March 24, 2015
As excited as everyone gets about actually taking vacation time, the planning and booking of that vacation can be fraught with tension and peril. One of the least-pleasant aspects of it all – making arrangements over the phone – has just taken a giant leap forward.
Vacation Roost, which bills themselves as “Destination Experts” due to their ability to find and book unique lodging and locations, has just signed on with call center leader inContact to make the “calling” part of the process nearly seamless.
inContact reports that the leading travel and hospitality provider has selected its cloud platform to unify customer service operations across more than five contact centers. “With more than 350 agents providing booking services and other key vacation information, inContact will help the company have a more comprehensive and strategic view of their operations,” inContact noted in a statement.
Vacation Roost, based in Salt Lake City, leaves behind a patchwork of legacy systems that kept its operations siloed and lacking key intelligence to enhance the overall service experience. The company reports they will now implement the inContact multi-channel cloud platform, which provides an array of interaction methods including voice, email, SMS and chat. In addition, Vacation Roost will deploy inContact’s patented Personal Connection outbound solution, which will enable agents to more effectively connect with existing travel customers and enhance new sales conversion rates.
“The travel sector is extremely competitive, and providers need to leverage service to distinguish their brands and cut through the noise,” said Paul Jarman, CEO at inContact. “Many travel and hospitality providers are moving to the cloud to unify their operations, address their scalability requirements during high travel seasons and offer more communication choices with their discerning and valued customers.”
The feeling seems to be mutual on the client side as well. Vacation Roost Sales Manager Shaun Sanislo had nothing but high praise for the way inContact handled the switchover, as seen in this . Sanislo was especially effusive about the staffers he interacted with, who he notes made the transition that much easier. And as for the impact of the new technology? “We’ve seen a five percent [closing] rate increase pretty much across the board,” he says.