Answering Guest Questions

More Effectively With The

Help of Desk.com

John Scrugham Director of Operations

Contact Info j.scrugham@orbridge.com 503.789.0078

Table of Contents

• Executive Summary - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - 3

• The Problem- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -5

• The Solution- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -10

• Features of Desk.com- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -14

• Costs and Benefits- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - 16

• Concerns- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -22

• Implementation- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - 23

• Summary- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - 26

• References- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -27

• Appendices- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - 29

Executive Summary

• Orbridge fails the RATER quality framework for answering guest questions because of slow answer time and getting the wrong answer.

• Agent answering time is highly variable, contributing to longer answer time. Orbridge’s many sources lead agents to the wrong answers.

• Slow answer time and getting the wrong answer negatively impact our bottom-line by $3,600 and $37,713 per month respectively.

The problem with answering guest questions lies in slow answer time and getting the wrong answer.

• The software requirements include a knowledgebase and ticket tracking software; the software must be scalable, hosted in the cloud, and have a clean interface.

• Desk.com is highly ranked as a knowledge base and ticket tracking software and is the only product that satisfies our software requirements.

• The Desk.com’s knowledgebase is a good fit for Orbridge because of the public/private articles, article layout, knowledge management, and searchable knowledgebase.

• The Desk.com ticket tracking is a good fit for Orbridge because of the email warning, business rules, voice over IP, and case options.

The solution is to implement Desk.com.

• The costs to run Desk.com have low upfront investment and flexible future pricing, ideal for a startup.

• The first benefit is that Desk.com decreases time spent answering questions by over 50%, bottom-line savings of $1,272.

• The second benefit is that answering guest questions correctly decreases the cost of poor service, bottom-line savings of $15,086/month.

• The last benefit is that improved guest answering efficiency eliminates the necessity to hire a third agent, bottom-line savings of $4,166/ month.

The costs to implement are small compared to the benefits.

The Problem

5

Orbridge struggles with answering guest questions

Future Traveler: Mary Hamilton

Orbridge Agent:

Lauren Meyer Case Study

Question Scenario: Mary Hamilton traveled with us

last year on the Galapagos Cruise (December 2011).

She traveled with us again on the April 7, 2012

Alaska’s Inside Passage Cruise.

When packing for the cruise, she decided that she

wanted to bring her telephoto camera lenses with her

on the trip to take shots of the bears, eagles, and

whales. She forgot to bring the lenses to the

Galapagos and she regretted it. To pack the lenses,

she needs to bring a bigger suitcase (34 inches tall).

Mary’s Question: Will my 34 inch suitcase fit under

the bed on the cruise ship?

Agent Interaction: Mary calls Lauren at Orbridge to

find out how much room is under the beds on the ship.

Lauren looks through 6 sources of information to find

the answer. After 12 minutes, she finds the answer.

Lauren tells Mary that there are 30 inches under the

mattress.

Issue: It takes Lauren 12 minutes to get back to Mary.

That is wasted time on both ends. Additionally, Lauren

tells Mary the wrong answer; the beds have 35 inches

underneath.

More than just Mary

17% of guest are getting all or some of

their questions wrongly answered1.

Ex: Lauren tells Mary 34 inches.

15% of guests complain about getting wrong answers from agents. (Tantawy, et al, 2000) shows that only 22% of guests complain even if they had trouble about it.

10% of guests actively express concern

with how long we take to answer questions2.

Ex: Mary doesn’t get an answer until

after 12 minutes on the phone

2Expressing concern comes from email and phone conversations. Examples include phrases such as “why can’t you find this” “is there another place that I can find this info”.

6

Using the RATER quality framework we can understand why Orbridge

struggles with answering guest questions

The RATER model was developed by quality gurus in the late 1970s as a framework for identifying where to improve and understand quality in operations, specifically service businesses. Recently, Nyeck, et al, 2002 confirmed that by identifying and addressing these 5 components or RATER, a business can become more profitable.

