InformationWeek
Defining The Business Value Of Technology
June 21, 1999
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Of course, IT can also play a role in restoring customer confidence, especially when it's combined with training and other organizational changes. Hilton Hotels Corp. ranked below the industry average among upscale hotels in 1996 and 1997 in guest satisfaction studies conducted by J.D. Power and Associates and Frequent Flyer magazine. But Hilton turned things around with an above-average score last year.
IT infrastructure improvements helped, says Joe Durocher, Hilton's CIO. During the last year, Hilton installed a computerized sales and catering system and began building a customer database that includes information on customers' individual preferences. In April, the last of 440 Hilton hotels went live with a $30 million central reservations system.
Hilton also uses its stock as an incentive to get employees to focus on customer satisfaction, and in February the company began an employee training program that uses computer-based training to teach employees everything from safety and security practices to Hilton's code of conduct toward customers. "While IT is important, in and of itself, it's insufficient," Durocher says. "It can't be just the technology, and we recognize that clearly."
Indeed, customer-satisfaction initiatives are opportunities for IT departments to lead to improved customer-management processes across a company. "IT can play a coordination role that's critical," says Claudio Marcus, an analyst at Gartner Group.
At Ticketmaster Corp., the IT department is charged with making customer interactions go as smoothly as possible. That's vital for a company that has received an unsatisfactory business performance record from the Better Business Bureau. The most frequent complaints concern the availability of tickets, an issue Ticketmaster can't control. "We're a distribution channel, but it's not our inventory," says Brian Delaney, VP of call-center operations at Ticketmaster. "When someone wants to see The Lion King, we can't change the fact that there might not be any more tickets."
So IT is being used to help the company in areas that it can control. During the last two years, the organization has linked 13 automatic call-distribution switches throughout the United States, effectively forming one big call center. A switch in one city can route calls to switches in other cities where more agents are available.
In addition to selling tickets, Ticketmaster's agents and voice-response system provide information as part of the company's service. Callers can get directions to a venue or find the nearest parking and restaurants. A research department of more than 100 people regularly updates a database of such information.
Ticketmaster isn't alone in its attempt at using IT to raise customer satisfaction. United Airlines hopes to use new systems to make a bad experience--canceled flights--at least a little easier on customers. In San Francisco and Chicago, United is rolling out mobile computers that can be instantly connected to a LAN using radio-frequency technology, to accommodate customers when flights are canceled.
United is concentrating on more than just technology, and that may be the key to success. Other investments it's making include installing more comfortable seats and adding employee-training programs. Says Parker, "Technology is just a piece." A piece, however, that should help keep the peace with customers, not threaten it.
--with additional reporting by Beth Davis, Bob Violino, and Rick Whiting
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Illustration by John Bleck
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