Analyst Interview: Rob Wells, CEO, Avaya Australia and Rod Maxwell, Director Solution Sales, Avaya A

Aegis have long been keen to break the perception that they are solely an outsource provider. Chris Kirby Head of Analyst Services spoke to Chris Luxford President, Aegis Services Australia and New Zealand to understand Aegis’s Go-To-Market value proposition.

Q: How does Aegis currently position itself as an organisation?

CL: Long-term market game changing differentiation will only come from a radical transformation of customer experience. That is the challenge that is facing all organisations and the only way that it is going to be addressed is through changing business models. Therefore Aegis is really focused on helping organisations to change their business models, to focus their business models around the customer and to rethink how organisations interact with customers. A lot of the work we are doing is to re-strategise the journey a customer takes with the organisation and Aegis is positioned to help organisations through the transformational journey they have to embark on to create new business models.

Q: What are the key challenges organisations face regarding customer service delivery?

CL: As organisations and Go-To-Market models become more complex, customer service can’t just be about the point transactions or moments of truth with the individual organisation. The key challenge is that many of these moments of truth sit outside the direct influence of the organisation. Organisations need to understand the entire customer experience journey and make sure that all of the organisations that play a part in their value constellation are appropriately focused, have the right culture and the right processes to deliver exceptional outcomes on every single moment of truth that takes place along the customer experience journey. Some of these moments of truth sit outside the control of the organisation, but never the less you still have to try and deliver exceptional customer experience. This is the biggest opportunity and challenge industry faces as service today is still seen as a necessary evil and high cost. It is not seen as a value add differentiator.

Q: What traction and response is Aegis receiving from the marketplace to these challenges and opportunities?

CL: Many organisations claim they have already started on this journey towards being customer-centric. But we would challenge that most organisations on that journey remain focused only on the pieces that sit within their control i.e. internal call centres, internal retail stores, social media and marketing. Also organisations tend to look at these internal operational centres in isolation. Very few organisations are genuinely looking at their business models from a customer perspective or looking at every moment of truth. We are talking about a mammoth business model change. Changing a business model is hard and that is what we have to help organisations achieve.

Q: What appetite is there for this transformational change at the Board level of organisations? Are Boards still focused on the traditional areas such as Finance, Technology, Human Resources and Sales & Marketing?

CL: We recognise that Boards are starting to change and start to focus more on customers. Everyone tends to logically understand this opportunity and the importance of the need to change business models to become more customer focused. However, they struggle with how to go about this transformational change. Like all business decisions there is significant risk, as considerable investment will be required to drive change and it is very hard to put a business case around this proposition. There are many examples where organisations have a vastly different business model and genuinely put the customer at the centre such as Zappos in the United States. Zappos don’t have an Average Handing Time target as they recognise the opportunity to increase revenues through upselling and cross selling. They have tipped customer service on its head and have become one of the fastest growing businesses in the US. Despite numerous examples, the problem is many organisations are still struck with fear about the level of change that is required.

Q: As organisations move along this journey, what do you see as the role of technology?

CL: Technology is in every conversation we have. Every business requires technology to run their business. We don’t see technology as a separate conversation. It is simply one of the enablers. Organisations already have great people. Therefore the key question is how do you improve processes and use technology to create this new business model? If you already have great people, then you have to change your business processes and you will undoubtedly need technology to assist in the changing of those business processes. You have to provide technology that facilitates people making better decisions to deliver better customer service outcomes. The major shift is using technology to allow the business to move from a reactive customer service model to more proactive one.

The most important element of any technology investment, and this is something that we drive home religiously, is not the technology itself but the need to change business processes. You can buy any technology from any vendor but it will make no difference if you don’t change your business processes. We have found that for every $1 spent on technology organisations need to invest $1.40 on process change. What we find though is that on average organisations are spending less than 30c so there is a massive gap in being able to bring the right outcomes through process change to the technology investments. Organisations invest heavily in technology but very rarely invest in the process changes that are required.

Written by: Chris Kirby, Head of Research and Analysts Services for Fifth Quadrant.