1. Reliability

a) Definition: Perform promised service dependably and accurately.

b) Applies to Orbridge: We promise to answer guest questions quickly (timeliness) and correctly (accuracy). We cannot deliver on our promise because of our unreliable information sources and long answering times.

2. Responsiveness

a) Definition: Willingness to help customers promptly.

b) Applies to Orbridge: While our agents are willing to act promptly, our current systems at Orbridge inhibit them to do so.

3. Assurance

a) Definition: Ability to convey trust and confidence.

b) Applies to Orbridge: Orbridge is a startup company, so instilling trust in a customer is very difficult. We cannot be trusted if we answer questions incorrectly.

4. Empathy

a) Definition: Ability to be approachable.

b) Applies to Orbridge: Our agents are approachable in-person, but guests contact them through a medium (email, phone, instant message, etc). The medium in which the two sides communicate through determines the level of empathy that can be expressed. Orbridge’s current medium (phone and scattered sources) limits the agents ability to be approachable.

5. Tangibles

a) Definition: The physical representations or images of your service—employees, equipment, communication material, and facility.

b) Applies to Orbridge: The tour business sells an experience, which makes it even harder to ensure customer confidence the in brand/company. Our touch points of conveying trust before the trip occur through our direct mailings (which we do a good job) and communicating with guests. Since we do not communicate well with guest when they answer questions, our customer’s trust and confidence in us is greatly hurt

Summary: We do not satisfy the 5 components of RATER, so our profits are negatively affected

as I will demonstrate later in this report. There are two common elements of answering questions

that have negatively affected our ability to satisfy the RATER: (1) slow answer time and (2) wrong

answers. These negatively affect our service in answering guest questions.

7

Agent answering time is highly variable, contributing to longer answer

time, and Orbridge’s many sources lead agents to the wrong answers

Slow Answer Time Analysis: Call time is statistically out of control meaning that we have

significant variability in our ability to answer questions in less than 5

minutes. This may be a result of a lack of processes (and facilitating

software) in place to ensure constant answering time. Additionally, on

average, 29.6% of our calls take longer than 5 minutes (5 minutes is

used as an upper limit of acceptability defined by Orbridge’s CEO).

This is a very high proportion.

Spikes in proportions, such as sample 12, are most likely a result of

difficult questions that we cannot find answers to. Additionally, sharp

drops in time to answer questions (like sample 6 and 14) may be the

result of questions that are easy to answer.

Customer impact: Customers perceive long waits as unprofessional.

Agents seem not responsiveness when the wait is long.

Bottom Line Impact: High variability in answering time, as a result of

a lack of supportive processes, contribute to a longer overall time to

answer questions. This wastes agent time, which is money that we

are paying them.

List of sources that agents reference:

1. Reservations Excel File: Individual trip information is in each of the excel files.

Lauren tries to keep the file updated weekly.

2. Orbridge Website: We have updated the site twice in 16 months. Agents still use

the site for information, although it primarily serves as a quick overview of the trips for

guests.

3. Supplier’s Websites: Supplier publish material for clients to access. For example,

InnerSeas Discoveries has boat information for their vendors.

4. Orbridge Direct Mailings: Agents often reference dated mailings Although the facts

in the material are reliable at the time of publication, they are often outdated by the time

agents reference them.

5. Guest Documents: We send trip information regarding useful trip hints such as

temperature, a packing list, and ship specifications to the future trip-goers.

6. Big Knowledge Books: Lauren, the Orbridge Director of Operations, has compiled

binders of information about each trip. These binders contain on average 200 pages of

trip information printed off from many sources. Although it is not up-to-date, it is the

most comprehensive knowledge in the office.

Getting the wrong answer

Average p 0.296

UCL 0.361

LCL 0.231

Stdev 0.065

Analysis: Agents look through 6 sources to answer guest questions.

This leads answering 17% of guest incorrectly (see previous page).

The many sources make it hard for agents to maintain and use quality

information.

Customer impact: Customers act on the information we give them,

so when it’s wrong, they do things that most likely won’t benefit them

such as not bringing their telephoto lenses with them.

