In the travel and hospitality industry, many companies rely on innovative contact centre leaders and technology experts to help them serve customers all over the globe. Cruise operators, for instance, need to be able to access systems that enable uninterrupted service in an ever-moving environment while keeping staff members informed and engaged.
Star Cruises, a wholly-owned subsidiary of the Genting Hong Kong Organization, is a leading leisure brand in the hospitality sector. Since launching in 1993, the company has remained committed to delivering fantastic cruise line experiences to global customers. This dedication to phenomenal customer service has been reflected in several accolades and industry recognitions, such as being named the “Best Cruise Operator in the Asia Pacific” 10 years in a row.
Of course, to stay ahead of the curve in a competitive landscape like travel and hospitality, both Star Cruises and its parent brand know they need to constantly transform, improve, and invest in new ways of delighting their customers. This quest for ever-evolving excellence in customer service is where Avaya and Star Cruises’ relationship begins.
Offering a Consistent Global Service
When Star Cruises and Genting Hong Kong approached Avaya in search of a solution to enable global connectivity, they faced high customer demand. Star Cruises received numerous queries and bookings from travel agents and members of the public across the region. One of the most significant challenges facing the company was finding a way to efficiently manage increasing call volumes.
To stay ahead of the curve, the company needed a flexible, scalable, and reliable communications ecosystem capable of operating globally. After assessing the marketplace and exploring a host of CCaaS solutions to enable a new level of customer service, Star Cruises selected Avaya’s Unified Communication and Contact Centre solutions to create a combined platform for growth.
The Star Cruises team chose Avaya because of the vendor’s ability to offer sensational cutting-edge service to customers on a global scale. More importantly, Avaya had the flexibility and strength to grow with the Star Cruises company as demand increased.
According to Henry Pang, the Vice President of Information Technology for the Star Cruises brand, Avaya fully understood the unique needs of the Star Cruises business. When the cruise provider approached the communications brand in search of a simple, and effective communication solution, Avaya offered a combination of Avaya IP Office and the Avaya IP Office Contact Centre.
The combined solution, according to Pang, has enabled Star Cruises to rapidly accelerate its growth and expansion through the delivery of seamless and stress-free experiences for both employees and customers. By leveraging Avaya’s contact centre, voice, and UCaaS offerings, Star Cruises has been able to unlock seamless global connectivity. The cruise provider also has a comprehensive omnichannel environment where it can handle both inbound and outbound calls.
An All-In-One Environment for Communications
Dealing with such a huge number of enquiries in such a flexible environment meant Star Cruises needed a contact centre and communication system capable of offering seamless communications experiences for both employees and customers. Avaya’s ability to provide a single global platform, that delivers both at sea, and on land, has supported the company in generating faster response times, better customers satisfaction levels, and enhanced employee engagement.
As Pang noted when talking about the implementation of the new Avaya ecosystem for Star Cruises, the innovative, combined solution allowed the brand to run its business communications more effectively, no matter what the quality of the internet connection was like in various countries across Asia. For a cruise company constantly moving between ports, it was crucial to have a communication ecosystem capable of withstanding sudden changes in connectivity levels and technology.
With Avaya, Star Cruises could deliver a consistent level of experience to its customers, while ensuring employees remained supported and empowered in every environment. What’s more, as the full IP Office solution was built into the existing Star Cruises Virtual Machines landscape, the company was able to achieve significant cost savings too.
The implementation of the Avaya Customer Experience platform meant Star Cruises guests could benefit from exceptional service and convenience across every potential touchpoint. Henry Pang noted that Avaya’s Customer Experience Platform values a high volume of inbound and outbound customer service contacts with minimal downtime, leading to better customer satisfaction scores.
Thanks to the innovation available from Avaya, Star Cruises can respond more rapidly to the needs of customers and with increased levels of efficiency. The company is even leveraging highly accurate and intelligent call routing strategies, to reduce overall enquiry response times and lower the risk of long waiting times.
Building a Future on Great Customer Service
With an always-on approach to customer engagement, Star Cruises feels capable of providing better levels of service to its global audience, regardless of the time zones for each customer, or their preferred method of communication. This results in a richer, more streamlined experience for all customers involved.
As the tech landscape continues to evolve at an incredible pace, Avaya believes that businesses need to leverage agile technology capable of transforming at the same rate. Businesses are increasingly investing in digital transformation initiatives as a way of keeping up with their customers and implementing the right solutions for forward-thinking customer service and experience is an important part of this universal step forward.
Following the success of the Avaya CX and IP Office implementation, Star Cruises announced it was planning on expanding its deployment of the technology in further countries like Korea and Japan. With the improvements in customer experience, Star Cruises felt it was finally able to build a more valuable, collaborative environment offering feature-rich engagement for employees and customers alike.
