Original Publication: Customer Management Insight - August 2008
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In a recent study of service performance in the premium hotel reservations sector, the U.S. ranked the highest in overall performance in eight countries (63 percent), with a significant gap between its closest competitors, India (52 percent) and the United Kingdom (46 percent). U.S. reservations centers, while achieving high scores in all key service performance categories, such as accessibility, courtesy and engagement, performed particularly strong in the revenue-generation category (see Figure 1).
Figure 1. Overall Service Performance by Country
In this third installment of our ongoing series of the Mystery Shopper-based Global Service Index (GSI) of worldwide Call Center service practices, we are pleased to present the results for the premium hotel reservations sector. Developed and executed by OmniTouch International , an ICMI Global Partner headquarted in Singapore, the GSI focuses on a different industry sector each quarter. Other sectors include banks, consumer electronics and hospitality. The results can be used to identify country, regional and global trends on an ongoing basis, and to document individual company performance standards within each selected country.
It’s important to note that this study is not about assessing agent performance, which is, itself, the result of many interrelated processes and activities. Rather, it is about assessing how well organizations manage an environment in which agents can perform well via such management activities as appropriate staffing, provision of workflow, training and coaching practices, and design of organizational strategy.
GSI Research Methodology and Parameters
A total of 400 Mystery Shopper calls were made to leading hotel reservations centers to inquire about future room reservations. Calls were evenly spread across 40 premium brand hotels in eight countries, and were made between April and May 2008.
The objective of making a reservation call was to understand how different hotels across different markets handled the inbound sales process while simultaneously delivering premium customer service in line with premier hotel branding.
All calls were initiated by local citizens within each country. Three levels of evaluation were used to ensure that a local perspective was incorporated against calibration at a global standard level: 1) by the local mystery shopper who made the call; 2) by the local quality control inside the country; and 3) by a centralized quality control panel.
All calls were made using the same scenario to ensure comparability of results: a prospective customer calling to make a reservation inquiry at the selected hotel. In all cases, the scenario was open-ended to allow the call center agent the opportunity to demonstrate his or her skill and expertise in call handling.
The GSI analyzes two key performance categories: accessibility and service quality.
Accessibility
Accessibility reflects the ability to reach the call center and to reach the agent. The attributes reflect various technology options, such as the use or non-use of an IVR and how delay announcements and music-on-hold services are structured. It also considers whether there is adequate technology in place, such as having enough phone lines for callers to get through.
In comparison with earlier GSI studies for the banking and telecom sectors, the hotel reservations centers sector delivered the quickest speed of answer across all selected hotels in all countries (see Figure 2).
Unlike their call center counterparts in the banking and telecom industries — which remain big users of front-end IVR systems for call routing — only six out of the 40 hotels in the study employed a front-end IVR for call handling.
Of the remaining hotels, approximately half sent the calls directly to a call center agent, while the other half put the call through directly to a reception desk, from which the call was subsequently transferred to a call center (or reservations) agent.
All calls were initially directed to the advertised reservations line as posted on the respective hotel Web site.
Figure 2. Wait Time Distribution by Country
Service Quality
Overall service quality reflects how well the call center and individual agents are managed and, thus, how well the agents perform during the call. The attributes reflect various levels of skills and engagement exhibited by the agent during the call; it should not be interpreted as an individual agent evaluation.
To allow for depth of analysis, GSI service quality results are reported as overall performance, which aggregates all attributes as well as by three subcategories, namely:
Courtesy standards: basic foundational skills such as the greeting, getting the customer’s name, restating the inquiry and the closing.
Engagement standards: finesse-based skills, such as probing,establishing rapport by using the customer’s name, controlling the call, stating the benefits of getting the product or service, explaining additional value adds and providing a positive role model for the customer contact industry.
Revenue generation standards: asking for the business, upselling/cross-selling processes, and the quality of upselling/cross-selling.
The U.S. performed best over all countries and took first position across all three categories.
In fact, three out of the five top-performing hotel reservations centers were found in the U.S., which contributed significantly to the overall score for the country. The remaining two hotels in the top five were located in India and the U.K., respectively.
The U.S. and India hotel reservations centers dominated the top 10 with three hotels represented from each country, while Australia, Singapore, the U.K. and Malaysia each placed one hotel reservations center in the top 10.
Courtesy
The U.S. was the best-performing country in courtesy standards (see Figure 3), with a score of 52 percent for overall performance. India was its nearest competitor (44 percent), with significantly lower performance scores from the other six countries.