If we apply “Zero Defects,” the concept popularized by quality guru

Philip Crosby (Creech, 1994), to this problem area, we can

understand the impact. Namely, if we answer just one question wrong,

we are straying from customer expectations.

Bottom Line Impact: This hurts our profit because every time we

answer a question wrong, we are incurring a cost. This costs—or the

Price of Nonconformance—include inspection time, rework, wasted

material and labor, lost revenue and the cost of customer

dissatisfaction.

8

Slow answer time and getting the wrong answer negatively impact our

bottom-line by $3600 and $37,713 per month respectively

Slow Answer Time

Bottom Line Impact: Guest service agents spend 30% of

their day answering questions.

If we can cut time answering questions, we can put their

time—and add value—in other areas that directly drive

revenue such as taking reservations.

The total bottom line impact for guest agents spending 30%

of their time answer questions is:

$3,600/month

Getting the wrong answer

Bottom Line Impact: The tree diagram on the left

represents the possible scenarios when a guest

question is not resolved.

The bottom line impact is a function of the likelihood that

an event happens (such as a guest further inquiry at

17% * 10% ) and the monetary value associated with

that event ($4.15 is time for an agent to answer a further

guest inquiry).

The total bottom line impact of 17% of questions not

being resolved is:

$37,713 / month

% of Time Hours of Day

Mailings 20% 1.6 To guest (10%)

Marketing (10%)

Trip Preparation 50% 4 Reservations (30%)

Guest communication (20%)

Answering Questions ( ̴ 30/day) 30% 2.4 Repetitive* (20%)

Hard** (10%)

Guest Agent’s Daily Work Breakdown

*A repetitive question is a question that guests often ask (a daily question) such as what flights go in to the port of call or when they can board the ship.

**A hard question is one that takes considerable time to find an answer to such as “is there a vegan option on this trip”

9

The Solution

10

The software requirements include a knowledgebase and ticket tracking software;

the software must be scalable, hosted in the cloud, and have a clean interface S

olu

tion R

equir

em

ents

2. Knowledge base

So

ftw

are

Sp

ecific

atio

ns

3. Scalable: The software needs to be scalable because Orbridge currently only needs two agents, but will need

many more within a year. Orbridge has tripled the volume of trips this season and will need more agents to work

with the software.

4. Cloud computing (Saas): Orbridge completely operates on the cloud: CRM with 37Signals, calendar and email

with Google Business Apps, Alumni Web portal for marketing, data storage with Dropbox. One of Orbridge’s

strategies is to have all systems online so that they can “talk” to each other. New software must be online.

5. Clean Interface: A clean interface will allow training to be easier (since most training at Orbridge is self-

teaching) and a higher adoption rate (Orbridge needs 100% adoption for the 2 agents).

1. Ticket Tracking: software that organizations use to monitor questions and issues that customers have.

Slow Answer Time Getting the Wrong Answer

Agents can keep track of all the cases and allocate how they

are going to answer them.

This decreases variability because there is a process in

place to answer guest questions

Pass the questions on to specialist agents.

By having a process in which to allocate the knowledge of

the organizations, we limit the sources of information to the

specialists.

2. Knowledgebase: a central place that people in an organization can store information for both the employees to

access and for guest to browse.

Slow Answer Time Getting the Wrong Answer

Able to access the whole network of information in one

place

This decreases variability because guests know where to

get the answer.

Collectively update the info online. All agents can access

the updated info

There is one source in which people can access information.

11

The helpdesk options are ranked on how well the software meets

Orbridge’s software requirements

Product Cost Integration and

Scalability Cloud Capabilities Interface Design Knowledgebase Ticket Tracking

Salesforce

Desk.com

$49/month 10

Add and drop users

with a click.

Add users for a high

demand time on an

hourly basis.

Easy to add web

portal.

9

Salesforce is a premier

company for SaaS

software.

Desk.com has 99.99%

up-time. We can rely

on this cloud service.

10

Assislty—the original

software company and

product that Salesforce

purchased—was a leader in

clean interface design.

9

Easy to navigate on the

user’s side.

