Our client, one of Europe’s premier hotel booking sites, was already #1 in search results and enjoying 10-20% YOY growth when we began working together. However, even with these successes (on top of a €4M annual revenue), the company knew they were missing out on even higher profits and stronger growth, as a result of their underperforming legacy system. We rebuilt the entire system to be almost 50x faster, with peak functionality and scalability. Since implementing the new application, the company’s growth has dramatically increased to 40% YOY.
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 height of the tourist season, the company would buy up huge blocks of hotel rooms in the most popular destinations, and then offer 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 for available rooms and book them for the customer over the phone.
However, despite solid yearly growth, the company’s legacy IT system was holding them back from hockey-stick profits. Built in 2008, with several additional functionalities cobbled together since, 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. And because the reps were stuck on the phone dealing with an inefficient database, customers interested in purchasing were kept on hold instead of being quickly shepherded through the buying process. The problem was so bad that the company was losing 60% of their potential bookings due to customers hanging up and moving on to the competition.
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 in place, we set about rebuilding the system with efficiency and growth in mind, including a faster and safer search algorithm.
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.