Case Study - Fortune 500 Hotel Chain

Background:

Helping millions of customers arrange business and personal travel every year, the Company reservation center sets the standard for delivering world-class customer experiences to its guests. While many travelers interact with the Companys website to execute simple tasks, millions interact with the reservation center for services ranging from cancellations and reservation changes, to new bookings and general inquiries. These calls are handled by the Companys agents, who are equipped to handle and resolve any reservation related request.

Goals:

The Company goal was to improve sales efficiency of the reservation center, by reducing repetitious data collection, and allowing agents to focus on completing and closing sales.

Interactions Solution:

Interactions implemented a conversational Virtual Assistant to automate many processes within the reservation center, reducing average handle time for agents, and enabling them to focus on high-value activities like closing sales and assistance. With new bookings, the Virtual Assistant collects much of the travelers desired reservation detail, including the hotel name and location, as well as most other information required for reservation. After key information is collected, the caller is connected to a reservation agent to complete the reservation with room selection and payment. After completion of the reservation, the Virtual Assistant recaps all reservation data for the traveler.

Results:

The Company has experienced significant savings in their reservation center, while continuing to deliver the elevated customer experience that they strive to provide to guests, in its hotels and across all service channels. The Company reduced their call handling costs by 33%. The Virtual Assistant improves efficiency by the equivalent of 41 full time employees per year. An automated reservation cancellation has yielded a 94% savings per call compared with a cancellation using a live agent. 80% of new reservations made through the Virtual Assistant are successfully capturing the data needed by agents to complete the reservation. Interactions Virtual Assistant has exceeded the Companys expectations, doubling planned completion rates. By relieving agents of routine data collection, the Company has been able to enhance their responsibilities and improve employee morale in the call center. Lastly, Customer Effort Scores on the Virtual Assistant are exceeding the Companys goals, indicating that customers perceive the solution as easy to use and positively impacting their overall experience.

Case Study Scenario: The case study indicates that implementing the reservations virtual assistant has yielded many positive results for the hotel. As hospitality professionals we must be able to balance high touch with high tech.

1. What challenges do you believe such a system could create?
2. Explain the potential negative impact on service, operations, finance, logistics etc.

3. Cite Websites