Customizable so that

Orbridge can have

additional, private,

knowledgebase

information within the

system

9

Business rules allow us to

funnel different inquiry

keywords to separate

agents.

Multichannel support—

Facebook, twitter, email,

VoIP.

Shortcuts for

canned/custom responses

Zendesk $24/month 9

Add and drop agents.

Takes some tech

knowledge to setup

10

Zendesk was and is a

pioneer in SaaS for

helpdesk software.

Bugs are quickly fixed.

7

A common complaint

(Quora)—and one that I

found to be true—was that

the interface is cluttered.

6

The knowledgebase is

an extra feature to this

product, not a core part.

9

Multichannel support.

Analytics for customer

support. Ticket sharing.

VoIP is well-tested.

HelpSpot $49/User/Ye

ar +

licensing

($239/user)

7

Has the components

of scaling—add and

drop agents—yet

steep learning curve

8

Semi-reliable servers.

4

Interface has not had a major

overhaul since 2004.

Backwards navigation.

7

User and agent end of

knowledgebase is solid,

more geared towards

software companies.

The ability to brand is

seriously lacking

7

No multi-channel support.

Difficulty in sharing cases

with other agents.

Automation rules are good.

Freshdesk $9 per

agent/month

5

Need tech support to

set up. Scaling

involves switching

plans. Upon

questioning, unclear

wear data is stored

and moved to.

8

Dedicated team to

ensure good uptime.

9

Simple overviews help

agents understand daily

needs. Works like Gmail.

Navigation makes sense

8

Branded and clean

knowledgebase from

both user and agent

end. Forum allows

community voting. Email

to knowledgebase for

updating.

7

Prioritize customers. Not

good ability to share tickets

with other agents.

Automated responses

confusing.

Kayako

Fusion

$49/user/mo

nth

+licensing

(quoted at

$2300 for

us)

6

Pricing allows for

scaling. The systems

do not support good

scaling.

6

Kayoko is new to the

cloud. They focus on

enterprise software.

7

Has taken great steps in past

2 years. Still behind market

leaders.

7

Excellent branding

capabilities. Agent

knowledgebase is

clunky.

8

Built for software support.

Many good features, yet

may be beyond our scope.

* Collected ratings from browsing website and demoing all products during a one-month trial period.

12

Desk.com is highly ranked as a knowledge base and ticket tracking software and

is the only product that satisfies our software requirements.

Product Cost Integration and

Scalability Cloud Capabilities Interface Design Knowledgebase Ticket Tracking

Salesforce

Desk.com

$49/month 10

Add and drop users

with a click. Add

users for a high

demand time on an

hourly basis. Easy to

add web portal.

9

Salesforce is a premier

company for SaaS

software. Desk.com

has 99.99% up-time.

We can rely on this

cloud service.

10

Assislty—the original

software company and

product that Salesforce

purchased—was a leader in

clean interface design.

9

Easy to navigate on the

user’s side.

Customizable so that

Orbridge can have

additional, private,

knowledgebase

information within the

system

9

Business rules allow us to

funnel different inquiry

keywords to separate

agents. Multichannel

support—Facebook, twitter,

email, VoIP. Shortcuts for

canned/custom responses

Desk.com received the highest scores, and is my suggestion for the software of choice, for the following reasons:

Costs: My cost limitations were $10-200/ user/ month, since the costs of poor service and wasted time are around $30,000/ month. Most

products that I researched were in this range, so this was not a distinguishing factor of Desk.com.

Integration and Scalability: Desk.com had the most flexible scaling option. We can add as many agents as we want as we grow. What

particularly attracted me to the Desk.com was that we can add agents on an hourly basis. On high volume days, it will be beneficial to put the

Director of Operations on the guest service team to answer questions (in the weeks leading up to our summer tour season).

Cloud Capabilities: Since the business needs of Orbridge demand a cloud service, I only looked at products that could be hosted online. My

goal was to find a product with solid up-time and little bugs—that’s why we chose Dropbox and 37Signals over the competitors. Desk.com

had both a solid track record and is backed by one of the most respectable3 cloud service companies: Salesforce.com.

