Tip #1 for Outstanding Customer Service: Put Your Owners On Vacation!
by Dora Edmonson
6 Dimensions Consulting
One of the first things I learned about successful timeshare resorts is that they place a high premium on customer service. One of the best ways a resort developer, management company or HOA can do this is to encourage owners to use their vacation ownership privileges. My number one tip when advising resorts is to put your owner on vacation.
My first job in the business was as a desk clerk at a leading, Orlando-based development more than twenty years ago. Senior management had just begun to grapple with the dilemma of how to train staff and was just beginning to develop a standard training program to implement throughout the company. As a new employee I asked dozens of questions and wound up taking such substantial and thorough notes, that when it came time for my 90-day review, I handed in a complete training manual!
But one thing they drilled into us was an overarching concern for our owners. Customer service was our mantra. Since that first experience, I’ve seen dozens of resort operations from the inside-out – sometimes as part of the management team and more often as a consultant. And now, so many years later, I am grateful for that early introduction to the concept of customer service that got me off on the right track. My next experience in the business led me to put together a pretty sophisticated yield management system based on driving owner demand consistently throughout the year in order to deliver high quality tours for the in-house sales team. An effective yield management system will not only increase owner usage but increases owner satisfaction with their vacation product.
When I moved to my second job at another timeshare project located in Orlando, I was quickly promoted to general manager. It was there that I developed my system for bulk banking of exchange weeks. Joy Powers (then Talbot), who was then our field representative for Resorts Condominiums International (RCI), mentioned to me that RCI’s bulk banking capability could be used to gain more exchange power. She taught me the basics and I implemented a program to organize and use RCI’s system effectively.
My bulk banking strategy was very effective so, RCI asked me to conduct a seminar demonstrating my system for other resorts. Eventually, I also worked with Interval International to develop bulk banking capability for a consulting client. Helping resorts put their owners on vacation has become my passion. Vacationing owners are happy owners. And happy owners buy more timeshare, pay their mortgage and maintenance fees and refer their friends.
Throughout my career as a provider of consultant services to developers and managers, both large and small, I’ve seen that resorts who truly valued their owners succeeded far more than those who divert the inventory from owner use to other programs, such as rentals and marketing. This inventory strategy is short sighted. It may bring in rental revenue today, but it’s often at the price of cost-effective timeshare sales revenue. A strong win/win relationship with your owners is really a gift that keeps on giving, if managed properly.
Having had such a rare opportunity to work with so many resorts has blessed me with far greater understanding of how to excel at customer service. Here are some pointers on providing excellent customer service:
• Engage your staff to think of ways to better manage your inventory. Resorts have called on me both for setting up new front office, finance and reservations systems from scratch; and to reorganize existing ones. Granted, I am often called in when a resort is experiencing a problem, but I’ve rarely seen an operation that couldn’t use a little tweaking from time to time. I recommend a monthly inventory management meeting with representatives from the developer, marketing, sales, owner reservations, customer service, and front desk operations. Regular review of your yield management and reservations procedures can reap untold benefits.
• Resorts often wish to separate themselves from the often-challenging task of assisting owners to exchange. What they fail to understand is that by doing so, they are relinquishing the relationship with their owner to a third party, the exchange company. Resist this temptation to take the easy way out. Stay involved with your owners by understanding the relationship between them and the exchange company. How many owners are still active? How many owners are depositing and requesting a vacation? How many owners receive confirmations with information about where are they going? The exchange company is your partner and their success in servicing can enhance your relationship to your owners. Your owner is your most valuable asset. Keep informed about how they’re treating your client.
• Determine what your owners’ top five customer service complaints are and work to resolve those complaints. Owners will tell you what aspects of your product are not working and what features or benefits need either a complete overhaul or slight modification. Listen to your owners.
• Effective and consistent communication is essential to your owners. Make outbound phone calls to confirm their fixed week stays or to drive demand consistently throughout the year. It will be your most productive form of contact. Talking to your owners to put them on vacation can and will improve your owner satisfaction overnight. If outbound call centers are used to drive tour flow for sales, why not use the same philosophy to communicate with your owners? Email and messages on websites are very cost effective forms of communication, but owners will respond more effectively to vacation alternatives and promotions with direct voice contact.
• Powerful sales teams can often absorb the focus of a resort developer, causing owner communications and customer service to take second place. If you operate a resort in active sales, don’t lose sight of the fact that your current owner base not only provides the most promising source of new prospects, but additional timeshare sales.
I always say, “Return to the basics”:
1. Deliver the product to the owner and put them on vacation.
2. If your resort is still in active sales, then every staff member is part of the sales team from housekeeping and lawn maintenance to owner reservations. It takes a company effort to increase sales revenue while maintaining or decreasing marketing expenses.
3. A proactive win/win relationship to your owners will allow you to generate additional revenue to offset any HOA shortfall or subsidy.
Put them on vacation! Whether they vacation at your resort or through an exchange, remind them to use their weeks, exchange privileges and bonus time access. They are a great extension of your marketing department. They may wind up buying again from you. They will refer their friends and family. They won’t be able to help themselves from telling everyone they meet about their wonderful vacation, which is great for the future of our entire industry.