Today Morgans Hotel Group announced the success of its regional reservations department. Based at Mondrian London, the new team has delivered an 11% increase in reservations, generating additional £2.5m net revenue since its inception in July 2015.
The regional reservations department operates with 8 people and all of the agents are multi-skilled to handle all enquiries. Operating with Mitel multi-media contact centre, callers can contact agents via the telephone, email, web chat and using social media. As a company, Morgans also uses Gmail which is easily integrated in to the CCM, offering a single point multi-media solution.
IVR routing ensures that the right calls reach the correct team, and the evaluation reports enable the contact centre manager to plan accordingly for busy periods and the reporting also gives clear visibility on call times, waiting, agent availability and volume of calls. From a training perspective, the ability to monitor calls through the silent supervisor functionality has certainly helped with the increase in guest satisfaction, seeing the average Mystery Shopper score rise from 89% to 96%.
In its first year of operation the department reduced the call abandon rate from 7.8% to 5%.
The original brief to Britannic Technologies was to implement a PBX solution for the 359 bedroom hotel. This included the plan to move away from the traditional call routes such as reception, room service and concierge services towards a centralised operation to handle all of the guests’ requirements. This would offer a highly available service that contributed to a first-rate guest experience.
Neil Sawers, Director of IT, says, “This was the first time that we had tried this type of department within Morgans Hotel Group and it was vital that the technology and infrastructure were robust enough to handle the volume of calls. Our managed service provider, Britannic Technologies provided us with a Mitel IP solution and from an IT perspective there was a lot of forethought to ensure this became a success. For example the reservation systems for our rooms, the restaurant and room service had to be able to fully function alongside the more recognisable telephone software, all in a confined space and running on a 24/7 basis.
The telephone solution now gives the team the ability to identify in advance what the call is about and where it is coming from. Britannic Technologies programmed the guest handsets for each of the services; all of the calls go to the central department but the agents know immediately which type of service is requested and where the request is coming from. This ensures that our guests always receive first-time resolution. The success of this department from a technical and service perspective meant Britannic Technologies were the natural choice for implementing the regional reservations department as an expansion of our Mitel estate.”
Sawers concludes, “Voice still plays a pivotal role in the hotel industry, both for generating business and delivering excellent customer service. Britannic Technologies has been key in establishing our business requirements and delivering functional, effective solutions.”
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About Britannic Technologies
Britannic Technologies is an award-winning provider of voice communications solutions, systems integration and managed services to customers worldwide. Leaders in innovation and pioneers in new technology, its highly skilled team and a heritage of 30 years make the company one of the most trusted enablers of technology in its industry; working closely with customers to discover their needs and requirements, and shaping technology to deliver business benefits.