Interface Design: I demoed all the software products found in the chart on the previous page. While screen shots show that Desk.com,

Freshdesk, and even Zendesk have flashy and pleasing interfaces, Desk.com was the most intuitive and easy to use. Preliminary tests

showed that agents felt more comfortable using Desk.com interface, namely because it reflects Gmail’s interface (the email client that we

current use).

Knowledgebase: See Page 14.

Ticket Tracking: See Page 14.

3 The CruncBase profile shows that Salesforce is a consistent leader in the cloud-based service market. It has gained considerable traction

after the 2006 IPO. See: http://www.crunchbase.com/company/salesforce

The Features of Desk.com

That are Beneficial

Specifically for Orbridge

14

The Desk.com’s knowledgebase is a good fit for Orbridge because of the public/private

articles, article layout, knowledge management, and searchable knowledgebase

Feature Description How It Helps

Public/ private articles Allows us to store additional information

about a topic in the same article without

showing the guests.

This is beneficial because it allows us to keep all

information in once place (on Desk.com and

specifically in one article) so that we have one

place to update info, ensuring quality and up-to-

date information

Article Layout Organized in a clean fashion and ability

to easily brand.

The guest will see the portal, easily be able to

access information, and believe that this is part

of the Orbridge website. This boosts our

reputation.

Knowledge management Ability to assign agents rights to updating

different articles. Administrator has

universal editing privileges and can track

changes to knowledgebase.

With agents specializing in different regions of

the world, it’s useful to have certain agents able

to update certain articles. With one person

overseeing the content, we can ensure quality.

Searchable knowledgebase Users can search individual words within

the knowledgebase. Additionally, we can

assign keywords to articles for

organization.

Allows agents to quickly find information to

reduce time. We can group similar trips together

(and similar things on trips such as transportation

and climate info) with the same keywords.

*See Appendix A for images of the software

15

The Desk.com ticket tracking is a good fit for Orbridge because of the email warning, business rules, voice over IP, and case options

Feature Description How It Helps

Email Warning When users email Orbridge with a question,

Desk.com searches and matches keywords and

phrases within the body of the guest’s email that

are present in the knowledgebase. Desk.com

makes suggestion on where to look before user

sends the email. This feature is completely unique

to Desk.com

This feature reduces the volume of emails coming

in because it offers one last chance for guest’s to

answer their own question.

Business Rules Administrators can set automated filtering options

for emails coming in based on title of email, words

in email, and even guest name.

We can funnel different trip inquiries to certain

agents who specialize in certain areas of the

world. Since we have over 30 trips to know about,

it’s important to split of the knowledge and the

responses.

Voice Over IP VoIP is a way to talk to people on the phone

through the internet. Desk.com has the ability to

integrate phone conversations in to the ticket

tracking side of the software. Desk.com is on the

forefront of VoIP within ticket tracking.

Orbridge is planning to switch to VoIP from

landline phones within 6 months. Desk.com can

integrate with that system so that all guest

inquiries can be tracked in Desk.com. This gives

Orbridge in-depth knowledge about all guest

communication in regard to questions and

answers.

Case Options Desk.com gives agents the power to modify case

options such as the status of the ticket (resolved,

open), and the priority of the message (10 for

important guests and 1 for unimportant)

We are able to keep track of who we are

answering and how important they are. This

ensures that we are answering the questions that

are driving the most value in the organization. As

a startup, we need to allocate our sources very

wisely. Case options gives us the power to do so.

*See Appendix A for images of the software

Costs and Benefits

17

The costs to run Desk.com have low upfront investment and flexible

future pricing, ideal for a startup

Item Description Cost

Migration Pulling all the information from the

multiple sources. One week for one

employee.

$1400. Employee earns $25 per hour

Training 2 agents comfortable with software.

All 7 employees to understand

product.

$3000. Cost of my time and all

employees time for 20 hours.

