Opportunity
Innovative hotel concepts, cutting-edge communication solutions, and an impressive array of wellness facilities are the hallmarks of the 34 four- and five-star hotels and resorts operated by Lindner Hotels AG, a hotel group in family ownership. The company is growing strongly: In the last five years alone, the number of Lindner hotels has more than doubled, while the total number of rooms has risen to almost 4,000.

"Discerning guests expect excellent service with a personal touch, which is why in 2003, we developed the concept of a customer service centre. We also built up a data warehouse of 250,000 guest profiles, which has gradually expanded to 900,000. The idea was to enable us to instantly identify previous guests when they call, regardless of which of the 34 hotels they stayed in," explains Gunnar von Hagen, Head of Operations & Central Project Management for Lindner Hotels AG.

As well as running Lindner’s central reservations hotline, the customer service centre also acts as the reception point for 12 hotels. External calls are routed directly to the centre, where agents answer with the appropriate hotel name. The customer service centre currently handles some 164,000 calls for the hotels, processes faxes and emails, and makes around 255,000 reservations per year.

Because quality management and customer service have always been important to Lindner, the company was already collecting and classifying statistics on availability, response and processing time, call length, and the effectiveness of agents. In addition, external partners carried out regular training sessions, mystery calls, and mystery shopping exercises as a means of measuring quality.

However, this method of quality assurance did not allow Lindner to determine how many enquiries were actively converted into reservations. What’s more, the mystery calls provided no data about how effectively the reservation software was being used, or whether the processes offered the best possible support for booking procedures. It soon became clear that agents could easily identify mystery calls, so they did not provide a true reflection of reality.

Solution
After consulting with other contact centres in the industry, Lindner opted for Impact 360(R) Quality Monitoring software from Verint(R) Witness Actionable Solutions(R) and appointed Fiebig + Team, a partner of Verint specialising in communication solutions to support and optimise business processes, to implement the solution.

One of the deciding criteria was the fact that Impact 360 records not only phone calls, but also agents’ screen activities. "With the help of Impact 360, we wanted to find out how effectively the reservation software is being used, and whether the processes offer the best possible support for day-to-day operations. We were impressed by the results," explains von Hagen.

Fiebig + Team was commissioned to modernise the entire call centre telephony system and conduct planning workshops, infrastructure and workflow analysis, phase concept development, new hardware and software implementation, CTI and Impact 360 software integration, and agent training.

During the deployment, Lindner defined new call guidelines, which in turn led to new evaluation sheets and training sessions. The company also established recording rules, including random recording of calls, analysis of individual agents’ performance, and event-triggered recording, which can provide information about the success of particular campaigns, for example. "The support we received from both Verint Witness Actionable Solutions and Fiebig + Team in implementing our objectives was immensely helpful. We found them to be extremely knowledgeable, professional and flexible," says von Hagen.

Results
With information about the quality of interactions at its fingertips, Lindner can analyse this data and then systematically develop its agents’ skills according to specific needs. Lindner also uses Impact 360 as an induction tool for new agents, who can listen to calls and follow the various process stages on screen. As well as helping them understand the software applications more quickly, this also reduces the amount of time the company spends on training.

Both customers and agents have responded positively to the new system. The recording of calls and screen content has helped Lindner improve processes and make more effective use of its reservation systems. As a result of these changes, average call length has dropped by 20 percent, and trainers have been able to improve call quality through selective coaching in negotiating skills. In addition, the conversion rate of enquiries into bookings
has risen by 15 percent, while the up-sell rate has doubled in the space of one year.

Lindner is also saving time now because evaluations can be viewed almost immediately, as they are stored on the common server directly after discussion with the agent. Since real conversations are being evaluated, it soon becomes apparent if agents need help or additional information, enabling Lindner to respond quickly. In contrast, the mystery calls rarely revealed shortcomings as they followed a standard script.

The investment in Impact 360 has paid off for Lindner: More effective negotiating skills allow agents to handle many more calls each day. "A 15 percent rise in the conversion rate means up to 50 additional bookings per day," von Hagen calculates. "This translates into a significant boost in annual sales, thanks to Impact 360."