To contact Chris, email ckirby@fifthquadrant.com.au.

Garuda Indonesia will introduce the Amadeus Altea Customer Management Solution to upgrade its airline passenger service processes.

The solution will manage Garuda Indonesia's domestic and international reservations, inventory and departure control processes. "Upgrading to Amadeus' cutting-edge technology will enable us to further enhance our existing customer service offering, introduce more automation and flexibility for our customers and help us refine our customer-facing business processes," said Garuda Indonesia's M. Arif Wibowo.

"Today, technology is a critical component of an airline's infrastructure, and the Amadeus Altea system will ensure we remain competitive with world-class airlines in the region," he said. The technology upgrade is part of the Garuda Indonesia Quantum Leap program, which has seen the airline modernise and expand its fleet with new A330 and Boeing 737-800 aircraft, relaunch services to Europe and also announce its intention to join the SkyTeam global alliance.

US-based outsourcer NCO Group has entered a partnership with the Philippines National Council on Disability Affairs (NCDA) to offer employment opportunities for persons with disabilities.

The agreement calls for NCO to hire disabled people as customer service agents to be deployed in operation centers located in Quezon City, Fort Bonifacio, Marikina, Sta. Mesa, and Clark, Pampanga. NCO said that in order to qualify for possible employment, persons with disabilities should be at a least high school graduate, 18 years old and above, with excellent English communication skills and computer literacy.

NCO said that those hired will receive an attractive basic pay, 20% night rate differential, rice allowance, free meal per shift, paid training, medical and life insurance, referral bonuses, performance incentives, and bonus potential. Those interested are invited to submit their applications and resume tot council@ncda.gov.ph.

Indian IT company Tech Mahindra has expanded its portfolio of services following its merger with outsourcer Mahindra Satyam.

The merger has reportedly transformed Tech Mahindra into one of the largest outsourcing companies in India and around the world. The joint entity has about 75,000 employees and more than 350 active clients, including Fortune Global 500 companies across 54 countries.

Tech Mahindra is a leading global systems integrator and business transformation consulting organisation focused primarily on the telecommunications industry. Mahindra Satyam is a global business and information technology services company that "helps companies transform their business processes and improve their business performance".

Logistics company Toll Global's customer service has been rewarded with three major awards for its distribution centres in China.

Toll has won Johnson & Johnson (J&J) third party logistics service excellence awards for best customer service, best warehouse management, and best group contribution across its regional distribution centres in China. Johnson & Johnson's Consumer China Supply Chain Director Felix Zhang says the distribution centres consistently offer a first-class delivery service with zero complaints.

Toll Global Logistics CEO Wayne Hunt said the company was honoured to receive the awards. "Toll is particularly proud to be recognised by such awards from its customer J&J, a 125-year-old global brand, and we will continue to work with J&J to support its commitment to its customers in China," Hunt said.

The Australian arm of electronics company Acer has chosen a Drishti Ameyo solution to upgrade its inbound customer service.

cer Australia said it required a solution to handle all interactions from customers and its wide-spread channel partner network by providing the right information to its agents in a unified screen for fast query resolution. "We were looking for a solution that could integrate with our backend system to provide appropriate information to agents, thus maximising their productivity, something which our previous solution was not forthcoming with," said Acer's Dan Balachandra.

Acer says the new solution provides the company with enhanced agent productivity, real-time monitoring of performance levels and allows management to make changes when required. "Providing our customers and channel partners fast and quality support can be a daunting task if our agents have to access disparate applications at the same time," Balachandra said. "Dristhi provided us with a comprehensive technology that integrated seamlessly with the ticketing system of the back-end CRM, and displaying a unified interface to our agents."

Adelaide City Council is expanding its range of free customer service apps with "Adelaide Report it".

The new app allows users to take a photo of potholes, graffiti and other maintenance issues in the city and submit it to the council's customer service centre from their mobile phone. "By adding this new facility, we hope that people will find it a quick and easy way to report issues or incidents to our customer service team," Lord Mayor Stephen Yarwood said.