Desk.com Knowledge base, ticket tracking,

customer management

$49 per agent/month

Initial Equity Investment: $4400

2 Agents: $98/month

18

The first benefit decreased time spent answering questions by over 50%, bottom-line

savings of $1,272

% of Time Hours of Day

Mailings 20% 1.6 To guest (10%)

Marketing (10%)

Trip Preparation 50% 4 Reservations (30%)

Guest communication (20%)

Answering Questions ( ̴ 30/day) 30% 2.4 Repetitive (20%)

Hard (10%)

Hard Questions

(10%) Repetitive

Questions (20%) Time Answering All

Questions

Now 0 hr 48 min(s) 1 hr 36 min(s) 2 hr 24 min(s)

40% decrease in question volume4 0 hr 00 min(s) 0 hr 38 min(s) 0 hr 38 min(s)

60% increase in efficiency 5 0 hr 28 min(s) 0 hr 34 min(s) 1 hr 03 min(s)

With Desk.com 0 hr 19 min(s) 0 hr 23 min(s) 0 hr 42 min(s)

4 40% is what Matthew Chabrier of Desk.com quoted as the low end in our email encounter.

5 60% is a combination of 3 sources. Tauck tours claims 85% increase in efficiency and Matthew quotes 100%.

Research (Reinartz, 2004) in this area has shown 15% increase in effiency.

Bottom-line Savings

$1,272/month

Time Saved 1 hr 41 min(s)

Agent Rate 25.00$

19

The second benefit is that answering guest questions correctly decreases the cost

of poor service, bottom-line savings of $15,086/month

Current cost of poor service, with 17%

of questions not being resolved is:

$37,713 / month

With a knowledgebase, I expect

that we can reduce the amount of

wrong answers by 40%, cutting it to

10.2% of total questions still being

answered incorrectly.

$22,627 / month

Down from 17% Bottom-line Savings

$15,086/month

20

The last benefit is that improved guest answering efficiency eliminates

the necessity to hire a third agent, bottom-line savings of $4,166/ month

CEO and Director of Operations

helped the agents answer

questions. Do not want repeat.

We need to hire 3rd agent to handle

increased question volume with

current system

Peak expected question volume remains

below total maximum volume with 2 agents

using Desk.com. We do not have to hire a

3rd agent for at least another year.

Monthly trip volume continues to increase year

over year. We project trip volume to continue to

increase as we have added over 30 departure

dates for next season.

As the number of people who travel with us

increases, so will the number of questions that

they will ask. 5-12% of guests who travel with us

for a given month with ask a question on a given

day during that month (guests often ask multiple

questions throughout the month).

Current System With Desk.com

Questions

answered per

hour 13 42.9

Max hours 4 4

Max volume 50.0 171.4

Num. Agents 2 2

Total Max Volume 100.0 342.9

Bottom-line Savings: We delay the cost

of an additional agent at

$4,166/month

Concerns

22

Concerns include updating, software issues, and proven software, yet all

have solutions

Concern: Ensuring updated and quality information in the knowledgebase.

Solution: Currently, all employees spend time updating their own information sources—trip binders, reservations excel, and

guest trip documents.

We need to change the process of updating so that everyone will use the knowledgebase as a central point to update.

To ensure quality information, we will implement fact-checking procedures where initial information that goes in to the

knowledgebase is highlighted (and not published) until another agent comes in and checks it off as good. Desk.com allows for

this functionality with an administrator who oversees changes.

Concern: Software issues with crashes and bugs.

Solution: All software crashes and has bugs; it’s the degree in which this happens that separates good software from the bad.

Desk.com has a solid track record of no crashes and is backed by a reliable, and large, company called Salesforce.com

(http://www.desk.com/trust).

When software does crash, we will use our previous system of answering phone calls and manually emailing customers until

the software is back up. An example is when power goes out at a hotel and the front desk agents need to manually check in

guests. They use their old systems—paper slips and credit card imprinters—to check guests in.

Concern: Desk.com doesn’t have comparable clients to Orbridge; it’s not proven in our segment.

