Vipservice has launched an automated control system for requests of corporate clients. Olga Dolgova, who was responsible for introducing new technology, explained about advantages of the new system.
Olga Dolgova was appointed deputy head of service department of Vipservice holding corporate branch in June 2017. She was tasked to analyze and optimize work flow, implement new technologies and develop effective strategy for further development. One year later, Olga accepted an offer to be a deputy managing director of corporate business for operational services. Her appointment coincided with the launch of one of her main projects, automated control system for client requests. We spoke with Olga about the technological solution, which is innovative for the Russian market and will allow to ensure a whole new level of TMC service.
– Olga, could you please tell us what are the benefits of the new technology, are there any similar technologies on the market?
– This technology is unique on the Russian travel market. We are the first to introduce this solution, we have gone through all the difficulties of tweaking and testing, developing additional applications to be able to say now that there is no other company in Russia with similar level of control over client requests. Thanks to a well-coordinated work of the implementation team and thorough planning of the future architecture of the system, we managed to reduce twice the time to achieve the industrial capacity.
The new system is centered around a client request, which then brings together the rest of services: communication with clients, tickets, bookings, any internal comments from the help desk for all types of services. Previously, all of that was "in different pockets" and it took time to synchronize. Now we are able to consolidate all the request-related information and ensure seamless process of both in the working group and between the day and night services.
The system automatically distributes requests between managers with regards to their current load, skills and redistributes flow in case of excess traffic. These all resulted in a significant optimization of utilization of working hours of the operational department agents and provided an opportunity for increasing transactional capacity within the current staff. We obtained an online controlled transparent business. It became easy to keep track of how requests turn into transactions, how quickly an employee responds within SLA, automatically generate reports for clients on the adherence to it and control performance of each employee.
– You explained about advantages of the new system for the holding, but what kind of advantages can it provide to clients?
– Most of our clients have already appreciated the capabilities of the new system. Now each incoming request is automatically assigned a unique number, the client receives a notification on the request status, its number and the name of the agent processing the request. Clients also welcome the opportunity to receive automated reports and track adherence to SLA to monitor the service quality, allowing the client's travel manager to track the contract progress.
For companies, which are provided with an individual service as part of the service plan according to the terms of agreement, we have set up the prioritization and now automatically connect the client with its manager as part of the working group.
The system-integrated ability to leave an automated feedback (client survey) on the basis of processed requests helps us to maintain a high level of quality and promptly introduce preventive measures.
– Olga, you have also masterminded the internal round-the-clock help desk. What kind of task did you work on in this direction?
– My goal was to create an internal round-the-clock help desk incorporating new technologies. For example, now our VIP clients have an opportunity to communicate with managers in one of popular messengers using a single number, and the client's message is seen by all employees responsible for the client. We can really be proud of this case, since the messenger as a point-to-point communicator did not provide for this opportunity at first.
Basing on the analysis of query statistics, we managed to correctly plan the number of employees for the night service and optimized costs for the round-the-clock support by over 60%. And an automated request control system through a step will provide us with an opportunity to plan staff for hours with traditionally high load throughout the day. The correctly planned process, compliance with deadlines helped us to launch the service one week before the planned date.
The seamlessness of the service is ensured by 100%: the systems allows to display all requests of the client for the entire period by typing any key word, easy access to the desired request, check the client's profile and its rights in the online mode.
– Olga, could you please tell us about your future plans. What will you work on?
– The next step will be introduction of CTI (Computer Telephony Integration), implementation of telephony into the request control system. In another step, we will add transactions to this bundle and will obtain a kind of three-dimensional model, which will show how much data is processed by each employee and his/her performance.
Speaking in general, there is only one goal for 2018 and 2019: reduced operational costs by improving efficiency of internal processes. My key goal is to find everything marked as "it was historically this way", check whether it meets the current market realities, change it or introduce a new process, which will be more efficient and cost-effective.