"We're the first Council to trial this app in Australia - and join more than 20 other major US cities including Los Angeles, San Francisco, Honolulu and San Jose," Yarwood said. "It shows we're at the forefront of technology and willing to try new things for the benefit of the community."

Air New Zealand has selected travel company Discover the World to handle its sales and marketing in Indonesia.

Discover the World currently represents Air New Zealand in France, Greece, Israel, Malaysia, Mexico, Russia, Singapore, South Korea and Spain and the airline will launch a new service between Auckland and Denpasar, Bali in June 2012. "We chose to work with Discover to take care of our outbound sales from Indonesia as well as local customer service for our inbound passengers arriving from New Zealand," Air New Zealand's Peter Walsh said.

Discover the World will operate an office in Denpasar, which will provide customer service to Air New Zealand's customers staying in Bali as well as providing off-line sales representation for the entire Republic of Indonesia with a sales and ticketing office located in Jakarta, the capital city.

Police are reassuring the public the switch to a 24/7 call centre in New Zealand Central District to deal with non-urgent crime will not decrease face-to-face contact with staff.

Police are rolling out a new system of "file management centres" nationwide which would deal with most non-urgent complaints and inquiries. Instead of being required to go to a police station to report crimes like burglaries and thefts, people will do it over the phone and be sent a form instead. "The purpose of these proposed changes is to cut back on the paperwork and bureaucracy that shackles frontline staff to computers and police stations and to free them up to spend more time in their communities preventing crime and supporting victims and witnesses of crime," said, Inspector Peter Thurston. "The aim is to improve the quality of service and to help people be safer and feel safer."

Inspector Thurston said the system was not new. "They [similar call centres] have been running successfully in other parts of the country for some years," he said. The call centre includes one in Palmerston North that will deal with the Taranaki rural and New Plymouth districts. Thurston said if the crime required a face-to-face visit a police officer would still go out to see the victims.

Auckland Airport's service has seen it named Best Airport in the Australia / Pacific region at the 2012 World Airport Awards for the fourth successive year.

Auckland Airport was also awarded Best Staff Service for the Australia Pacific region. "Auckland Airport is extremely proud to have been recognised on the global stage in the Skytrax World Airport Awards for the fourth year in a row as the best airport in Australia Pacific," said Auckland Airport CEO Simon Moutter.

"We are especially pleased to have reclaimed the award for Best Airport Staff Australia/Pacific," Moutter. He said the airport's focus on expanding the quality and range of products and services for consumers across all parts of the airport experience has been very well received by passengers.

Garuda Indonesia will introduce the Amadeus Altea Customer Management Solution to upgrade its airline passenger service processes.

The solution will manage Garuda Indonesia's domestic and international reservations, inventory and departure control processes. "Upgrading to Amadeus' cutting-edge technology will enable us to further enhance our existing customer service offering, introduce more automation and flexibility for our customers and help us refine our customer-facing business processes," said Garuda Indonesia's M. Arif Wibowo.

"Today, technology is a critical component of an airline's infrastructure, and the Amadeus Altea system will ensure we remain competitive with world-class airlines in the region," he said. The technology upgrade is part of the Garuda Indonesia Quantum Leap program, which has seen the airline modernise and expand its fleet with new A330 and Boeing 737-800 aircraft, relaunch services to Europe and also announce its intention to join the SkyTeam global alliance.

US-based outsourcer NCO Group has entered a partnership with the Philippines National Council on Disability Affairs (NCDA) to offer employment opportunities for persons with disabilities.

The agreement calls for NCO to hire disabled people as customer service agents to be deployed in operation centers located in Quezon City, Fort Bonifacio, Marikina, Sta. Mesa, and Clark, Pampanga. NCO said that in order to qualify for possible employment, persons with disabilities should be at a least high school graduate, 18 years old and above, with excellent English communication skills and computer literacy.

NCO said that those hired will receive an attractive basic pay, 20% night rate differential, rice allowance, free meal per shift, paid training, medical and life insurance, referral bonuses, performance incentives, and bonus potential. Those interested are invited to submit their applications and resume tot council@ncda.gov.ph.