The U.S. also achieved the best performance for the greeting attribute at 88 percent. In 44 out of 50 calls, the agents clearly provided their own name and their company name at the beginning of the call. Singapore took second position for this attribute at 78 percent performance.
In terms of restating the caller’s inquiry (i.e., agent confirming or paraphrasing the customer’s request prior to moving deeper into the conversation), call centers in Malaysia slightly outperformed the U.S. with rankings of 40 percent and 38 percent, respectively.
For this attribute, an interesting behavior was detected across the Asian markets, which is highlighted in the following dialog:
Customer: Hello, can you tell me about your hotel rates and promotions?
Agent: We don’t have any promotions; did you just want to hear about our room rates?
The mystery shoppers observed that, while the agent may have in fact acknowledged that the customer asked about rates or promotions, the style of response could be perceived as quite negative; i.e., “We don’t have any promotions.” This could result in the loss of a sale to a competitor.
Figure 3. Courtesy Performance by Country
Engagement
The U.S. centers performed the best overall at engaging the caller through more complex social processes (73 percent). Reservation centers in India and the U.K. followed at 69 percent and 68 percent, respectively (see Figure 4). Reservation centers in Australia performed the worst (54 percent). Agents at these centers provided a positive role model for the customer contact industry on fewer than half of the calls (44 percent).
The U.S. call centers performed the highest in the role-model trait, as well (77 percent). One hotel reservations center in the U.S. scored a record 100 percent for delivering memorable role model service across all calls.
In comparison with other hotels, both in the U.S. and other countries, agents did not sound like they were just “doing their jobs.” Instead, they took the time to explain not only the features of the room or hotel property but how these features would benefit the guest.
Examples included:
> “He [your boss] will really enjoy the executive desk because it is big enough to spread out a lot of papers as well as a laptop.”
> “Since you are here for business, we also have a soaking tub (in addition to a shower) that is definitely relaxing.”
> “Since you have business meetings during your trip, it is good to know that many company headquarters are located nearby — even within walking distance.”
These types of comments were stated naturally and in a conversational style and appeared in every call for this company.
The U.S. and U.K. tied (23 percent) for first position in the “why get it” attribute, which gauges how well an agent explains or recommends reasons as to why the customer should “get” the particular product or service. Given that the Mystery Shopper calls were based on a sales (reservations) inquiry, this attribute highlights the difference between simply providing information and providing a convincing recommendation of some kind.
In one successful “why get it” statement, the agent recommended that the caller take a particular room because it was situated in a quiet interior courtyard location and, thus, would be extremely comfortable for a single traveller.
In another successful “why get it” statement, the agent said, “If this is for business, I suggest the room on the club floor because there’s access to the club lounge located on the ___st floor overlooking ABC Park at $______, including breakfast and evening cocktails at the lounge.”
“Why get it” represents a sophisticated approach to selling that involves the agent not only standing behind the products and services they sell, but demonstrating how the various aspects of the product or service are relevant to the customer.
Figure 4. Engagement Performance by Country
Revenue Generation
What really set the U.S. apart from other countries was its strong overall performance in the Revenue Generation category (see Figure 5).
In 98 percent of the calls across all five U.S. hotels, agents consistently asked the caller for their business, usually through phrasing such as, “May I book or reserve that room for you now?” There is a significant gap between the U.S. centers’ performance and that of the other countries. The next best-performing country, Australia, was ranked at a relatively low 58 percent, a drop of 40 percentage points compared to the U.S.
In Indonesia, the lowest performer for this attribute, only two callers out of 50 were asked if they would like the agent to proceed with the room reservation.
In the upsell/cross-sell attribute, the U.S. hotel reservations centers ranked the highest at 20 percent. One center, in particular, delivered an outstanding 80 percent performance for upselling, which placed it far ahead of the remaining 39 hotels in the study. Agents in this center were consistent in not only encouraging the customer to sign up for the “appropriate” room or suite, but also encouraging the caller to take advantage of additional packages and promotions.
Figure 5. Revenue Generation Performance by Country
Talk Time Distribution by Country
There was no correlation found between the Talk Times (in minutes and seconds) and Service Quality performance, but it was noted that while the U.S. scored the highest in all three Service Quality categories (namely Revenue Generation, Engagement and Courtesy), the distribution of talk time lengths for the U.S. was on the lower end of the scale, with 45 out of 50 calls ending in less than five minutes. The following table outlines the distribution of talk times by country:
It is important to note that, as no formal reservation was made, none of the hotel’s unique data entry of the booking process had an impact on the talk time.
For Questions or further information about ICMI’s Global Service Index Report, please contact:
Rosaline Oh
Director, Client Services
OmniTouch International
(65) 6324 4844
