Reducing customer hold times with modernized IT systems

Services Rendered: Software Development ● Automation Solutions

Our client, a leading hotel booking site in Europe, was facing significant challenges with its outdated IT system. Despite being the top search result in its category and generating €4M in annual revenue, its legacy system was causing long customer hold times and limiting its growth potential. With 10-20% year-over-year growth, it knew it was missing out on even higher profits due to its underperforming system.

The Problem

Painfully slow technology causing a 60% reduction in call center sales

Our client’s unique business model worked like this: well in advance of the peak of the tourist season, the company would reserve huge blocks of hotel rooms in the most popular destinations, and then resell them to customers who landed on their #1-ranked website. All sales were booked through the company call center; customers would call and speak to one of 30 sales reps, who would search their database, through an off the shelf booking system, for available rooms and reserve them for the customer over the phone.

However, despite solid yearly growth, the outdated booking system they were using was a significant bottleneck, preventing the company from achieving hockey-stick growth. The booking software vendor was unable to customize the solution at the speed and frequency necessary for our client. Built in 2008, with several additional functionalities cobbled together the system suffered from old and inefficient technology. Each database search took almost 50 seconds, keeping the reps on each call far longer than necessary. This inefficiency led to extended hold times, causing a 60% loss in potential bookings as customers abandoned calls.

The Solution

Fully rebuilt and customized application with ongoing optimization

As always, we started with an in-depth research phase to understand the client’s priorities, suggest specific features, and scope out the full solution. Then, we analyzed their existing system to identify obsolete functionalities and broken technology. With the full picture, we set about rebuilding the system with efficiency and growth in mind, including a faster and safer search algorithm.

We rebuilt the back-office reservation application, improving the search engine speed and accuracy and the user interface to speed up processes. We also automated the payment system to boost the operator’s workflow. Port access has also undergone a security upgrade, fortifying client data privacy.

Technology Stack: PHP, Smarty Templates, MySQL, jQuery, Bootstrap, 3CX

The Results

50X speed increase, happy customers, 40% YOY growth

With their modernized database and systems, the company is now able to quickly address customers’ needs by searching their database in under one second instead of almost 50. They no longer lose prospects due to long hold times, and have dramatically increased growth to 40% YOY in the two years the system has been implemented.