Indian IT company Tech Mahindra has expanded its portfolio of services following its merger with outsourcer Mahindra Satyam.

The merger has reportedly transformed Tech Mahindra into one of the largest outsourcing companies in India and around the world. The joint entity has about 75,000 employees and more than 350 active clients, including Fortune Global 500 companies across 54 countries.

Tech Mahindra is a leading global systems integrator and business transformation consulting organisation focused primarily on the telecommunications industry. Mahindra Satyam is a global business and information technology services company that "helps companies transform their business processes and improve their business performance".

Logistics company Toll Global's customer service has been rewarded with three major awards for its distribution centres in China.

Toll has won Johnson & Johnson (J&J) third party logistics service excellence awards for best customer service, best warehouse management, and best group contribution across its regional distribution centres in China. Johnson & Johnson's Consumer China Supply Chain Director Felix Zhang says the distribution centres consistently offer a first-class delivery service with zero complaints.

Toll Global Logistics CEO Wayne Hunt said the company was honoured to receive the awards. "Toll is particularly proud to be recognised by such awards from its customer J&J, a 125-year-old global brand, and we will continue to work with J&J to support its commitment to its customers in China," Hunt said.

Indian-based telco Bharti Airtel has signed a five-year partnership with Avaya to enhance its global operations.

Avaya will provide contact centre technology and managed services designed to increase the performance, reduce the costs and accelerate the transformation of Airtel's communications environment. Airtel operates in 20 countries across Asia and Africa.

Avaya will provide a tailored contact center outsourcing environment that includes customised application support, billing, reporting and Service Level Agreements with remediation. "At Bharti Airtel, the customer is at the core of everything we do," said Aitel's Dr. Jai Menon. "We constantly innovate and partner with the best to offer our customers a world-class service experience at every touch point."

Aegis have long been keen to break the perception that they are solely an outsource provider. Chris Kirby Head of Analyst Services spoke to Chris Luxford President, Aegis Services Australia and New Zealand to understand Aegis’s Go-To-Market value proposition.

Q: How does Aegis currently position itself as an organisation?

CL: Long-term market game changing differentiation will only come from a radical transformation of customer experience. That is the challenge that is facing all organisations and the only way that it is going to be addressed is through changing business models. Therefore Aegis is really focused on helping organisations to change their business models, to focus their business models around the customer and to rethink how organisations interact with customers. A lot of the work we are doing is to re-strategise the journey a customer takes with the organisation and Aegis is positioned to help organisations through the transformational journey they have to embark on to create new business models.

Q: What are the key challenges organisations face regarding customer service delivery?

CL: As organisations and Go-To-Market models become more complex, customer service can’t just be about the point transactions or moments of truth with the individual organisation. The key challenge is that many of these moments of truth sit outside the direct influence of the organisation. Organisations need to understand the entire customer experience journey and make sure that all of the organisations that play a part in their value constellation are appropriately focused, have the right culture and the right processes to deliver exceptional outcomes on every single moment of truth that takes place along the customer experience journey. Some of these moments of truth sit outside the control of the organisation, but never the less you still have to try and deliver exceptional customer experience. This is the biggest opportunity and challenge industry faces as service today is still seen as a necessary evil and high cost. It is not seen as a value add differentiator.

Q: What traction and response is Aegis receiving from the marketplace to these challenges and opportunities?

CL: Many organisations claim they have already started on this journey towards being customer-centric. But we would challenge that most organisations on that journey remain focused only on the pieces that sit within their control i.e. internal call centres, internal retail stores, social media and marketing. Also organisations tend to look at these internal operational centres in isolation. Very few organisations are genuinely looking at their business models from a customer perspective or looking at every moment of truth. We are talking about a mammoth business model change. Changing a business model is hard and that is what we have to help organisations achieve.

Q: What appetite is there for this transformational change at the Board level of organisations? Are Boards still focused on the traditional areas such as Finance, Technology, Human Resources and Sales & Marketing?