Solution: Helpdesk software, what Desk.com is, is common across top-performing companies. Hewlett-Packard and DHL use

Kayako Fusion, Yelp and DirectTV use Desk.com, Dropbox and OpenTable use Zendesk.com, and United Way and jiffy lube

use Helpspot.

Additionally, Tauck Tours, the top performer in our competitive set, uses a knowledgebase software and a separate ticket-

tracking software. Tauck found that they reduced question volume by 60% and improved efficiency by 40%. With Desk.com,

we can adopt a similar—yet more advanced—system to Tauck’s. Since Orbridge has traditionally been on the forefront of

technology, we should push ourselves past our competitors in technology, using their current technology as a launch pad to

expand upon.

Implementation

24

A 7 week implementation will include training, information migration

and constant review

Trail/ Training I will train the guest service agents on the software, using real cases as examples for the work.

At the completion of the 2 week trial period, we will have a better idea if Desk.com is the right

product to implement.

Information Migration We will bring on an additional employee for 1 week to collect all the paper/online information for our

6 sources and put them in a centralized location. This person will also fact check before entering

information in to the knowledgebase.

Friday Meeting I will hold a 2 hour meeting in which I’ll cover all the points of the software so that everyone

understands what we are doing.

Review Q&A For 1 month, I will hold a time during the week where we share issues that we are having and

possible workarounds that we found. We will critically review the future of the product on July 3.

May 11

May 14

May 25

May 28

June 1

June 4

July 3

Summary

26

We can address our guest answering problem with Desk.com which

will net benefit us roughly $16,000/month

The problem with answering guest questions lies in slow answer time

and getting the wrong answer

The solution is to implement

Desk.com

The costs to implement ($4,400

with $98/month) are small compared to the

benefits ($20,524/month).

27

References

Creech, Bill . The Five Pillars of TQM. New York: Truman Talley Books. (1994). p. 478.

Nyeck, S., Morales, M., Ladhari, R., & Pons, F. "10 years of service quality measurement: reviewing

the use of the SERVQUAL instrument." Cuadernos de Diffusion, (2002). , pp. 101-107.

Rector, Rob. CEO of Orbridge. Personal Phone Interview, 8 Mar. 2012.

Tantawy, Alaa & Losekoot, Erwin. “An Assessment of Key Hotel Guest Contact Personnel in

Handling Guest Complaints,” Journal of Quality Assurance in Hospitality & Tourism,

Volume 1, Issue 4 (2000), pp. 10-17.

Tombaugh, Jennifer . CEO of Tauck Tours. Personal Phone Interview. 4 Mar. 2012.

Vivek M. Chawla. “What are the main differences between Assistly, Zendesk and/or Tender? Which

one is best?” Dec 14, 2011. www.quora.com/, accessed May 6, 2012

Werner Reinartz, Manfred Krafft and Wayne D. The Customer Relationship Management Process:

Its Measurement and Impact on Performance. Hoyer Journal of Marketing Research ,

Vol. 41, No. 3 (Aug., 2004), pp. 293-305

Appendices

29

Appendix A: Screen Shots, Knowledgebase Agent View

30

Appendix A: Screen Shots, Knowledgebase Guest View

31

Appendix A: Screen Shots, Ticket Tracking Agent View

32

Appendix B: Slow Answer Times Calculations

Sample #Number of

Calls

# of Calls

Longer

than 5

minutes

p UCL LCL

1 25 10 0.4 0.36 0.23

2 25 7 0.28 0.36 0.23

3 25 8 0.32 0.36 0.23

4 25 9 0.36 0.36 0.23

5 25 2 0.08 0.36 0.23

6 25 1 0.04 0.36 0.23

7 25 11 0.44 0.36 0.23

8 25 7 0.28 0.36 0.23

9 25 6 0.24 0.36 0.23

10 25 2 0.08 0.36 0.23

11 25 9 0.36 0.36 0.23

12 25 19 0.76 0.36 0.23

13 25 7 0.28 0.36 0.23

14 25 0 0 0.36 0.23

15 25 13 0.52 0.36 0.23

Average p 0.296

Stdev 0.065

UCL 0.361

LCL 0.231