How we raised customer support requirements whereas scaling up — Inside GetYourGuide I VolHotels

Final yr, our world headcount in Buyer Service (CS) of absolutely educated hires grew by 60%, peaking in the summertime season. CS Operations Supervisor, Meg Telson, and Raoni Duran, CS Staff Lead, share how they raised hiring and coaching requirements to enhance customer support throughout our excessive progress section. 

What does customer support imply at GetYourGuide?

Meg: The client is the core of our enterprise, and if customer support is failing, then we actually haven’t got a enterprise. Tao, our COO, put it greatest by asking, “Why do we’ve got customer support? To construct buyer loyalty.” 

The CS group is taken into account a real value-driver for our prospects. We’re on the entrance traces of the enterprise, so once we elevate our palms and say we’ve got an issue that wants fixing, we’ve got the entire firm backing us up. 

Are you able to give us an instance of fantastic customer support expertise?

Meg: Quite than simply refunding somebody for a canceled tour attributable to unhealthy climate or unwell tour information, CS consultant would go above and past to enhance their expertise, be it pairing a buyer with an analogous exercise or providing them one thing complimentary for his or her troubles. 

Raoni: To present some context, my group focuses on our branded excursions, referred to as Originals. We be sure that each time one thing surprising comes up with these excursions, our prospects can nonetheless have an unbelievable expertise at their vacation spot. 

Developing with options can be an enormous a part of elevating the recruiting requirements. It’s important to assume past answering tickets and calls and discover inventive methods to construct buyer loyalty.

We talk with prospects over the telephone or e-mail. Just a few months in the past, the Mona Lisa portrait moved to a distinct location inside the Louvre, so the queue to see her was for much longer. To keep away from surprises, we referred to as and emailed each buyer who had a reserving for this tour to allow them to know they need to plan round an extended wait time. 

How do you elevate the hiring requirements for customer support requirements? 

Raoni: Generally, we contain current customer support reps within the recruiting course of and ask them, “Is that this candidate going to push your complete group to carry out higher than they already do?”. This query serves because the alignment for each recruiters and the group and to find out whether or not or not the candidate has the potential to enhance the standard of our work.”

We’ve elevated our hiring expectations however are at all times searching for individuals with robust motivation and buyer focus. We just lately redefined our efficiency framework and are searching for individuals who have ardour, dedication, and a way of urgency ⁠— somebody who can talk clearly, is optimistic, and embraces taking dangers.

Meg: Developing with options can be an enormous a part of elevating the recruiting requirements. It’s important to assume past answering tickets and calls and discover inventive methods to construct buyer loyalty. The service must be simply as unbelievable because the product itself.

We had a case the place a buyer booked an Alhambra tour, and it was canceled final minute. None of our merchandise confirmed any availability on our web site, however the rep referred to as each single certainly one of our Alhambra suppliers to see if they’d any last-minute no-shows or free spots from different prospects who canceled. They occurred to search out one provider with area for this buyer, rebooked them, and so they have been on their approach.

The mindset we lead in our groups is that we’re trying to construct buyer relationships and long-term loyalty as a substitute of merely shopping for transactions. That mindset guides us in every thing that we do.

Raoni: We search for individuals who we will think about after six months within the job, can create a long-lasting affect for the client ⁠— creating new concepts and initiatives. It must be somebody who has a ardour for constructing prospects and loyalty. We must always see that they’ve a private, excessive motivation to develop. This might be somebody who would shine in an interview.

For instance, if there was a buyer who was sad, would the CS consultant say a) it is firm coverage there’s nothing we will do and supply a refund? Or b) escalate the state of affairs and see if there’s one thing we will do that might make their GetYourGuide expertise extra memorable. We might fairly somebody select the latter and clarify how and why.

Is it tough to lift the requirements when the group is rising so quick?  

Raoni: Working with business process outsourcing (BPO) companions completely modified the sport for us, we have been in a position to scale operations in a short time. 