CL: We recognise that Boards are starting to change and start to focus more on customers. Everyone tends to logically understand this opportunity and the importance of the need to change business models to become more customer focused. However, they struggle with how to go about this transformational change. Like all business decisions there is significant risk, as considerable investment will be required to drive change and it is very hard to put a business case around this proposition. There are many examples where organisations have a vastly different business model and genuinely put the customer at the centre such as Zappos in the United States. Zappos don’t have an Average Handing Time target as they recognise the opportunity to increase revenues through upselling and cross selling. They have tipped customer service on its head and have become one of the fastest growing businesses in the US. Despite numerous examples, the problem is many organisations are still struck with fear about the level of change that is required.

Q: As organisations move along this journey, what do you see as the role of technology?

CL: Technology is in every conversation we have. Every business requires technology to run their business. We don’t see technology as a separate conversation. It is simply one of the enablers. Organisations already have great people. Therefore the key question is how do you improve processes and use technology to create this new business model? If you already have great people, then you have to change your business processes and you will undoubtedly need technology to assist in the changing of those business processes. You have to provide technology that facilitates people making better decisions to deliver better customer service outcomes. The major shift is using technology to allow the business to move from a reactive customer service model to more proactive one.

The most important element of any technology investment, and this is something that we drive home religiously, is not the technology itself but the need to change business processes. You can buy any technology from any vendor but it will make no difference if you don’t change your business processes. We have found that for every $1 spent on technology organisations need to invest $1.40 on process change. What we find though is that on average organisations are spending less than 30c so there is a massive gap in being able to bring the right outcomes through process change to the technology investments. Organisations invest heavily in technology but very rarely invest in the process changes that are required.

Written by: Chris Kirby, Head of Research and Analysts Services for Fifth Quadrant.

To contact Chris, email ckirby@fifthquadrant.com.au.

Customer Service Strategy and Analyst organisation, Fifth Quadrant this week launched its Social Media Consulting and Training division. The new business unit will have a specialist focus on the development of Social Media as a customer service channel and will work with organisations to effectively integrate Social Media into existing service operations.

Dr Catriona Wallace, Director of Fifth Quadrant and leading international customer service analyst, stated, "Traditionally most companies have used Social Media as a channel for PR and marketing; only recently have organisations started to investigate the use of social media as a customer service channel. Fifth Quadrant's research has shown that by the end of 2015 Social Media will be the second most active customer service channel next to voice". Dr Wallace went on to comment, "Although many organisations have identified the need for a 'Social Service' channel, less than 20% have successfully integrated Social Media into existing service operations".

Dr Wallace is personally leading the Social Media practice and both she and her team of experts have already helped numerous public and private sector organisations develop and operationalise their Social Service Strategies. "We have exhaustively researched the global consumer market and Customer Service Industry with regard to Social Service demand and successful deployment. Based on that research and validation of best practice we have developed a model for the design and operationalisation of Social Service Strategy. We call this model SocialServe™," Dr Wallace said.

For more information on how Fifth Quadrant can assist your organisation to develop a successful Social Media service channel or for Social Media training courses please contact Max Kelly on +61 2 9927 3399.

IPscape Agile Messaging Service delivers accurate and transparent voice lead management across Carsguide.com.au

IPscape Contact Centre solution creates integrated customer service experience for buyers and sellers

IPscape’s cloud technology has been deployed to track and manage all phone leads generated by Carsguide.com.au. Carsguide.com.au is a joint venture backed by a consortium of Australia’s leading car dealers and News Limited, and is Australia’s largest automotive brand. This strategic alliance has seen an increased investment in Carsguide.com.au with a doubling of staff, enhanced resources, and improved expertise with the intent of aggressively growing the business.

Improved lead management with IPscape Agile Messaging Service (AMS)

A key area of focus for Carsguide.com.au is the implementation of a cost effective voice messaging service for their online portal which improves the existing lead origination processes, increases customer/ dealer satisfaction, provides greater customer insight, and drives more accurate billing.

