An international guest arrives at your hotel's front desk. He wants to check in but speaks no English. Your one multilingual employee has just gone home for the day. What can you do?
Later that night, a group of travelers whose flight was delayed shows up in your lobby. They're tired and they all need rooms. But you're operating with minimal staff at this hour of night. How can you best serve them?
You turn to a computerized system that helps you offer high-quality service instantly. On a computer monitor, a live, host greets guests with a friendly voice in a familiar language.
Visitors use the computer monitor to interact with customer service experts, not menus or canned video. The host is connected in real time from a remote location and available whenever and wherever needed.
This cutting-edge solution, called Nextprise, is a melding of human expertise and applied technology. It comes from Experticity, a leading developer of labor distribution innovations for businesses and consumers. The solution is built on proven Microsoft technology.
For the hotel industry, Nextprise offers dramatic improvements to guest services, along with greater efficiency and reduced costs. For hotel guests, Nextprise makes waiting in line a thing of the past.
Deliver instant service in any language
"From the moment a guest walks into a hotel, the hospitality experience begins," says D.L. Baron, president and CEO of Experticity. "If that guest encounters a long line at the front desk, the experience can be a frustrating one."
With a Nextprise screen placed in the hotel lobby, guests receive live, face-to-face service instantly—without having to wait in line. Guests work with experts who can assist them with any request, from upgrading a room and booking dinner reservations to renting a car and viewing a map of a conference location.
Nextprise also ensures that frequent guests get the personalized treatment they deserve, whether they are staying in London, Tokyo, or San Francisco. By swiping an identification card through the Nextprise card reader, guests can talk to the same group of experts they have worked with before—experts who know their preferences for rooms, restaurants, entertainment, and more.
In addition, guests can talk with an online concierge in any language, at any time of day, regardless of which employees are working in the hotel. "Many businesses talk about how the workforce should reflect the diversity of their customer base, but that isn’t always realistic—especially in a hotel environment," says Baron. "With Nextprise, guests can always speak to an expert in the language of their choice."
Ensure accurate staffing and superior service
Nextprise is a cost-effective screen-based solution and card reader that works over a broadband connection. The solution integrates seamlessly with Web-based legacy systems and maximizes the flexible technology integration capabilities of Microsoft BizTalk Server. Nextprise experts can be located in call centers or enterprise locations around the world, enabling hotels to deliver superior service to guests without having to overstaff.
"Although traditional staffing and labor supply is by the hour, customer demand is by the minute," says Baron. "At some point in each day, any given hotel is either understaffed or overstaffed. With experts working from call centers, Nextprise empowers any organization with the ability to right-staff."
Hotels can also take advantage of the solution to cross-sell and up-sell their services by monitoring the information that guests receive. If a guest is interested in having seafood for dinner, for example, the Nextprise expert can show him or her photos, descriptions, and menu prices of the seafood dishes available at the hotel's restaurant.
Nextprise combines the benefits of face-to-face customer relationships with the most current information available. The solution helps to deliver an unparalleled level of service in a cost-effective, innovative solution.
"For the hotels of the future, it's not going to be about the kinds of sheets they have or the cost," explains Baron. "It's going to be about the relationships they build with guests—and those relationships are built on superior service."
http://www.microsoft.com/industry/hospitality/businessvalue/experticityarticle.mspx
