

8x8 XCaaS is built on the resilient, secure, and compliant 8x8 eXperience Communications Platform that offers the highest levels of reliability with the industry’s only financially-backed, platform-wide 99.999 percent SLA across an integrated Contact Centre as a Service (CCaaS) and Unified Communications as a Service (UCaaS) solution.

Jamie Snaddon, Managing Director, EMEA at 8x8, Inc. said, “As organisations shift to new work requirements, maintaining and enhancing employee communications and customer engagement is fundamental to future success. Providing Darlington Building Society with the 8x8 XCaaS integrated cloud contact centre and communications product enables their employees to communicate and collaborate from anywhere while delivering a differentiated level of customer experience.”

About Darling Building Society

Darlington Building Society operates throughout the North East and Yorkshire and had assets of £705m at 31 December 2020 (£666m at 31 December 2019). The Society has its head office in Darlington, where it has been based since 1856.

The Society won the Treating Customers Fairly Award in the 2020 British Bank Awards, following up previous years’ accolades of Best Specialist Mortgage Provider in 2019 and Best Savings Provider in 2018. All of which is reinforced by an average customer satisfaction score of 97.4% in 2020.

The Society includes information above about its financial performance in the 6 months to 30 June 2021 [and its financial position at 30 June 2021]. This information is derived from the Society's management accounts and is unaudited.

Darlington Building Society, Sentinel House, Morton Road, Darlington, DL1 4PT

Darlington Building Society is a member of the Building Societies Association.

Authorised by the Prudential Regulation Authority and regulated by the Financial Conduct

Authority and the Prudential Regulation Authority, under registration number 205 895.

About 8x8, Inc.

8x8, Inc. (NYSE: EGHT) is transforming the future of business communications as a leading Software-as-a-Service provider of 8x8 XCaaS, an integrated contact center, voice communications, video, chat and API solution built on one global cloud communications platform. 8x8 is powering all employees globally to connect individuals and teams so they can collaborate faster and work smarter. Real-time business analytics and intelligence provide businesses unique insights across all interactions and channels so they can delight end-customers and accelerate their business. For additional information, visit www.8x8.com, or follow 8x8 on LinkedIn, Twitter and Facebook.

8x8® and 8x8 X Series™ are trademarks of 8x8, Inc.

View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20210901005229/en/

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