AMS is a unique messaging engine that works in partnership with contact centre or sales team technology platforms to improve customer satisfaction and reduce cost. For example, the technology can automate the distribution of web-generated phone leads to a mobile sales force so customers can be contacted quickly through a channel and time of their choice. AMS also provides real time visibility of each customer interaction which means reporting is faster and more accurate.

Improved customer service through integration

Carsguide.com.au is also offering their car dealers and consumers a more personalised service. This is made possible with IPscape’s contact centre solution which first identifies the caller and then routes them to the most appropriate agent depending on whether they are a car dealer or consumer. For callers it means they spend less time waiting on hold.

Joey Caisse, CTO Carsguide.com.au commented; “IPscape’s cloud solution allows us to accurately track the voice leads generated from our site and deliver efficient, personalised service to those calling our contact centre. Most importantly, with IPscape we have the flexibility needed to ensure we can provide a high level of service to buyers and sellers as our business expands.”

Simon Burke, CEO, IPscape said: “What’s interesting about our work with Carsguide.com.au is how our cloud-based offerings aren’t just helping the business deliver excellent customer service but are now underpinning greater sales efficiency. By tracking each call dealers receive from the website, Carsguide.com.au can now be 100 per cent transparent in how it delivers value back to dealers. With online retail growing rapidly we expect to see more businesses embrace cloud tools like Agile Messaging that allow them to track and manage online sales leads more effectively, but which don’t have the million dollar price tags of more traditional solutions.”

Cloud-based solution empowering businesses to customise their CRM

LeadMaster Australia Pty Ltd, the exclusive LeadMaster CRM distributor for Asia Pacific, announced today the launch of its Business FLEXI, a new product line of cloud-based CRM that can be scaled to individual business’ needs.

Business FLEXI (previously called Business LITE) is an innovative solution designed to maximise sales force and marketing automation in a single, easy to use platform. Business FLEXI is faster and easier to deploy, and has shown very quick adoption within organisations.

Business FLEXI also offers flexibility by eliminating traditional flat license pricing. Business FLEXI provides add-on pricing for independent purchase.

Starting at AU$9.95 per user per month, Business FLEXI arms marketing and sales professionals with a customisable online CRM solution designed on their own terms, needs, and budget. Business FLEXI as well as the Company’s Corporate and Enterprise Editions, can be purchased and managed through LeadMaster Australia’s new e-commerce store store.leadmaster.com.au.

“Designing and investing on a CRM solution can be a daunting task for businesses, especially when return on investment is often difficult to quantify in the early stages. LeadMaster Australia is excited to offer Business FLEXI to our Australia/New Zealand customers as an entry point to a robust sales and marketing platform. Business FLEXI offers the control that professionals have demanded to build their own CRM” says David Mackey, LeadMaster Australia Pty Ltd CEO.

The Four Seasons in Limassol, Cyprus has been open since 1993 and is independently owned and operated by Muskita Hotels Ltd. It’s a Five Star deluxe property with 304 rooms, 6 restaurants, 4 bars, and extensive conference facilities, Shiseido Spa, a full range of sports and fitness facilities and a shopping area with exclusive boutiques, watches and jewelry. The Hotel is situated on its own sandy beach, which has been awarded with the Blue Flag (a symbol of cleanliness and safety awarded by the European Community) and is 8 kilometers East of Limassol city center.

Objective:

The Four Seasons’ management is constantly looking for effective ways to build strong relations with its customers and optimize sales programs. The Hotel’s website is its important marketing tool that helps the property to attract and retain elite guests from all over the World.

Mr. Nick Aristou, the property’s Executive Director, decided to enhance the website with an online business chat solution. “Our objective was to make it easy for our customers to navigate the website,” says Mr. Aristou. “Also, we wanted to convert as many visitors into customers as possible by making it easy for them to complete bookings.”

Solution:

Mr. Aristou, who has a strong technology background, did a thorough review of available products, including such market leaders as LivePerson. However, none of them matched Four Season’s specific needs. The main limitations were the lack of multilingual support, patchy compatibility with tablet users and absence of robust archival features.