BPOs enable us to ramp up a number of coaching teams on the identical time as a way to keep our top quality and low response occasions, no matter seasonal fluctuations in buyer contact quantity. These organizations additionally enable us to offer 24/7 buyer care.

Meg: We began working with a BPO as a result of we needed to meet seasonal expectations. Once we have been a smaller firm, we might simply rent a ton of individuals for prime quantity seasons. However outsourcing alleviated this problem. We associate with three outsourcing firms primarily based on buyer mindset, then make sure that we onboard not simply our service requirements but in addition our firm tradition.

Once we launch a partnership with a brand new BPO, we ship trainers to ship onboarding. They’re supported by second-level reps from our escalations group and Buyer Excellence reps from our high quality assurance/buyer insights group. 

Throughout the launch section, our in-house trainers additionally prepare the BPO trainers, in order that they’ll proceed to onboard new hires each time we have to develop BPO groups to assist elevated seasonal contact quantity. 

It is paramount to us that we ship in our in-house group through the launch section, specifically, to make sure that we’re totally transmitting our tradition and customary of excellence to each BPO. As a result of no matter the place anybody particular person sits globally or the perform they carry out, in CS, we’re all right here to do one factor collectively: To ship a world-class, unbelievable expertise to our prospects.

Raoni: We have at all times had excessive requirements, and now with greater buyer contact quantity scaling with enterprise progress, we’re in a position to keep our top quality and quick response time requirements by outsourcing extra front-line buyer assist. The vast majority of buyer contacts are managed by BPOs, which implies that in-house we’ve got the liberty to innovate and experiment to create extra affect for our prospects.

The inner group has been shifting ahead with extra groundbreaking initiatives. For instance, we make sure that we proactively attain out to prospects to counsel a considerate various in case there’s a change of their reserving. That is higher than prospects merely getting an automatic e-mail merely informing them that their reservation is canceled.

How do you keep high quality on such a big scale?

Meg: We concentrate on tradition and mindset all through the entire journey. The mindset we lead in our groups is that we’re trying to construct buyer relationships and long-term loyalty as a substitute of merely shopping for transactions. That mindset guides us in every thing that we do.

What does the customer support construction appear like at GetYourGuide?

The division grew organically from a basic customer support division between GetYourGuide and the shoppers/suppliers, then we branched out to associate assist for our tour and exercise companions.

Buyer Service (CS) group helps:

• Prospects: The vacationers who e-book actions with GetYourGuide 

• Suppliers: The tour operators who supply their excursions and actions on our platform

• Affiliate Companions: Enterprise companions comparable to on-line publishers and journey companies, who resell the actions on our platform

The Buyer Service Excellence Staff is answerable for high quality management utilizing buyer perception evaluation. They assist determine root issues that should be mounted.

The Data & Coaching group designs and delivers coaching applications and studying options as a way to construct, switch, and regularly develop wonderful technical and soft-skill data requirements throughout the worldwide CS group.

As we grew over time, we created a CS Operations Help group. Right here’s an inventory of our assist features and a light-weight overview of what they do:

• Workforce Administration: Answerable for forecasting and staffing planning, contact quantity evaluation and steering to make sure service stage settlement (SLA) adherence.

• Operations Analyst: Tracks and analyzes processes, workflows, buyer contact causes, and get in touch with quantity.

• BPO Administration: Answerable for all elements of BPO relationships.

• Implementation Supervisor: Answerable for venture administration, course of administration, and managing relationships with the companions that present our CS instruments and platforms

• Platform & Purposes group: Administer our CS platforms and instruments.

Do you may have any recommendation for somebody who wish to be a part of the customer support group?

Meg: Put together some examples of the way you went above and past for a buyer. We’re searching for somebody who takes possession of buyer issues and creates options since we empower our representatives to push the established order and assume exterior the field. We do not display screen for name middle expertise. We display screen for candidates who’ve a robust customer-focused mindset and are motivated to assist individuals.  

Are you interested by becoming a member of the Buyer Service group? Check out our open positions.