Then Mr. Aristou came across LiveWebAssist, a chat solution deployed on the IceWarp site, and realized it was the perfect match. He decided to try it out on the Four Season’s site, but then found out it was not the final release yet. Still, Mr. Aristou went ahead and launched LiveWebAssist at Four Seasons’ webpage, assigning three operators to interact with customers.

Results:

From the very beginning, the Four Season’s customer service team was making the most of LiveWebAssist’s multilingual interface and Knowledgebase support features to interact with customers in English, Greek and Russian.. The property’s sales and marketing team started to see LiveWebAssist’s effect almost immediately – the bookings increased.

“LiveWebAssist contributed a lot to this on many occasions,” says Mr. Aristou. “Our analysis showed that customers booked because they were given real-time explanations through the chat service.”

Four Season’s technology team also liked LiveWebAssist’s capability to recognize returning Website visitors.

“The excellent feature helps an operator to resume the conversation from the same spot where it was ended or interrupted,” says Mr. Aristou. “That makes users spend on average 7-8 minutes on the site, a very high indicator.”

In an approach radically different form other chat products, LiveWebAsisst supports the InLine no-flash chat architecture, eliminating pop-up windows. This design allows more visitors to initiate chat sessions, because they don’t have to deal with popup blockers and assures usability for visitors from tablets like iPad or Android.

Additionally, this option gives actionable information about the visitors’ behavior.

“The operators can tell exactly where the user is on the site, so they can offer them immediate assistance, tell them where to go and answer questions with a high degree of relevancy,” says Mr. Aristou. “It’s a very useful feature.”

LiveWebAssist’s analytical capabilities helped the hotel to optimize its Internet marketing strategy.

“LiveWebAssist analytics capabilities are very good,” notes Mr. Aristou. “They are helping us to locate sources our customers are coming from. It’s a very effective tool, especially when used in conjunction with Google analytics.”

Another feature Four Seasons’ team found practical is LiveWebAssist Knowledgebase. At any point of the conversation, it allows to insert pre-approved messages (such as terms and conditions, cancellation policy, etc.) as well as URLs and graphics with a single click.

“It has been very useful, we have almost three pages of knowledgebase content now,” notes Mr. Aristou. “The option provides more professional outlook and helps to standardize responses. Operators don’t have to think about how to phrase them. In the near future, we are planning to extend the knowledgebase with images and, possibly, videos.”

According to Four Seasons’ technology team estimates, the training and ramp-up process was painless.

“The functionality of the program is simple, anybody who can use a social chat program can get accustomed to LiveWebAssist very easily,” notes Mr. Aristou.

For the support function, Four Seasons team used LiveWebAssist Direct Chat Technology, the VIP connection that gives dedicated access to key IceWarp support personnel. This option makes it possible to reach the important contacts no matter where they are – at their desktop, off-site, or on the road.

“The VIP link option has been very useful, and IceWarp support team was very prompt,” says Mr. Aristou.

Four Seasons is now planning to expand LiveWebAssist functionality.

“We are considered using it on mobile devices, and, possibly, integrating the solution with a new CRM system,” says Mr. Aristou.

In the future, the property is thinking about hiring more operators and starting to use LiveWebAssist automated translation functionality.

ROI

According to Mr. Aristou’s estimates, LiveWebAssist was showing compelling ROI from the day it was implemented.

“Just from my own observation, from the number of bookings that have been converted directly through LiveWebAssist, I can say that it has paid for itself almost immediately” says Mr. Aristou he would definitely recommend LiveWebAssist to other organizations in the hospitality industry.

“Selling hotel rooms is always a complex matter,” says Mr. Aristou. “Usually, hotel bookings for five+ star hotels are a very high-value item. It’s not a $10-20 purchase from Amazon. They are usually $5,000-6,000 per transactionand there are many issues for potential customers to understand before they actually commit to book. Anything that can give a customer greater confidence and prompt him to make a decision to buy is very valuable. LiveWebAssist gives us exactly that.”